VIRTUAL: Prague Heritages

Abstract

This talk presents the case of a 38-panel concrete mural relief that once adorned a maintenance building at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital in Australia (now Women’s and Children’s Hospital – WCH). A 2021 exhibition under the WCH Foundation’s Arts in Health Program investigated this artwork’s life story in the context of Australian architectural art, and the institution’s social and built history. Designed by Woods Bagot architect Reginald Steele, the sculpture generated controversy upon its 1962 debut, its modernist abstract design considered unsuitable for children. With increasing patient demand, site redevelopments rendered the sculpture a progressive casualty until its presumed destruction in 1992. Capital works in 2022 led to an incredible archaeological find: the artwork had in fact been entombed in situ behind gyprock. Remarkably, curatorial engagement with Building Services staff around the exhibition had generated such investment in the sculpture story, this Department put up immediate support to salvage and house the artwork ahead of demolition works. With a new WCH a decade away: how long can the panels be accommodated in storage; and how can the present architectural firm charged with the new Hospital design be convinced to preserve a significant piece of Hospital past in the future build? This presentation addresses the complexity of preserving large-scale art integrated with architecture in a public institution where safeguarding and displaying art and artefacts are far from core business. It shares learnings about the power of history telling, and value of inclusive exhibition processes, in inspiring practical support to save historical artworks.