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Gallery Producer, Science Gallery Melbourne

Science Gallery Melbourne (SGM) ran a series of pop-up seasons in the lead up to the opening of their new home at a new innovation precinct in 2021; BLOOD was the inaugural season in 2017.

Curated by Creative Director Dr Ryan Jefferies, I produced the art-science exhibition. I oversaw the creation of a gallery space from an old student study hall and produced the exhibition’s content to create an immersive, engaging exhibit that explored key sub-themes around the overarching theme of blood.

 

Additionally, I led on the accompanying public program, which aimed to engage the target audience in curious conversations, and to raise brand awareness for future seasons. Moving beyond traditional notions of gallery programming, I developed a content strategy, season-specific narratives and innovative formats that provided opportunities to initiate such dialogue with key audiences; many of which will play a vital role in the continued success of the gallery.

 

Although we were creating a gallery and working practices from scratch, this was a great opportunity to push the boundaries of what is possible for engaging diverse audiences through the intersection of art and science. This approach led us to many innovative outcomes, including:


Ambitious collaboration facilitation

Throughout the season, the team and I developed and facilitated multiple interdisciplinary collaborations. One example is Blood Objects. Created by artist Basse Stittgen, these are plastic products made from blood. Originally just made from pig's blood, for the BLOOD season we had the aspiration to commission objects that included blood from people living with blood borne diseases, and display them as interactive objects.

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Working closely with Basse, we facilitated collaborations between individuals living with HIV and Hepatitis C, and an industrial engineer to produce the work. Additionally, we worked with the university's medical and research teams to meet all health and safety requirements in order to allow the work to be handled by visitors.



Developing new formats

I saw the opportunity for the programming to become a site of emerging knowledge in dialogue with publics. For example, You Beaut is an installation made from icing and sweets that represents uterine bleeding in a humorous and uplifting manner that encourages open discussion. Commissioned as an artwork for the main exhibition, I saw the opportunity to open up new conversations through the contribution of people with diverse lived experiences related to this topic.

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I brought together the artists, the Hotham Street Ladies, with pathologists from the University of Melbourne and co-developed an event for the public program where people ‘graffitied’ uteruses onto the walls of one of Melbourne's famous graffiti laneways using sugar icing.

 

It was fun. It shocked. It was intriguing. The emotions and reactions that attendees (and people who stumbled across the event) had permitted friends and strangers to have conversations about uteruses, vaginas, and menstruation - something that is still very much a taboo for many.



Embedding research into public engagement

The smell of blood is produced by a single molecule, which triggers an innate, physiological response. Sentience was an immersive work designed to explore this response. I saw the opportunity for the artists, Ollie Cotsaftis and Sarah McArthur, to collaborate with scientists to investigate this further. Inspired by the artistic question, a research experiment was integrated into the exhibition, providing further opportunities for dialogue and expertise sharing. Researcher Stefan Bode facilitated the running of an experiment which investigated whether the smell of blood makes us hungry.



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