2015 Gallery and Museum Achievement Awards
Projects
Winner
Tablelands Heritage Network (THeN)
Anzac Treasures of the Tablelands
The Tablelands Heritage Network is an unincorporated heritage network comprising museums, historical societies and visitor information centres in the Atherton Tablelands Region. Anzac Treasures of the Tablelands was designed to enable these collecting groups to showcase their First World War related collections, and represented the first time that groups in the Network have collaborated to create an exhibition. Working with the Museum Development Officer for Far North Queensland, Queensland Museum, the groups developed a thematic approach to the exhibition and attended hands-on, participatory workshops to pull the exhibition together. The groups prepared their contributions for the exhibition individually and then worked collaboratively with the MDO to work out the exhibition layout and design.
The project provided positive promotion of the work that volunteers at museums and historical societies do within the broader community. This significant outcome, which was one of the initial drivers for developing the exhibition, means that the communities have a strong sense of the value of museums and the work they undertake to protect and preserve important cultural artefacts and material culture. Inspired by this project, some of the different groups have gone on to create their own First World War Exhibitions.