Mechanics' Institutes Australia 2018

Celebration and Survival: Mechanics' Institutes Australia 2018

The joint purpose of MIA 2018 will be to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Mechanics’ Institutes of Victoria Inc. and the staging of a National Conference of like groups.

The Conference will cover subjects on history, success, maintenance, utilisation and ideas and will explore a way forward for Mechanics’ Institutes and their ilk.

It will also commemorate the Centenary of Anzac, for most Institute Halls hold World War I related Honour Boards, plaques, photos or other memorabilia.

The Conference itself will provide and consolidate a State and national focus in the context of international research largely by way of the Mechanics’ Universities.

Proceedings of the Third National Conference of Mechanics’ Institutes, Schools of Arts and their ilk convened by the Mechanics’ Institutes of Victoria Inc. at Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute, 16-18 November 2018

The 340 page Conference Proceedings are available for purchase from MIV's online store.

The list of papers included in the Proceedings can be found here.

Copies of the tour notes associated with the Conference will be available for purchase shortly.

FRIDAY – 16 NOVEMBER 2018

0800 - Registration

0855 - Welcome

0900 - Phil Roberts 'Exploring the Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute: Past Present and Future'

0930 - Opening Keynote

Siân Williams, Swansea University, Wales; 'South Wales Miners’ Library: Saving the Memory'

1030 - Morning Tea

1100 - Opening - Prof Rory Duncan, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland

1130 - Catherine Kerrigan 'Gap, Story, Place: The Role of the Independent Library in the 21st Century'

- Roger Morris/Robert Parkinson 'Much more than a Humble Hall: World War One Memorials in
NSW Schools of Arts & Mechanics' Institutes'

1200 - John Dent 'Mechanics' Institutes in Tasmania'

- Jim Lowden and Bronwyn Lowden 'Survivention: Strategies for Survival to Century 22 - Part 1'

1230 - Lunch

1330 - Ken James 'Researching the Mechanics': Some Case Studies'

- Peter Jones 'Future-Proofed Romance?'

1400 - Ellen Coates/James Baker 'Innovative Institutes: The Unique Opportunities for Staff and Patrons in Mechanics' Institutes'

- Steve Kellermeier 'My Thesis: A Tale of Survival of the School of Arts and of the Written Word'

1430 - Lauren Weiss 'Uncelebrated Societies and their Archival Survival: A Call for the Rediscovery of Mutual
Improvement Groups and Revitalisation of their Study'

1500 - Bus Tour

Visit Buninyong Mechanics’ Institute, Ballarat School of Mines and some other stops

1900 - Miners Rest Hall - Barbecue

2130 - Return to Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute with various Hotel drop-offs

SATURDAY – 17 NOVEMBER 2018

0730 - Registration

0800 - Building Tour

0915 - Workshop Welcome and Housekeeping

0930 - Grant Hull/Rhonda McNeil 'Crown Land Use and Management'

0950 - Sam Hicks 'Grantwriting ‘Nothing is Impossible’'

1010 - Heather Arnold and Lynn Bradley 'We've got a Policy for That!'

1030 - Morning Tea

1100 - Keynote, Michele Frey; 'On a Saturday Night: Community Halls of Small Town New Zealand'

1200 - Bodye Darvill 'Wellington Shire - Supporting Our Halls'

1225 - Christine Windle 'Handing on the Baton: Inverleigh Mechanics’ Hall – Then and Now'

1245 - Lunch

1330 - Greg Owen 'Hall Maintenance and Management'

1350 - Christine Windle '‘I Remember’: Recollections of Inverleigh Hall'

1410 - Duncan and Christine Rolley 'Paper-based Materials and Recovery from Flood and Fire'

1430 - Cameron Auty 'Building a Museum Collection'

1450 - James Campbell 'Temporary Exhibition Systems'

1510 - Ian Davidson 'Enliven Your Mechanics’ Institute with a Film Society'

1530 - Afternoon Tea

1600 - Chris Dormer and Helen McIntyre 'C19th Stanley Women: Hearts of Gold and Minds of Mettle - Exhibitions on a Shoe String'

1620 - Pat Anderson 'Survival Through Arts Programs'

1640 - Joy Leneaux Gale 'Maldon Athenaeum Library: A Phoenix Rising'

1900 - Dinner: Celebration and Commemoration

SUNDAY – 18 NOVEMBER 2018

0800 - Registration/Building Tour

0900 - Joelie Hancock 'Institutes in South Australia: Towards a Complete Record'

- Sue Westwood, Steven Haby and Luke Mitchell 'Analogue or Digital? What Matters is Connection and Authenticity: Surviving in a Digital Age'

0930 - Anne Marsden 'Pioneering Women: The Families of the Founders of the 1839 Melbourne Mechanics'
Institution'

- Martyn Walker 'Thank Goodness for Student Choice and the Free Market: The Mechanics' Universities, their
Origins and Place in Twenty-First Century Britain'

1000 - Steven Haby 'Collaboration, Chequebooks and Coffee: Reflections on my First 18 Months as Secretary
Librarian, Prahran Mechanics' Institute Victorian History Library'

- Mike McCausland 'A Twist in the Tale: How the Launceston Mechanics' Institute kept its Collections and Lost
its Building'

1030 - Morning Tea

1100 - Prof Rory Duncan and Prof Richard A Williams '‘The Purest of Institutes?’ Reflections celebrating the formation of the first Institute of Mechanics in 1821 that became Heriot-Watt University'

'

1200 - Libby Webster 'Tallarook Mechanics' Institute: A Hallish Story'

1230 - Lunch

1330 - Helen Creagh 'Learning from the Past: Building the School of Arts Movement in Australia - An 'ADFAS in the
Community' Project'

- Peter Wolfenden 'The Visitors: Enter the Travelling Picture Showman'

1400 - Wendy Birman 'Perth Literary Institute : Cultural Oasis'

- Helen Monro 'Seeking Culture and Identity in Country Towns: Mechanics' Institutes in Colonial Victoria'

1430 - Pam Baragwanath 'Ubiquitous and Necessary: Mechanics' Institute Libraries in Victoria'

- Jim Lowden and Bronwyn Lowden 'Survivention: Strategies for Survival to Century 22 - Part 2'

1500 - Afternoon Tea

1530 - Winsome Allen ''The Hunting of the Snark' or 'What it is we should be doing now?''

- Lorraine Huddle, Greg Curcio and Jason Fabbri 'Digital Self-Guided Tours to Mechanics' Institutes around the
World'

1600 - Jonathan Woodhead 'Surviving and Striving into the Future: How Birkbeck Emerged from the London
Mechanics' Institute to become London's Evening University'

1630 - Closing Panel

1700 - Close

additional conference events

MONDAY – 19 NOVEMBER - TOUR OF MELBOURNE INSTITUTES

0830 - Bus departs from Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute

Visits to Melbourne Atheneaum Library; Footscray Mechanics’ Institute; Brunswick Mechanics’ Institute; Dancehouse – Carlton; Prahran Mechanics’ Institute. Those joining the tour in Melbourne will need to be at the Melbourne Athenaeum, 188 Collins St, at 9.45am. Bus returns to Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute following tour of Prahran.

MONDAY – 19 NOVEMBER - PUBLIC LECTURE

Sponsored by State Library Users’ Organisation Council

Moss Theatre, Prahran Mechanics’ Institute, 39 St Edmonds Rd, 6.30pm

Conference Keynote Speakers Michele Frey and Siân Williams will deliver alternative papers.

THURSDAY – 22 NOVEMBER

Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, 280 Pitt St, Sydney, NSW

Conference Keynote Speakers Michele Frey and Siân Williams will deliver alternative papers.

Michele Frey

Michele Frey is an experienced community development consulting professional based in New Zealand. She is also the Co-Author of ‘On a Saturday Night - Community Halls of Small Town New Zealand’, her third publication made possible through her passion and commitment to really understand and capture the essence of these places. Through her work she could see that these places in some contexts are alive and kicking, incredible parts of society. In others they are on the cusp of being replaced with something far ‘flashier', or simply demolished. So what makes them go one way or the other? Based on this research, Michele will share her view on the key mechanisms for their long term prosperity.

Siân Williams

Siân Williams is Head of Research Collections at Swansea University, and manages the South Wales Miners' Library and the Richard Burton Archives. She has led or contributed to numerous successful externally funded bids, including digitisation projects and community based exhibitions, collaborating with community organisations and museum, library and archive professionals. In 2013 she co-authored, with Hywel Francis, 'Do Miners Read Dickens? Origins and Progress of the South Wales Miners' Library 1973-2013', which was published by Parthian.

Siân is co-chair of the Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum Archives & Special Collections Group; a Trustee of the Paul Robeson Wales Trust; and Secretary of Llafur: the Welsh People's History Society.

Prof Rory Duncan

Heriot-Watt biophysicist Professor Rory Duncan will deliver Professor Richard Williams’ lecture on ‘The Heriot-Watt University’, which started out as the Edinburgh School of Arts in 1821 and is regarded as the first Mechanics’ Institute in the major spread of Institutes around the world.

We have very recently learned that Heriot-Watt University’s esteemed Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Richard A Williams OAM will be unable to attend MIA 2018. In Professor Williams’ stead, Heriot-Watt will be sending Professor Rory R Duncan, its Senior Academic Lead for Strategy and Development, to read Professor Williams’ Paper, and spread the great Heriot-Watt story.

Professor Duncan joined the Heriot-Watt staff in November 2010 and is the Founding Head of the Institute of Biological Chemistry, Biophysics and Bioengineering (IB3), of the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences. IB3 was set up in 2012 and has brought together thirty-five interdisciplinary Photo Imaging Groups and this has led to the formation of the ‘Edinburgh Super-Resolution Imaging Consortium (ESRIC)’ as a knowledge exchange platform. ESRIC was a recipient of the Times Higher Education Award in 2017 for its Research Project of the Year: STEM

Melbourne Airport (Tullamarine) has hourly shuttles 24/7 to Ballarat which leave from Terminal 4 Multi-storey Car Park, Ground Floor Bus Bay 14. The cost is AUD$37 one way and the trip takes about 75 minutes and drops off at the Ballarat Railway Station an easy walk to the listed hotels. Website: airportshuttlebus.com.au

Melbourne Airport (Tullamarine) has shuttle buses every ten minutes with run into Melbourne (Southern Cross) at a cost of AUD$20.

There are also regular trains from Melbourne (Southern Cross) to Ballarat and the trip takes about seventy minutes.

Public Transport by tram around the Melbourne CBD is free. Otherwise it requires the purchase of a MYKI card which can be purchased at Southern Cross or online.

BALLAARAT MECHANICS’ INSTITUTE

117-119 Sturt Street, Ballarat, V 3350

Website: ballaratmi.org.au; Telephone: +61 3 5331 3042

TOURIST INFORMATION:

Ballarat Visitor Information Centre, Town Hall, 225 Sturt Street, Ballarat Central. Website: visitballarat.com.au; Telephone: +61 3 5337 4337.

Visitor Sites: Sovereign Hill; Gold Museum; Art Gallery of Ballarat; Ballarat Botanical Gardens; Kryal Castle; Sovereign Hill Blood on the Southern Cross Sound & Light Show

LONGTERM PARKING

Central Square, 18 Armstrong Street, Ballarat: Early Bird (before 11am), Friday $7.00; Saturday- Sunday $4.00. Website: centralsquareballarat.com.au

Armstrong Street North, East side

Street Parking is Free on Sunday.

HOTELS

ANSONIA ON LYDIARD

32 Lydiard Street South, Ballarat. No Carparking. About: AUD$125 per night

Website: www.theansoniaonlydiard.com.au; Telephone: +61 (0)3 5332 4678

CRAIG’S ROYAL HOTEL

10 Lydiard Street South, Ballarat. Carparking. About: AUD$250 per night

Website: www.craigsroyal.com.au; Telephone: +61 (0)3 5331 1377

Email: info@craigsroyal.com.au

HERITAGE ON LYDIARD

15 Lydiard Street North, Ballarat. Carparking. About: AUD$175 per night

Website: www.heritageonlydiard.com.au; Telephone: +61 (0)3 5327 2777

Email: info@heritageonlydiard.com.au;

PROVINCIAL HOTEL

121 Lydiard Street North, Ballarat. About: AUD$150 per night

Website: theprovincialballarat.com.au; Telephone: +61 (0)3 5331 3399

Email: bookings@theprovincialballarat.com.au.

THE GEORGE

27 Lydiard Street North, Ballarat. Carparking. About: AUD$150 per night

Website: www.georgehotelballarat.com.au; Telephone: +61 (0)3 5327 2777

Email: bookings@georgehotelballarat.com.au.

A bus will leave Ballarat on Monday morning 19 November for participants in the Melbourne day tour.

MELBOURNE ATHENAEUM LIBRARY (FIRST FLOOR)

Melbourne Athenaeum Theatre, 188 Collins Street, Melbourne, V 3000

Website: melbourneathenaeum.org.au; Telephone: +61 3 9650 3100

TOURISM INFORMATION

Melbourne Visitor Centre, Federation Square, Cnr Swanston & Flinders Streets, Melbourne. Telephone: +61 3 9658 9658

HOTELS

The listed hotels are located in Melbourne CBD and close to the Melbourne Athenaeum.

CAUSEWAY 353

353 Little Collins Street, Melbourne. About: AUD$150 per night

Website: www.causeway.com.au/causeway-353-hotel-melbourne; Telephone: +61 3 9668 1888

MANTRA ON RUSSELL (Serviced Apartment)

222 Russell Street, Melbourne. About: AUD$200 per night

Website: www.mantraonrussell.com.au/home/; Telephone: +61 3 9915 2500

NOVOTEL ON COLLINS STREET

270 Collins Street, Melbourne. About: AUD$170 per night

Website: www.novotelmelbourne.com.au; Telephone: +61 3 9667 5800

OAKS ON COLLINS (Serviced Apartment)

480 Collins Street, Melbourne. About: AUD$200 per night

Website: www.oakshotels.com/en/oaks-on-collins; Telephone: 1300 786 603

RENDEZVOUS HOTEL

328 Flinders Street, Melbourne. About: AUD$150 per night

Website: www.rendezvoushotels.com/hotel/melbourne; Telephone: +61 3 9250 1888

SWANSTON GRAND MERCURE

195 Swanston Street, Melbourne. About: AUD$120 per night

Website: www.theswanstonhotel.com.au; Telephone: +61 3 9663 4711

VICTORIA HOTEL (RYDGES)

215 Little Collins Street, Melbourne. About: AUD$150 per night

Website: www.rydges.com/accommodation/melbourne-vic/the-victoria-hotel; Tel: +61 1800 026370

WESTIN MELBOURNE

205 Collins Street, Melbourne. About: AUD$250 per night

Website: www.westinmelbourne.com; Telephone: +61 3 9635 222

Regular train services run from Sydney Airport to the Sydney CBD. There is also Melbourne-Sydney train service from Southern Cross which takes 12 hours.

SYDNEY MECHANICS’ SCHOOL OF ARTS (FLOOR 3)

180 Pitt Street, Sydney, NSW 2000

Website: smsa.org.au; Telephone: +61 2 9262 7300

TOURISM INFORMATION:

Sydney Visitor Centre, 12-24 Playfair Street – Shop 1-2, The Rocks Centre, The Rocks, Sydney. Website: www.therocks.com/things-to-do/sydney-visitor-centre/

Telephone: 1800 067 676 Email: nswinfo@ausvc.com.au

HOTELS

The listed Hotels are located in the Sydney CBD and close to the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts.

CASTLEREAGH BOUTIQUE

169 Castlereagh Street, Sydney. About: AUD$150 per night

Website: www.thecastlereagh.com.au; Telephone: +61 (0)2 9284 1000

HOTEL CORONATION

5-7 Park Street, Sydney. About: AUD$120 per night

Website: www.hotelcoronation.com.au; Telephone: +61 (0)2 9266 3100

MERITON APARTMENTS

528 Kent Street, Sydney. About: AUD$200 per night

Website: www.meritonsuites.com.au/our-hotels/nsw/sydney-cbd/kent-street/; Telephone: +61 (0)2 8263 5500