Do you have a photo album, old books pertaining to Ballarat or any memorabilia from the city in years gone by? If so, the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute would love to hear from you.
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Talking Shop, the current exhibition at The BMI, explores historic local stores and businesses through photography, advertising and ephemera. Enter a world of Peters’ ice cream cones, milk bars, beautifully illustrated and ingenious advertising, photographs of Ballarat's main streets and well-known shops through the eras, invoices, stories of family businesses and add your own memories of days gone by.
As part of the exhibition, the BMI will be holding a community day on Saturday February 2, between 10am and 2pm. BMI curator Amy Tsilemanis would like Ballarat residents – indeed anyone – to bring in any photos relating to Ballarat shops and city life that they would like to have scanned and added digitally to the BMI collection.
Ms Tsilemanis says the day will include a heritage book sale with many rare volumes to take home for booklovers, and children's activities with artist-in-residence Pauline O'Shanessy- Dowling. This event will repeat on Saturday March 2, giving people twice the opportunity to get involved.
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There will be a showing of contemporary photography selected from The Ballarat Life – a 'visual love letter to the city' – on social media, and a chance to engage with the work of Ms O'Shannessy-Dowling. BMI will also be recording oral histories around the theme, so Ms Tsilemanis says people attending should bring along their stories and memories.
The Mechanics’ Instuitute is also announcing a new collaboration with Thornton Richards Camera House, an historic Ballarat business that traces its history back to the well-known Richard's and Co Photography. People will be able to take historic material in to be digitised at the Sturt St store and choose to have this archived in the BMI's digital audio visual collection, also containing the Max Harris Photography Collection.
The Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute is seeking photos and film capturing the public, cultural and daily life of the city since the 1850s. Some examples are streetscapes and people and places of interest, and pictures of everyday life with community events and local businesses.
