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Reading the City
Across March we’ll be Reading the City; shining a light on the many ways we understand and talk about Melbourne itself. From the city as an abstract concept to the physical landscape in all its permutations, we’ll be hearing from visual artists and architects, policy makers and designers, novelists and historians. The City of Literature becomes the focus, and you’ll never read it the same way again.
Reading the City: Art in the City
Reading the City: Historians on Melbourne
Reading the City: Bricks and Mortar
Reading the City: The Trouble with Water
Reading the City: Poetry in Fashion
Reading the City: Art on the City
Reading the City: Melbourne on the Page
Reading the City: Urban Sprawl
The Wheeler Centre Auditorium
176 Little Lonsdale Street
Melbourne
Victoria 3000
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HIGHLIGHTS
- a short film that explores contemporary Melbourne's hottest shopping spots – from young designers and hidden arcades to favourite stores and markets
- images of ultra-modern 1970s suburban home decor
- iconic Wolfgang Sievers photographs of Collins Street in the 1960s
- superbly illustrated fashion catalogues from Foy & Gibson
- original design sketches of 1920s flapper fashions for Manton's department store
- early colour postcards of famous shopping strips such as Bourke, Collins, Smith and Chapel streets
- persuasive advertisements for everything from luxury cosmetics to Ovaltine
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'til you drop: shopping – a Melbourne history
From now to 31 October 2010
Open 10am–5pm daily (to 9pm Thursdays)
Keith Murdoch Gallery
STATE LIBRARY of VICTORIA
This free exhibition celebrates Melbourne's passion for shopping, from the Paris end of Collins Street to the local corner store. It explores Melbourne's social history through changes in our shopping habits from early settlement and the Marvellous Melbourne of the 1880s to today.
Links shopping with cultural and social developments such as increasing leisure time, immigration and the suburban sprawl. It takes a nostalgic look at famous shops like EW Cole's Book Arcade, the much-loved Georges of Collins Street and the iconic Myer department store, as well as visiting the local supermarket, suburban mega-centre and modern convenience store. Melbourne's multicultural heritage is reflected in images of the European deli, Vietnamese butcher and Chinese importers.
The exhibition celebrates how and why Melburnians love to shop, with a special focus on fashion, food and the home. It reveals the indulgent side of shopping – the exclusive stores, luxury goods and seductive advertisements that feed our addiction to pleasure and style. It also acknowledges the downsides of shopping: crime, consumerism and pollution.
Items on display range from a 19th-century cash register to ephemera such as wartime ration cards and Buckley & Nunn shopping receipts. It also features many classic photographs that evoke Melbourne's changing style over the last century.
Other highlights include:
- a short film that explores contemporary Melbourne's hottest shopping spots – from young designers and hidden arcades to favourite stores and markets
- images of ultra-modern 1970s suburban home decor
- iconic Wolfgang Sievers photographs of Collins Street in the 1960s
- superbly illustrated fashion catalogues from Foy & Gibson
- original design sketches of 1920s flapper fashions for Manton's department store
- early colour postcards of famous shopping strips such as Bourke, Collins, Smith and Chapel streets
- persuasive advertisements for everything from luxury cosmetics to Ovaltine
Program of events
The exhibition is complemented by a program of events that includes free tours and talks and the Craft Hatch market.
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