MMG Lecture 2022 – Canberra and Sydney
Guest speaker Emily Catt, exhibition curator at the National Archives of Australia (NAA) will give a talk titled Well and wiry: the life and work of Marion Mahony Griffin.
Emily Catt curated the exhibition Marion: the other Griffin at the NAA in February to May 2022. In her talk she will explore some of the stories she was able to tell in the exhibition and some she couldn’t. In addition she will be talking about bringing Marion’s story to life in an exhibition format. “Well and wiry” was a description Marion used to describe herself in her grand memoir “The Magic of America” (circa 1942).
The lecture will be held in both Canberra and Sydney with Emily kindly giving the talk in both cities.
SYDNEY
Date: Sunday 20 November 2022
Time: 2.30pm
Venue: Marion Mahony Griffin Hall, Glenaeon Infants School, 121 Edinburgh Road, Castlecrag.
Bookings essential
General admission $20
Members $15
Students / Concession $5
https://www.trybooking.com/CDTDD
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CANBERRA
Date: Saturday 26 November 2022.
Time: 3.00pm
Venue: National Archives of Australia function room, Kings Avenue, Parkes.
Bookings essential
General admission $20
Members $15
Students / Concession $5
https://www.trybooking.com/CDTDR
We encourage audience members to wear masks.
Griffin Open Houses at Castlecrag – Sunday 2 May 2021
Celebrate the centenary of the Griffins’ Castlecrag and immerse yourself in its unique heritage. This is a rare opportunity to see the interiors, special design features and gardens of some of the Griffin designed houses built in the 1920s and early 30s in their “ideal suburb” that they created at Castlecrag.
There are tickets to visit 4 houses or 2 houses. Covid safe rules will apply. Tickets are essential and strictly limited. Book at www.trybooking.com/BOQLQ
All profits from the open house day will go towards funding an exciting contemporary sculpture to honour Marion Mahony Griffin (1871–1961) in her sesquicentenary, by a prominent artist that the Walter Burley Griffin Society is commissioning. The sculpture will take pride of place in a new community park, being created by Willoughby City Council at Castlecrag village, which is planned to be opened in late 2021.
Outdoor Historic Photo Exhibition guided tours – 2 to 9 May 2021
Join us for a guided tour through some of the walkways and reserves of this unique suburb designed by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin. Displayed along the route will be historic photos from the 1920s to 1960s. Supported by a Willoughby City Council grant. The photo exhibition, displayed on various nature strips, is free.
For the guided tours of the exhibition, tickets are essential at www.trybooking.com/BOYTJ
MMG Lecture 2021 – 14 February 2021 at 11.00am
Museum of Sydney, Bridge Street, Sydney
To celebrate Marion Mahony’s sesquicentenary and the centenary of the Griffins’ Castlecrag, guest speaker Dr Anne Watson will give a talk titled
‘What made Marion’s Hair Stand on End?’ An exploration of Marion Mahony Griffin’s pioneering role as an environmentalist and urban planning advocate in Australia through her art, architecture and writing.
Tickets $30 and include FREE entry to the museum and Paradise on Earth exhibition. Tickets for members $20 and students $5. Bookings essential as seats at half capacity for covid social distancing
https://www.trybooking.com/BNFTF
Speaker Dr Anne Watson is curator of Paradise on Earth (Museum of Sydney, November 2020-April 2021) celebrating the sesquicentenary of Marion Mahony Griffin’s birth. Dr Watson has had a long association with the Griffins including as curator/editor of the 1998 Powerhouse Museum exhibition/catalogue Beyond Architecture: Marion Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin in America, Australia and India, editor of Visionaries in Suburbia: Griffin Houses in the Sydney Landscape (2015). She has also written and lectured extensively on the history of the Sydney Opera House including as author of The Poisoned Chalice: Peter Hall and the Sydney Opera House (2017) based on her 2014 PhD thesis.
Griffin Open Houses at Castlecrag – Sunday 2 May 2021
Celebrate the centenary of the Griffins’ Castlecrag and immerse yourself in its unique heritage. This is a rare opportunity to see the interiors, special design features and gardens of some of the Griffin designed houses built in the 1920s and early 30s in their “ideal suburb” that they created at Castlecrag.
There will be tickets to visit 4 houses or 2 houses. Tickets are strictly limited and will go on sale in March. Covid safe rules will apply.
All profits from the open house day will go towards funding an exciting contemporary sculpture to honour Marion Mahony Griffin (1871–1961) in her sesquicentenary, by a prominent artist that the Walter Burley Griffin Society is commissioning. The sculpture will take pride of place in a new community park being created by Willoughby City Council at Castlecrag village which is planned to be opened in late 2021.
Cancelled due to covid-19 pandemic – The Griffins' Castlecrag Heritage Walk, 2 May 2020
To celebrate this year’s Heritage Festival and its theme of ‘Our Heritage for the Future’, the Walter Burley Griffin Society has organised a guided tour led by landscape architect James Smallhorn at Castlecrag. It will meander through Sydney’s original bushland estate revealing the restoration efforts that have taken place on some of the unique Griffin house exteriors, reserves and landscapes and how they have stood the test of time.
Bookings essential:
https://www.trybooking.com/BIEYG
Adult $20; Concession/Student $15; Child $0, Family $40
Meeting place provided on booking.
Please bring hat, walking shoes and water.
After the Griffins – stories from the Castlecrag of the thirties, forties and fifties Sunday 10 September 2017
2.00pm to 3.30pm History House auditorium, 133 Macquarie Street, Sydney
American architects, Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin had a dream of creating an “ideal suburb” in Sydney. They founded Castlecrag in the twenties and created a very different community from any other in Australia with their vision for community, their love of children, music and dance and their passion for the environment. They left in the thirties but their ideals meant the suburb continued to attract a unique group of people.
To celebrate History Week and its 2017 theme of ‘Australian popular culture’, the Walter Burley Griffin Society is organising a panel of former residents to discuss living in Castlecrag in the early years of the Griffin-inspired community, covering aspects such as entertainment, fashion, the motor car and public transport, play and toys. To accompany the discussion there will also be a slide show of photographs taken by Hermann Junge during the 1920s and 30s and further photographs from the 40s and 50s.
When: Sunday 10 September, 2.00pm to 3.30pm
Afternoon tea will be served afterwards in History House’s grand Victorian reception rooms.
Cost: Adults $20; Concession and Members (Walter Burley Griffin Society) $15; Child $0
Limited spaces, bookings essential
www.trybooking.com/QVRX
Further information: info@griffinsociety.org
Inspired voices – the Griffin legacy at Castlecrag Guided walk Saturday 6 May 2017
10.00am to 12.30pm
To celebrate the Australian Heritage Festival and its 2017 theme of ‘Having a Voice’, the Walter Burley Griffin Society is organising a guided walk at Castlecrag.
The internationally renowned suburb of Castlecrag was designed by Walter Burley Griffin in the 1920s as a residential community inspired by the ecological and aesthetic qualities of the landscape of Middle Harbour and its foreshores.
You are invited to take a guided tour past Griffin houses and through some of the reserves and walkways at Castlecrag and hear, in Griffin’s own words, the special qualities and aspects he implemented at Castlecrag.
Please bring hat, walking shoes and water.
Cost: Adult $20; Concession/Student $15; Child $0
Member (Walter Burley Griffin Society and National Trust) $15
Bookings essential at
https://www.trybooking.com/OMYW
Further information: phone 02 9958 4516 or email info@griffinsociety.org
Meeting place for the walk – nature strip outside 136 Edinburgh Road, Castlecrag.