Janet Ollevou, photograph by Joanne Saad for U:magazine, June 2010
I am Janet Ollevou, the Assistant Curator (Collections) at the UTS Gallery & Art Collection. Over the years I have worked as an artist, curator, and writer and with galleries, museums and collections for some time now. I have been here at UTS for the past three years, working part time.
My job mainly involves tending to the circulation program for artworks on campus and making sure that works are properly housed, labelled and cared for. There are just over 1000 works in our permanent and loaned Collections – paintings, sculptures, prints, textiles and photographs, and more being acquired, so it keeps me busy.
The permanent Collection has strengths in post-1960s painting, printmaking and photography by artists as varied as Tim Storrier, Janet Laurence, Michael Johnson and Imants Tillers, and holds notable examples of mid to late 20thC Australian sculpture including works by Margel Hinder, Ken Unsworth, Richard Goodwin, and Stephen Birch. Another focus for acquisitions is the creative use of technology – acquiring works that refer to and interpret the use of technology in society. All acquisitions and loans to the UTS Art Collection are guided by the Art Advisory Committee.
The university also has a gallery which runs a program of exhibitions which at times feature artworks from the permanent and loan Collections. From time to time artworks brought in for exhibitions at the UTS Gallery are later acquired for our permanent collection, this is one of the ways our Collection grows.
In this blog I’m interested in exploring stories behind the Collection. And with a collection that includes works acquired by the various technical colleges that amalgamated to become UTS, to more contemporary works bought and commissioned by the University, or donated or borrowed from generous collectors – there are so many stories to tell.
The shot of me above was taken for a U:magazine story about the Collection titled If These Walls Could Talk, which came out in June 2010. The sculpture in the background is Growth Forms by Margel Hinder.
