Blog
November 21, 2016
The League of Nations
The saying goes that it takes a village to raise a child, and at the SJM it has taken a league of nations to build our new exhibition.
From Australia, Canada, China, Chile, England, Germany, Ireland, Korea and Scotland, a team of tradies (and Museum ladies) have been frenetically sanding, drilling, cutting, refining, polishing, painting and positioning.
This photo blog offers you a glimpse of the faces, spaces and (places) behind the new exhibition.
Tom (with Jerry) is a carpenter, from Scotland “I’m a Scotsman but I’ve never worn a kilt” he tells us. “I like the security at the Museum. Sometimes on a building site you have to pack away your tools at lunch time; here you can be gone all weekend and leave your tools they will still be here.”
Stefan – a carpenter from Germany.
Ming – a painter from China
Rodrigo Ibarra – the SJM building manager, from Chile.
Grant – the electrician, fondly referred to as ‘Sparky’ (Australian born of Italian heritage)
Greg from Lamond Building – specialist in museum fit outs. Basically the most Australian bloke you’ll ever come across.
Philip – who custom made elements for the installation of objects
Matt – from the Signage company installing the graphics. Matt started as a screen printer in England, came backpacking to Australia and never left.
No job is too big or too small for Marie and Sarah – ( an educator and human rights lawyer respectively). Here they are helping to clean the dust from display cabinets before objects are installed.
Conservator Tess, has prepared around 300 artefacts for display – seen here with some you might just recognise.
Author: Roslyn Sugarman, Head Curator.
Museum Expansion Project
We are embarking on a Museum Expansion Project.
Our exhibitions are closed to the public and will reopen in late 2026.
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