The Australian Museum is gearing up for a series of late-night cultural events, offering a mash up of musicians, scientists, and artists each Wednesday night as part of their Culture Up Late initiative. Coinciding with the 40th Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the series includes A Different Perspective, which touts a queer look at the local cultural institution.
"The Museum can get pigeonholed pretty easily as a place for school kids and science buffs," the Australian Museum's Creative Producer Tanya Goldberg tells SBS Sexuality.
She continues: "But the reality so much richer than that. There’s so much in our collections that speaks to a really broad range of interests and appetites. Culture Up Late is designed to make those ideas more accessible."
"It’s such a different way of 'doing' a Museum," Goldberg says, "with a beer or a glass of wine in your hand, and some awesome live music wafting through."
Noting that live music and overt celebrations of queer culture aren't things you'd normally expect to find in a museum, Goldberg says there's a trend worldwide to open up museums in new ways.
"The reality is that the Australian Museum is as much a cultural hub as it is a scientific institution, and culture is not only about heritage and legacy but is a living thing," she tells SBS Sexuality. "I’m deeply excited by the dynamic ways that we are exploring and delivering culture – working with established and emerging artists, inviting their responses to the Museum, revealing both the serious and the irreverent in what’s here."
Drawing a parallel between the arts and science, Goldberg says the idea for Culture Up Late is an extension of what museums have always been about.
"Artists and scientists are both in the business of pushing boundaries," she says. "Turning over rocks and getting stuck into fascinating details... So you could say that this is just more of what the Museum has been doing for a very long time!
With live music from cabaret act Lady Sings It Better, a hilarious "Mating In The Wild" tour and surrealist adventures thanks to Sydney Gaymers and Holly Golightly, Another Perspective is shaping up to be anything but a typical trip to the local museum.
"I’d be delighted for visitors to leave next Wednesday night feeling that the Museum truly belongs to them," Goldberg tells SBS Sexuality. "This is the Australian Museum after all, that is, a museum about and for all of us and our world. And if that’s the case, then any contemporary issue can be examined through the prism of the Museum’s collections."
She continues: "With this event in particular, I’m hoping we ignite conversations around how different cultures, species and technologies have understood difference, sexuality and inclusion, by giving voice to artists and thinkers who engage with those ideas."
Culture Up Late: Another View takes place at the Australian Museum on Wednesday February 28th from 5pm-9pm. To find out more information and get tickets, click here.
