Executive
Joined city leaders, policymakers and thinkers at The Melbourne Assembly at Fed Square’s The Edge. The program included Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Premier Ben Carroll, Opposition Leader Jess Wilson, former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, 15-minute city pioneer Professor Carlos Moreno and University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor Professor Carolyn Evans. It was a valuable chance to hear how culture fits into the bigger conversation about Melbourne’s future.
Opened applications for the 2027 AMaGA Victoria Internship Program. Now in its fourth year, the program continues to give emerging professionals real experience in the sector.
Heard human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson deliver State Library Victoria’s 2026 For Future Reference lecture. The 2026 Sydney Peace Prize recipient drew on her career to reflect on what courage looks like today.
Said goodbye to newCardigan at its final cardiParty at AQuA. For more than 11 years, newCardigan brought GLAM workers together for tours, talks and good company. We thank everyone who kept it going and gave so many people a way into the sector.
Toured the new Vietnamese Museum Australia in Sunshine. It was a joy to see the space and celebrate what the team has achieved, and we look forward to visiting again.
Attended Close Encounters: Intimacies and Asian Australian Cinema at The Capitol, part of RMIT’s Australian Screen Research Collection Salon. Director and producer Tony Ayres spoke with Professor Olivia Khoo, and the evening closed with a screening of his 1999 documentary Sadness: A Monologue by William Yang.
Took part in two days of professional development on audiences and visitor research. This included the Visitor Studies Masterclass, an Audience Engagement Toolkit workshop and the Visitor Research Forum at State Library Victoria, hearing from colleagues from Museums Victoria, ACMI and more. A highlight was learning about smell art. If you’ve been to Ngarn Wa’ngal: Art of the gum tree at the Potter Museum of Art, you’ve experienced it in the eucalypt scents designed by Erin Adams of Smell Art. The exhibition runs until 21 November, so there’s still time.
Visited Rebel Heart: Love Letters and Other Declarations at State Library Victoria. It will bring a smile to your face and demands a repeat visit.
Accreditation
Reaccreditation site visits to The Johnston Collection, Melbourne Royal Heritage Collection, Port Fairy Museum and Archives, Warrnambool Art Gallery, and Ziebell’s Farmhouse.
Peer Reviewer participation from Mitraja Bias (AMaGA Victoria), Caroline Briggs Martin (Yalukit Marnang Consultancy), Agostina Hawkins (Glenelg Shire Council), Fran Paterson (One Conservation), Ellie Thomas (National Communications Museum), Lauren Wolf (Museums Victoria), and Dr Kent Wilson (NETS Victoria).
Key goals and priorities discussed included First Peoples acknowledgements and interpretation, collection cataloguing and data entry, collection storage challenges, and new builds and the fit-out of interpretation spaces.
Commenced drafting of 2026 reaccreditation reports, incorporating Peer Reviewer feedback and approval.
Planning for 2027 is underway, including preparation of the accreditation calendar. Invitations for MAP and CMAP reaccreditations will be sent out soon.
Victorian Collections
Delivered two workshops – Getting Started with VC and Making your collection accessible – with attendees participating from across inner Gippsland, Bendigo, Ballarat, Great Ocean Road and metropolitan Melbourne regions.
Met with East Melbourne Historical Society volunteers to better understand their cataloguing system needs.
Travelled to meet with VC Users in the Nillumbik and Mornington Peninsula regions to provide support for organisations currently considering or preparing for data migration to the VC CMS.
Met with Melbourne Athenaeum to demonstrate the mechanics of VC's Stories Interface within the CMS, available to be used by story authors and curators.
Our contributing organisations used the VC CMS to catalogue 15,418 items in October.
Internship
October was a month of site visits and valuable learning experiences on the internship front!
Accompanied Caroline Wall (Senior Manager, Accreditation Programs) as a panellist on reaccreditation site visits to Warrnambool Art Gallery, Port Fairy Museum and Archives and The Johnston Collection as a part of AMaGA Victoria's Museum Accreditation Program (MAP) and Community Museum Accreditation Program (CMAP).
Experienced the detailed level of planning and preparation involved in conducting the site visits.
Had the opportunity to explore both public-facing and behind the scenes spaces at each organisation, interact with the staff, and learn about their day-to-day operations, achievements and challenges.
It was particularly valuable to participate in discussions around each organisation's focus area and hear the insights and constructive feedback shared by fellow panellists based on their diverse expertise and experience.
Visited the newly opened Vietnamese Museum of Australia (VMA) along with Ash Robertson (Executive Director, AMaGA Victoria) and Jackie Fraser (Program Manager, Victorian Collections) ahead of an upcoming placement to work with the team on Victorian Collections.
Tammy Nguyen (CEO), Eleni Papavasileiou (Head of Curatorial and Collections), and Elisa Ronzoni (Curatorial and Collections Officer) warmly welcomed us and showed us around the museum, sharing insights into their work.
Programs and Professional Development
Planning for the 2026 End of Year Celebration is well underway. We look forward to travelling to The Carousel, on Geelong’s Waterfront Precinct.
2027 Calendar development continues. We have gathered data from our Psychosocial Symposium, AMaGA Victoria 2026 Forum and our 2026 Sector Census to develop a calendar that responds to the sector’s needs and wants. The 2027 Calendar will be launched in late January 2027.
We held our final Conservation & Preservation Seminar Series – Session 4: Modern Materials, with experts from the field, Dr Petronella Nel from the University of Melbourne and Sam Gayler from MESS.
We held our final Grant Showcase for 2026.
We held an on-demand training session at the Mechanics’ Institute, Ballarat. Thanks to Sherryn Vardy for delivering this Disaster Management training.