Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings facts for kids
The Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings (AGOD) is an art gallery located in Cheltenham, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. It is owned and managed by art collector Hank Ebes. This gallery was one of the very first in Melbourne to focus completely on Aboriginal art. It began as a small gallery on Bourke Street, then moved to larger spaces as its collection grew.
The Gallery's Story
The Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings (AGOD) first opened its doors on Bourke Street in Melbourne. It was special because it was one of the first galleries in the city dedicated to Aboriginal art. The gallery's founder, Hank Ebes, started with a collection of only a few hundred paintings. These artworks came from Aboriginal communities like Utopia and Alice Springs.
As the collection grew bigger, the gallery needed more room. So, in early 1990, it moved to a larger space on the same street. It stayed there until 2008.
Over the years, AGOD asked more than 500 artists to create over 12,500 paintings. The gallery worked directly with artists, their communities, and trusted helpers in Alice Springs and remote desert areas. By 2001, AGOD needed even more space. So, they bought a large warehouse, about 2,500 square meters in size, in Cheltenham. This new location was about 30 minutes southeast of the city center.
In 2008, the city gallery closed. AGOD then moved all its operations to the bigger, newly renovated building in Cheltenham.
By May 2019, after 30 years, AGOD had asked artists from Utopia, Northern Territory to create more than 10,000 paintings directly for the gallery.
The Emily Museum
In 2009, more than 200 artworks by a very famous Aboriginal artist named Emily Kame Kngwarreye were set aside from the AGOD collection. The idea was to use these paintings to create a new museum in Melbourne.
However, the gallery owners could not get enough government funding for the museum. So, in early 2013, the Emily Museum opened right next to AGOD, in the same gallery space in Cheltenham. The museum showed a huge artwork called the "Emily Wall," which was 5 by 15 meters. It also featured works from Kngwarreye's Last Series. This was the first museum ever to focus on the work of just one Aboriginal artist.
The Emily Museum stayed open for three years before it closed.
Featured Artists
The Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings has shown works by many important artists, including:
- Pansy Napangardi
- Gloria Petyarre
- Four Pwerle sisters, including Minnie Pwerle and Angelina Pwerle
- Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri
- Timmy Payungka Tjapangati
- Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri
- Barbara Weir
