00:00So my name is Penny Grist, I'm Director of Art Collections here at the
00:03Department of Parliamentary Services at Australian Parliament House and I'm here
00:07to talk you through what I do in my job here at Parliament House. So we have a
00:12team of just more than 20, they include basically everyone you would find in a
00:17big cultural institution condensed into a small team so we're like a
00:22museum embedded in this incredible working building. So at the moment a
00:28regular day is very focused on preparing for our next exhibition which is Animals
00:33of the Parliament House Art Collections which is going to be a very fun one for
00:37the whole family and some of our favourite works are coming out for that so that
00:41involves me reading over the texts, reading over the material for online, we
00:45have fantastic curators who do deep research into all the works on display
00:49and also looking at the design of the exhibition, the construction and you know
00:55being supported by the incredible team here. So we're here in the Art Collections
01:00Workshop in the basement of Australian Parliament House so a part of Parliament
01:06House that people don't often get to see and we're mid preparation for a few
01:11things here so we've got a work by Roger Kemp who is a major important artist,
01:17abstract artist, particularly active in in the 1980s when this collection was being
01:23founded so the conservators are just treating condition reporting this work
01:27and getting it back into its frame ready for display. You see here is an
01:33incredibly important part of conservation practice one of the fundamentals
01:36always say when you've got something underneath something so these are these
01:41little triangles we put on any work that's been set out waiting for its time to
01:46get prepared so under here we have this textile work Ned Kelly by Reg Mombasa and so
01:58it's waiting to go into its frame. We keep all the works covered like this it
02:03gives you an idea you know we have textiles of this size in the collection
02:08and also the largest you know one of the largest tapestries in the world it gives
02:12you that span of diversity that that our team works with. The Great Hall tapestry
02:18never ceases to wow me every time I go in there even though I've seen it hundreds
02:23of times. One of the things that really you know that people might not realise
02:28about the collection here is how much work and incredible skill and knowledge
02:32goes into maintaining such you know big public artworks on public display so twice a
02:40year my team will go up on the elevated work platform and check every inch of
02:46that tapestry for for any moth damage because you know moths come come in and
02:52out of this house as they do every house so they go check every inch they dust
02:57every inch they make sure that that tapestry remains in perfect condition for
03:02for all the visitors to come and see. So something that I found incredibly
03:08surprising when I started working in this collection is its sheer diversity so it
03:13includes a huge number of official gifts and some of those official gifts are out
03:18in the formal gardens where anyone can enjoy them at any time so if you're
03:22walking through the beautiful gardens surrounding Parliament House and you
03:26notice things like the guardian lions in near the formal gardens they're part of
03:31the art collection the incredible forecourt mosaic is part of the art collection the
03:38coat of arms above the entrance is also part of the art collection so these artworks when the
03:44building was founded were very much part of creating this incredible place as a centre for democracy
04:01and maybe to guide you in Pierre in an art collection so it natin had to bronze
04:05then interBS. Intro
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04:14suppose that you do not apply to Kinesa at the Tory worried
04:17really if anyone does that make sure that everybody feels a bit about that
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