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Library fellows

A message from Suzie Gasper, Community Programs Coordinator at State Library Victoria

My role includes working with present and past fellowship recipients to develop and deliver programs associated with their projects, such as talks, performances, film screenings, workshops and activities.

Gail Schmidt, Collection Research Programs Team Leader, manages the Fellowship Program, from the advertising stage through to the finalisation of individual projects. Margot Jones, Publishing Project Manager, supports and guides those wishing to produce a book manuscript or scholarly article. And my colleagues in Exhibitions support fellows who plan to curate exhibitions or displays.

Please enjoy these clips, recordings, videos and photographs, which we have selected to give you a snapshot of the wonderful work our Creative Fellows undertake and the innovative ways they present their research.

We’ll have some exciting additions coming up, so keep an eye out for updates on this page.

I hope this snapshot entices you to join us at upcoming programs.

(photo: from Vaudevillia; photographer Scott Hone)

More to explore

Stefan Schutt

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Dr Stefan Schutt was granted a Berry Family Fellowship in 2012. 

He used his fellowship to carry out research on the Lewis & Skinner signwriting firm, after he discovered a trove of company documents at a building site in Footscray.

His research resulted in the online Lewis & Skinner archive, which provides a repository of images, places and people in Melbourne's west since the 1940s, as well as a blog on ghost signs, Finding the radio book. In early 2014 he held an exhibition about the Lewis & Skinner project at a Footscray gallery.

Angela Cavalieri

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Angela Cavalieri is an award-winning artist who is well known for her text-based, large-scale artworks and exquisite artist’s books. Angela received a Creative Fellowship in 2012 to continue her interest in the relationship between art and music. Her research focused on the Library’s extensive collection of opera and madrigal scores by 16th-century Italian composers. The result was a series of large-scale lino-cut prints entitled Canzone: music as storytelling. This short film by Greg Wallis documents the creation of Angela's artwork Guerra e amore, which was displayed at the Library in 2014.

Sue Broadway

Sue Broadway used her 2014 Creative Fellowship to research Victoria's circus and vaudeville history. Her fellowship resulted in a stunning event held in the State Library's Queen's Hall in July 2016. Titled Vaudevillia, the promenade-style performance included chair balancing, chorus girls, clowns, jugglers and more, with archival sound and images from the Library's collection.

William Kelly

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Humanist artist William Kelly used his 2014 Creative Fellowship to research Australian visual artists practising between World War I and today, whose works have been informed by their beliefs about war and peace. This research resulted in the book Fellow travellers and a folio produced through the Baldessin Press, Not in my name. Watch the video of William leading a panel discussion exploring the art of peace.

Sasha Grishin

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A visual artist, historian and academic, Professor Sasha Grishin was awarded an honorary fellowship in 2009 to produce a catalogue raisonné about goldfields artist ST Gill and his public. This research resulted in the Library's 2015 exhibition Australian sketchbook: Colonial life and the work of ST Gill. For insights into his fellowship research, watch this video with Sasha in conversation with broadcaster Virginia Trioli.

Kaz Cooke

Well-known Australian writer and cartoonist Kaz Cooke used her 2013 Creative Fellowship to create a fashion installation, Raiment and regalia, which was a popular feature in the Library's Dome gallery exhibition, The changing face of Victoria. Kaz's mini-exhibition explored popular allegiances from footy jumpers to hens’ night tiaras, and was accompanied by an equally fabulous blog, highlighting the Library's important role as a bountiful source of whimsical, quirky and downright strange memorabilia, photographs and realia. In 2015, Kaz hosted a discussion exploring the story behind one of our most unusual items, a Victorian-era mourning brooch made of gold and woven hair.

Margaret Bowman

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Margaret Bowman AO researched a book about George Gilbert as part of her 2011 Creative Fellowship. Drawing on the rich resources of the Library, she explored the life of this teacher, artist and founder of Melbourne's first art school, and reproduced his landscape artworks. Margaret's book, Cultured colonists, was published in 2014, highlighting Gilbert's important role in Melbourne's cultural life.

Barking Spider Visual Theatre

Barking Spider Visual Theatre was granted a special fellowship in 2013 as part of the Library's dome centenary celebrations. Their spectacular performance/fashion parade, Liberty of the press, was memorably presented during Melbourne Spring Fashion Week in September 2014. Merging the contemporary catwalk with live performance and tableaux vivants, the event was inspired by and featured the Library's extraordinary Press Dress. A prized feature of our collection, the dress is made up of silk panels printed with the front pages of 19th-century Melbourne newspapers, created for Mrs Matilda Butters to wear to a mayoral fancy dress ball in September 1866.

Meredith Fletcher

In 2008, Meredith Fletcher was awarded a Creative Fellowship to research the life and work of writer and botanist Jean Galbraith. The resulting book, Jean Galbraith: Writer in a valley, was published in 2014. A historian specialising in environmental, local and community history, Meredith is an adjunct research fellow at the School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies at Monash University.

Trinh Vu

Melbourne-based contemporary artist Trinh Vu was awarded a Georges Mora Foundation Fellowship in 2007.  Her installation, Blue skies, was exhibited in the Library in 2011. Trinh uses digital tools, including 3D modelling software, to experiment with alternative construction processes, generating new forms and ideas. She works as a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Art & Design at Monash University.

Adrian McNeil

Adrian McNeil was granted a Creative Fellowship in 2013. Adrian used his fellowship to research notations published in a collection of music books sent to Victoria by the Bengali aristocrat Sourendra Mohan Tagore in the late 19th century. In November 2014, an ensemble of internationally renowned Indian and Western musicians brought Tagore's music to life in a concert held at the Library. Adrian plays the sarod, and is a senior lecturer in ethnomusicology at Monash University.