Curating the Anzac Centenaries: War, Memory and the Museum

As the centenaries of the Great War come to an end, two leading Melbourne museum curators reflect on how museums have represented the experience of Australians at war over the last few years.As Director of Exhibitions and Collections at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance, Jean McAuslan has played a central role in shaping the Shrine’s response to the Anzac centenaries.

As Deputy Head of Humanities (Exhibitions) at Museums Victoria, Deborah Tout-Smith was Lead Curator for the World War I: Love & Sorrow exhibition at Melbourne Museum.

Facilitator Alistair Thomson from History at Monash University is author of Anzac Memories: Living with the Legend (1994 and 2013) and was a member of the advisory team for Love and Sorrow.

Together they will discuss: How have museums responded to the challenges and opportunities posed by the Great War centenaries? How have museum visitors experienced the war centenary exhibitions? To what extent and in what ways have museums sought to reshape what we know of and how we respond to that war and its impacts?

The audience at this seminar will have the opportunity to present their own insights and to ask questions of the panellists.

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