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Details:
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Members will be familiar with Portia Geach as the painter of the two large gold leaf landscapes that usually hang in the Club’s entry foyer. The paintings are currently on loan to the S H Ervin Gallery, for their exhibition of Geach’s work, to make the 60th anniversary of the Portia Geach Memorial Art Award, an annual prize for portraiture by a woman artist.
Artist and feminist Portia Geach was born in 1873 in Melbourne, and studied design and painting at the Melbourne National Gallery schools. In 1896 she won a scholarship to the schools of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, where she studied for four years. She worked and exhibited in London, Paris and New York. On her return to Australia, Geach held numerous exhibitions, first in Melbourne and then in Sydney, where she moved with her family in 1904. Portraits became her specialty and she later painted Edith Cowan, a work which hangs in Parliament House, Perth, and (Sir) John Quick, which was hung in the National Library, Canberra.
An advocate for women’s rights, and for equal pay for women and men, Portia Geach also believed in the right of women to hold public office. She founded the New South Wales Housewives’ Association, after attending a meeting of a similar society in New York. It aimed to educate women in the principles of proper nutrition and to aid them in their struggles against profiteering and rising food prices. In 1928 she reorganised the association as the Housewives’ Progressive Association. For many years she was also president of the Federated Association of Australian Housewives.
Active on the committee of the National Council of Women of New South Wales, Geach was a delegate to the International Council of Women’s conference in Washington in 1925. She also served on the council of the Australian Women’s Movement against Socialisation from 1947, and belonged to the Women’s Club, Sydney, and the Lyceum Club, Melbourne.
Jane Watters is the Director, Galleries of the National Trust of Australia (NSW) and Director, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Gadigal land (Sydney) a role that she has held since 2001. The S.H. Ervin Gallery is one of Sydney’s leading public art galleries and presents the work of Australian artists, past and present in engaging exhibitions.
Jane has curated many important exhibitions, managed major touring exhibitions and judged many art prizes including the Portia Geach Memorial Award, NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize, Calleen Art Prize and the Gallipoli Art Prize, and has contributed to committees and advisory roles. Her professional experience commenced following studies in visual arts, art administration and education, and working in the commercial gallery sector.
Jane has served on the board of the Regional & Public Galleries Association of NSW and is an alumnus of the Museum Leadership Program and a recipient of two Gordon Darling Travel Grants. She is an advocate of contemporary, modern and historical Australian artists, women artists and supports the Uluru Statement of the Heart.
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Cost:
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$70 TWC Friends | $75 Non-Members
Includes two course shared menu – main course & accompaniments, and dessert.
Add on: Beverage Package $15
The beverage package includes 2 glasses (sparkling or prosecco, white and red wine).
Members and Guests who do not choose to purchase the beverage package may purchase drinks on the day at the tap and go bar.
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