From Wartime Quilting to the Pacific Spirit

Tune into Arts Thursday on 30 July for some Pacific Spirit and some extraordinary quilts, made during war time, from military fabrics.

The Australian Museum has long held an immense and important collection of over 60,000 items from 14 Pacific nations.

To commemorate the opening of the Pacific Spirit exhibition that showcases a selection of these items, with the promise of more to come, Maisy Stapleton talks to Dion Peita, Pacific Islands Collections Manager about both the collection and what you can see in Pacific Spirit.

Dion also speaks about the enlightened Pacific Youth Reconnection Program, using the collections to give young Pacific Islanders a stronger sense of their cultural heritage and greater self-belief to as an aid in reducing juvenile crime in this demographic.

Go to https://australianmuseum.net.au/australian-museum-pacific-collection and https://australianmuseum.net.au/blogpost/science/pacific-youth for further information.

Maisy Stapleton speaks to Dr Annette Gero about the exhibition War Time Quilts: Quilts from Military Fabrics from the Annette Gero Collection.

The war quilts, part of the centenary commemoration of Gallipoli and World War I, are on exhibition at the Manly Art Gallery and Museum, from the collection of Dr Gero, who has been documenting and collecting quilts since 1982.

War Time Quilts presents a rare and unusual collection of quilts made by active soldiers and prisoners of war from uniforms, blankets and other military fabrics and the works on exhibition date from the Napoleonic Wars to Vietnam.

War Time Quilts will be on display until 22 November at Manly Art Gallery and Museum and a publication, by Dr Gero, on the subject has been published by Beagle Press to accompany the exhibition.

For further information go to https://www.manly.nsw.gov.au/attractions/gallery/