MERIOOLA BOOK TALK
Thursday 3 September at 10am
Join historian Dr Edith Ziegler, who will be speaking about her new book, Merioola: The Story of a Fabled Sydney House.
‘This Merioola is a strange old house. There are rooms and passages and west wings and surprising hidden courtyards that one comes on accidentally: there are customs and ceremonies, peculiar rites and festivals that have grown up with the habit of the characters who live here.’
The artist, Donald Friend, diarised these comments in 1946 just after renting a room in Merioola, a colonial mansion in Sydney’s Woollahra then operating as a boarding house. Its tenants were dancers, designers, musicians, painters, sculptors, writers and other creative types. In the 1940s it was the centre of the city’s bohemian life. But for eighty years prior to Merioola’s phase as an ‘artists’ colony,’ it was already famous for the prominent people who lived there and their legendary fêtes and fashionable balls.
This is the story of Merioola and its residents and their triumphs and tragedies over all the years of its existence.
Tickets: $45 +BF (includes illustrated talk & delicious morning tea)
Info: 9258 0140
A fundraising event organised by the S.H. Ervin Gallery Events Group
SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS ART TOUR
Wednesday 7 & Thursday 8 October
A unique opportunity for art lovers to explore the arts scene in the Southern Highlands. This self-drive 2 day tour includes guided tours of the ‘New Religion’ exhibition at the Ngununggula Gallery, Retford Park, Harper’s Mansion and Michael Reid Gallery, Berrima.
‘New Religion’ is an exhibition featuring eight contemporary artists and collectives and presents their work alongside loans from significant state and national collections.
See Retford Park, the former home of James Fairfax AC, the elegant Victorian Italianate homestead with its impressive art and furniture collections and explore its heritage garden and sculptures.
We’ll also visit the studio of award-winning artist Zoe Young where we will get to see her still life and portrait works and enjoy scones fresh from her AGA oven!
This tour also includes Harper’s Mansion a superb example of an early colonial Georgian country house, and a must-see for garden lovers with one of the largest hedge mazes in Australia.
We will visit Michael Reid Gallery, showcasing landscape works and Indigenous ceramics.
This tour includes a delicious two course lunch at Julien’s French Brasserie in Bowral and a morning tea at Harper’s Mansion.
Tickets: Member $180 + BF/ Non-Member $205 + BF
Not a member? Join today
Info: 9258 0140
A fundraising event organised by the S.H. Ervin Gallery Events Group