We might not be able to stroll into the Museum of Sydney, Hyde Park Barracks or Vaucluse House right now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be inspired by the stories of our city, past, present and yet to be written. The curatorial team at Sydney Living Museums has created a scintillating and totally free online talk series to keep us all connected, with new chats dropping every Tuesday (with some bonus Thursday sessions too).
Upcoming insights include The Mythology of the Grand Tour, with curator David White exploring the interconnectedness of their house museums, how folks view them and their many acquisitions on Tuesday, August 31 at noon. Carlin de Montfort will present Searching the records for Sir Charles Kingsford Smith on Thursday, September 2 at 4pm, exploring the pioneering aviator's disappearance alongside those of Amelia Earhart and Charles Ulm. If you’re a keen home chef, why not tune in for Cooking with Rose Seidler on Tuesday, September 7 at noon with Dr Jacqui Newling? The Austrian immigrant to Sydney was a renowned entertainer and left heaps of handwritten recipes.
From one period of crisis to another, you can take a look at how public service messages were communicated through art with Bringing blackouts to light: poster design in World War II, as presented by Michael Lech on Thursday, September 9 at 4pm.
Anna Cossu will lead Residents, not tenants, illuminating the lives of the boarders of Sydney’s four working-class houses on Tuesday, September 14 at noon. And we jump back to another period not entirely unlike our own with Masks again compulsory, with Jane Kelso exploring how we dealt with 1919 pneumonic ‘Spanish’ influenza pandemic.
How did a convict servant meet and marry the daughter of a sergeant in the NSW Corps? Carlin De Montfort will tease out this remarkable story with James Watford ‘behind the scenes’ on Tuesday, September 28 at noon. Interior design fans should take note of A sea of beige: colour in the Australian home, with Michael Lech revealing the riot of colour used in Australian homes of the past on Tuesday, October 5 at noon.
You can find out details of how to listen in to these talks and upcoming topics here, with the series set to run right through the end of the year.