Anne-Marie Van der Ven
Anne-Marie Van de Ven is Curator of Visual communication at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. Prior to becoming a museum curator, Anne-Marie was a teacher. She has taught in Papua New Guinea, Japan and Australia. Anne-Marie is currently working on the Balarinji: ancient culture, contemporary design exhibition for ddd (graphic) gallery, Osaka and ggg (graphic) gallery, Ginza, Tokyo. She is also contributing curator to the Powerhouse Museum’s new permanent decorative arts & design gallery, opening in mid-2005.
As curator of visual communication at the Powerhouse, Anne-Marie has responsibility for the acquisition, documentation and presentation of graphic design and commercial photography archives and collections. These include the David Mist, Henry Talbot, Janice Wakely, Douglas Annand, Max Forbes, Gerard Herbst/Prestige Limited, Gordon Andrews, Richard Beck, Richard Haughton James, Dahl and Geoffrey Collings and renowned Australian wallpaper designer, Florence Broadhurst collections, among others. Within defined parameters, Anne-Marie likes to take a ‘broad brush’ approach to collection development and interpretation valuing ‘issues, stories, culture, creativity and connections’ within the broader disciplines of decorative arts, design and photography. This she feels is unavoidable when meeting the challenge of a conceptual collecting framework like ‘Visual communication’. Within this context, Anne-Marie recently presented a lecture to design students at the University of Technology, Sydney titled Fashion goes forth to conquer the world: Australian fashion photography (and fashion) in Asia.
Anne-Marie has curated, co-curated or been a contributing curator to many collection-based Powerhouse Museum exhibitions and displays including Balarinji: ancient culture, contemporary design (2003); Ken Done: selection from the design archive (2002); Celebrating Australia: identity by design (a Centenary of Federation travelling exhibition to Embassy of Australia, Washington DC, 2001); Artists design new Australian flags (2001); Paul (Gerard) Herbst, (mounted in conjunction with the Anne Frank and Courage to Care exhibitions, 2001); Gordon Andrews – a tribute (2001); Colonial to contemporary: a decade of collecting decorative arts & design and Sydney 2000 Olympic Games posters (2000); Alfredo Bouret: fashion illustrator and designer (mounted in conjunction with Audrey Hepburn: A woman A style exhibition, 1998); Fashion Photography by Henry Talbot & Helmut Newton (1997); Discover … Australian women: as poster designers (a 25th anniversary of the International Year of Women display, 1995); Ken Done: the art of design (1994); Gordon Andrews: a designer’s life (1993); The Australian Dream: Design of the Fifties, and Aboriginal Community Posters by Redback Graphix (1993); Art to inspire: European advertising posters (1992), Douglas Annand graphic design (1990); Festival posters by Martin Sharp (1990); Sounds Musical: music and musical instruments (1988), Painting and decorating in the late 19th and early 20th century: the Walter J Pearce collection (mounted at Elizabeth Farm, Parramatta, a property of the Historic Houses Trust of NSW, 1988); and Decorating the Australian House (an unrealised project, 1985-1987).
