Foreword

Jane King

I am delighted to introduce this anthology 25 for 25 as a celebration of our collaborative project Curtin Writers Respond, produced to commemorate the Gallery’s 25th Anniversary.

This project involved creative writers, both academics and students from the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry, who developed new work in response to artworks and exhibitions here at John Curtin Gallery.

There has been a history of collaboration between artists and writers at the Gallery, and the opportunity to re-engage with this ‘other’ art-form was a welcome one for the Gallery, as we emerged from COVID in 2021.

As far back as 2004, the Gallery initiated a program called Writing the Collection: a collaboration involving the Curtin community and the Curtin University Art Collection itself. The result of this collaboration was a series of exhibitions and installations held over several years between 2004 and 2011.

So, when Rachel responded to a call out from the Gallery for academic staff to be involved with our upcoming Perth Festival exhibition at the beginning of 2021 we enthusiastically supported her idea. At that time, we were looking at some new ways to engage with audiences that were very much still in the grip of COVID, and largely staying away. Whilst Western Australia was never locked down to the extent that other states were, we were behind a closed border, with frequent short, sharp lockdowns interrupting any sense of business as usual. Engagement activities that could reach new and different audiences, that appealed to our campus colleagues, and that could get traction online or in other ways beyond the physical gallery experience were very appealing.

From the response to Abdul-Rahman Abdullah’s Everything is True, the Gallery has hosted a further seven events, gaining us a new set of visitors and delighting our regular visitors with a new slant on the exhibitions. One attendee at a reading event noted in a follow up email, ‘it was so good to be in a space of shared paradigm in terms of research-creation by artistwriter-academics’. Several artists noted how delighted they were to have triggered these writing responses, with one saying that ‘one of the things I aim to do with my painting is to create a space where the audience can bring themselves to the work’.

When Rachel brought her undergraduate students to the Gallery as part of their writing unit, we discovered that many had never visited an exhibition here before, even though we are on campus. Indeed, several students noted that this was their first ever attendance at an art exhibition. Several expressed their delight at the Gallery visit with comments such as: ‘The gallery visit was overwhelming and moving, but it was an experience that helped me grow and critically consider the art, how it made me feel, and how I can move forward. A great experience,’ and ‘The gallery visit was great and I enjoyed it. The atmosphere and the artworks were cool and it has motivated me to come back to visit the gallery again.’ Encouraging younger viewers is just one of the many benefits of this project.

I would like to conclude in recognising the enthusiasm and commitment demonstrated by Associate Professor Rachel Robertson in coordinating this program, and her encouragement of both emerging and established writers to participate so fully in this program.

Jane King