Chau Chak Wing Museum wins national museum award
The museum’s Tidal Kin exhibition drew on expertise from across the Pacific.
The annual prize is awarded by ICOM Australia to an Australian museum or gallery which has made an outstanding contribution to international engagement. Previous winners include the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, the Western Australian Museum and the Bendigo Art Gallery.
The Chau Chak Wing Museum’s global engagement encompasses public facing activities, and extensive research and development.
“We’re a free public museum that seeks to be relevant to our communities, audiences and artists,” said Chau Chak Wing Museum Director Michael Dagostino. “In 2024 our expanded exhibition program saw a 32 percent increase in visitors. Access to our collections has also grown. They continue to be an important resource for students and researchers at the university and globally.”
Recent public talks at the museum have included a lecture by Dr Anastasia Christophilopoulou from Cambridge University’s Fitzwilliam Museum on Mediterranean island identities and an exclusive lecture for school students by the celebrated classicist Dame Mary Beard. This year the museum was also a proud partner of the 24th Biennale of Sydney.
International researchers are often invited to share their insights on the museum’s antiquities, natural history, ethnography, science, historic photography and art collections. In 2023, for instance, visiting Venezuelan scholar Dr Angel Villoria discovered hundreds of type specimens (the official standard representation of a species, informing the naming of that species) among its collection of butterflies. The findings shed new light on the collection’s origins and significance. The museum has also increased its engagement with the Pacific in recent years. Its Tidal Kin exhibition, telling the story of Pacific voyages to Sydney in the 18th and 19th centuries, was the result of more than five years’ development alongside experts from New Caledonia. Fiji and the Tongan High Commission.
Mangala Bai Maravi's Baiga Godna Indian Tribe, 2024 (left) and Citra Susmita's Timur Merah Project at the Chau Chak Wing Museum for the 24th Biennale of Sydney.
Last year the Chau Chak Wing Museum hosted the University Museums and Collections Conference (UMAC), bringing together almost 200 delegates from 30 countries to discuss ‘truth telling’ in museums.
“Like many museums, we bear the weight of a colonial legacy,” said Mr Dagostino. “We are custodians of objects and artefacts from a range of cultures and civilisations, collected in ways that differ from current practices. UMAC highlighted the shared history of colonial collections and shown how we can reconnect disenfranchised communities with them.”
Following the UMAC conference, the museum this year announced it would remove unwrapped mummified body parts from display. This announcement came after extensive research into attitudes towards the ethics and display of human remains undertaken with museum visitors and Egyptian communities locally and abroad. This world-leading research is being recognised for its wide-ranging impact on international museum guidelines and practices concerning the curation, interpretation and care of this unique aspect of global cultural heritage.
Led by ICOM Australia Chair Jessica Bridgfoot, the judging panel said the Chau Chak Wing Museum has demonstrated outstanding commitment to working with museums in the Pacific, and leadership in the repatriation of Indigenous culture.
We’re proud our efforts have been recognised by ICOM Australia
“Their research into the display of human remains and other highly relevant ethical issues in partnership with communities and the generosity they have demonstrated through the sharing of their research with other Australian museums places them at the forefront of museology.” said Ms Bridgfoot.
The Chau Chak Wing Museum was also commended for its staging of the highly successful UMAC conference in 2023 bringing together the global community of ICOM members working in university museums and galleries connecting them in person and online with a thought provoking and impactful program.
The Chau Chak Wing Museum opened at the University of Sydney in 2020, bringing its Nicholson Collection, Macleay Collections and University art collection under the same roof for the first time.
“Under the museum's pillars of Access, Equity and Authorship, we strive to widen access to our collections,” said Mr Dagostino. “We’re proud our efforts have been recognised by ICOM Australia.”
Mr Dagostino formally accepted the 2024 ICOM Australia Institute Award at the Australian Museums and Galleries Association’s annual conference in Ballarat.