Talks After Noon

Talks - afternoon

Free lunchtime talks
Wednesdays 12.30–1.30pm

Join us for a fresh program of weekly talks that take you behind the scenes of the Museum and explore the issues of the day. Brought to you by the many professionals who make the Powerhouse Museum tick.
Free with Museum admission.

14 May
Bringing out the dead: museum displays of human remains
Megan Hicks, Heritage and Cultural Consultant
These days art galleries stage blockbusters of Egyptian mummies, international entrepreneurs tour plastinated bodies, and medical faculties take school groups through their pathology collections. Are these exhibitions suitable for the general public? With their culturally diverse audiences, museums are learning that respect must be shown for the living as well as the dead.

21 May
Huguenots of France -The Forgotten People
Dr Allen Steele –Huguenot Society of Australia
Who are the Huguenots? In this illustrated talk, Dr. Allen Steele - a direct Huguenot descendant and author of the book The French Pilot retracing his family history - will discuss the Huguenots’ distinct influence on French life and culture, reveal how this society survived bitter religious warfare and persecution in the 17th century and describe their exile to safer destinations. Paul de Lamerie was one of them. Like hundreds of thousands of Huguenots who enriched their adopted countries with their talents and culture, Paul de Lamerie set up his own business in London and became the most celebrated silversmith and one of the first to explore the spirited Rococo style, as displayed in the exhibition Silver: Paul de Lamerie from the Cahn

28 May
One small life
Bronwyn Bancroft, Aboriginal woman artist featured in the exhibition Yinalung yenu:women’s journey
In the exhibition Yinalung yenu: women’s journey, six prominent Indigenous women share their stories and reveal the important place that women have in Indigenous society. Personal objects chosen by these six women are complemented by works made by contemporary Indigenous craftswomen. Join Bronwyn Bancroft, featured in the exhibition, as she talks about the developments in her life as an Aboriginal woman artist and mother, her childhood growing in a small country town, her education, her life developments and the politics that affected her personally.