Media Release

The Underworld, Australian Fashion and Travel Inspires State Library Creative Fellows

Ordinary lives gone wrong, the birth of Australian fashion and how travel creates the Australian cultural landscape are some of the diverse subjects chosen by the successful recipients of the 2004 State Library of Victoria Creative Fellowships.

The grants will allow researchers, writers and artists to work at the Library on 11 projects involving its collections. The Creative Fellowship recipients include novelist Rod Jones and editor of the recently published Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens, Richard Aitken.

The three-year, $600,000 Creative Fellowship program, launched in 2003, is jointly funded by the Victorian Government and the State Library of Victoria and encourages the scholarly, literary and creative use of the Library’s rich collections.

The Minister for the Arts, Mary Delahunty said the high number and excellent quality of applications for this year’s program made it a challenging task to select the Fellows.

The diverse range of Fellowship projects to be undertaken in 2004 demonstrates the Library’s place as a hub of intellectual inquiry and discourse,’ Ms Delahunty said.

CEO and State Librarian, Anne-Marie Schwirtlich, said the successful Creative Fellows will be awarded $37,500 for nine months, $25,000 for six months and $12,500 for three months.

Also announced with the 2004 Creative Fellowships is the inaugural Redmond Barry Fellowship. The Award, worth $20,000, has been made available jointly by the University of Melbourne and the State Library. It commemorates the laying of the foundation stones for both institutions by Sir Redmond Barry, and is designed to facilitate use of the extensive collections of both organisations.

This year the Redmond Barry Fellowship has been awarded to Melbourne historian Dr Leonarda Kovacic.

State Library of Victoria Creative Fellowships

Nine month funded Fellowship
Paul Fox Non-fiction writer	‘Travelling, Europe in the Australian Imagination?’
Six month funded Fellowships
Dr Danielle Clode Historian	‘Visions of Australia: The role of French scientists in the development of Australian natural history.’
Dr Martin Friedel  Composer	‘Underworld Songs’
Genevieve Grieves Multimedia artist	‘Picture the Past – Representing Photographic Portraits of Indigenious Victorians’
Three month funded Fellowships
Richard Aitken Historian	‘Botanical Riches’
Dr Leslie A Fraser Historian	‘A Natural and Social history of the Merri Creek catchment from Wurundjeri Times to 2004’
Rod Jones Author	‘Cultural Desert? Australian Artists (1945-75) and their responses to a conformist society.’
Daniel Palmer Historian	‘The Birth of Australian Fashion Photography’
Dr Carolyn Rasmussen Author	‘Do not expect me to sit in contentment’: Maurice and Doris Blackburn and the ‘struggle for freedom and advancement’ in Australia, 1900-70.’
Dr Alan Warren Historian	‘A re-examination of the casualty statistics for the Passchendaele /Third Battle of Ypres campaign of autumn 1917’
Jeffrey Wassmann and Kirsten Rann Curators	‘Alternative Histories – Possible Worlds: Melbourne through the eyes of another’
Redmond Barry Fellowship
Dr Leonarda Kovacic     Historian	‘From ‘Lubras’ to ‘Belles’: Representations of Aboriginal Women, 1850 – 1950’