Kim Pham
22 November 2016
The , based at the University of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, has capped off a wonderful 20th anniversary year by being awarded its second Community Heritage Grant.
The grant, worth $4,950, was awarded to the ANME by the National Library of Australia and will be used for a preservation news assessment.
A further $4,500 was given to the Faculty of Arts and Design for a significance assessment of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Indigenous Art and Artefact Collection.
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Curator Hakim Abdul Rahim accepting the Community Heritage Grant on behalf of the Australian National Museum of Education from ACT senator, Zed Seselja.
“These grants are highly competitive and reflect how highly regarded the ANME is in the community,” ANME director Dr Malcolm Beazley said.
“In 2015, we used our first grant to document the importance of the ANME collection as one of national significance. This year’s grant will be used to prioritise the conservation needs of the collection, which will be invaluable when applying for further funding to support the museum’s work.”
In addition to this year’s grant, ANME curator Hakim Abdul Rahim attended a three-day intensive preservation and collection management workshop held at the National Library, the National Archives of Australia, the National Museum of Australia and the National Film and Sound Archive in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ October.
“While the grant provides the funds, the workshop offers the expertise to help us protect our collection and make it accessible to students, researchers and the public,” Mr Rahim said.
In April, the ANME marked their 20th anniversary with a showcase at the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and Region Heritage Festival. Curated by Dr Geoffrey Burkhardt and Mr Rahim, the show featured several artefacts from the archives including a collection of school textbooks from the 19th century.
The showcase provided visitors with a small glimpse into the museum’s impressive collection, with other items on show including a Victorian Education Department licence to teach from 1879, a 1919 Victory Medallion and a challenge shield for athletics from 1905.
“I’m very proud of the fact that we have built a national repository of educational texts, reports, curricula documents and educational ephemera where students and staff can access this educational heritage for research purposes,” Dr Beazley said.
Dr Beazley founded the AMNE in 1996 with the aim of having a space dedicated to preserving educational heritage and providing an historical perspective of education.
“A knowledge of the past is imperative for informed opinion on any subject,” he said.