In first semester each year, students in the subject Knowledge, Learning and Culture (EDUC20065) visit the Grainger Museum to explore the unique environment, themes and legacies of the museum. As an autobiographical museum, complexities in the self-representation of identity through architecture and material culture, and layered histories of curation and interpretation from the 1930s to the present, are highly pertinent topics.
Associate Professor Jessica Gerrard writes of the engagement:
“Knowledge, Learning and Culture (EDUC20065) is an undergraduate breadth subject based on the principles of object-based learning whereby students engage closely with objects from the university’s cultural collections. In doing so they develop insights about the possibilities for learning and multiple forms of knowledge that arise from the interpretation of material culture (i.e. collection artefacts).
The Grainger Museum was a highlight in the subject, where students had the opportunity to explore a variety of objects from the collection and use their own experiences and understandings to analyse their historical context and contemporary significance. In the seminar, students explored themes of colonialism, affect, cosmopolitanism, and legacy through their collective explorations of the objects of the collection. Class discussion fell upon questions of Grainger’s fascination with fashioning himself and of his fixation, use and appropriation of ‘other’ cultures in constructing his version of a ‘cosmopolitan’ approach to music. Many students chose to focus on the Grainger in their assessments, further deepening the insights generated in the seminar.
The Grainger provided a unique opportunity to explore the meaning and significance of material culture through a biographical collection which offers multiple points of entry and reflection.”
In Semester 1 2023, the students explored the Grainger Museum Collections through the Grainger Amplified display in the southern galleries, in addition to close examination of collection objects grouped on the Collections-Based Learning tables in the northern galleries. Some works used in the session included a painting by Jelka Delius (a copy of Paul Gauguin’s original painting Nevermore); an etching by Australian artist Norman Lindsay; a case of handmade beading created by Percy Grainger in emulation of beaded artworks he saw on his travels in Africa and North America; Percy Grainger’s Duo-Art Reproducing Piano; the Kangaroo Pouch Tone Tool and other playable Free Music Machines; a ‘Blind Eye Score’ created by Percy Grainger, a box of percussion mallets created and labelled by Percy Grainger for performances of his own musical compositions, and a Chinese Yangqin that belonged to the Grainger family.
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