Celebrated Australian artist Margaret Olley has donated a part of her extensive art poster collection to the New England Conservatorium of Music (NECOM).

She began collecting as a young painter and has added to it over a life time, particularly when travelling overseas.

In Armidale for the current Roy de Maistre exhibition at the New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM) Olley recalled her visits to the city when the New England Ensemble was giving regular concerts.

"I think it would be wonderful for Armidale to be a big centre for music," she said.

"When the string quartet was in residence at UNE there were concerts all around the New England. There’s nothing like a string quartet."

She urged people in the area to support NECOM and said she would like part of her poster collection to be displayed on the walls of the Old Teachers College where the Howard Hinton Collection had been exhibited for so many years.

"There is nothing like listening to music and looking at paintings," she said. "The posters are large, so you can really look at them.

"People are starved for music and painting. They help the life of the soul, put you on a higher plane and take you out of yourself."

NECOM Managing Director and Chair of Music at UNE, Professor Roger Woodward said Margaret Olley was "one of the most brilliant, talented, creative geniuses Australia had produced and whose works are loved through the length and breath of Europe.

"It is typical of such a great artist to show such generosity and express such confidence in the New England Conservatorium of Music and its magnificent building."

Since 1996 the Margaret Hannah Olley Trust has been donating art works to NERAM and also supported the Stage II development. She has donated nine paintings, most from young contemporary artists she likes to support.

Olley studied in Paris in 1945 and has travelled extensively in Europe and Asia, has exhibited regularly in Sydney for the last 50 years. She was awarded the Order of Australia in 1991, holds an honorary doctorate from Macquarie University and is a life governor of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
 

Further information - NECOM (02) 6773 6543

This page is maintained  by Jo Philp Production Officer, Marketing and Public Affairs, University of New England, Armidale NSW 2351, Australia, phone (02) 6773 2103 Last updated 16 March 2000