{"id":2573,"date":"2017-09-26T14:32:30","date_gmt":"2017-09-26T06:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/archives\/50years\/?p=2573"},"modified":"2017-10-03T16:26:52","modified_gmt":"2017-10-03T08:26:52","slug":"celebration-diversity-take-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/archives\/50years\/celebration-diversity-take-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"A celebration of diversity takes flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

An artwork commissioned for Curtin University\u2019s celebration of 50 Years of Innovation<\/em> is on display at the John Curtin Gallery.<\/p>\n

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The artwork, Flock (50 Birds)<\/em>, was created by Curtin alumnus Andrew Nicholls and is part of Curtin\u2019s 50fifty<\/em> campaign<\/a> launched earlier this year to further expand the University’s impressive art collection.\u00a0 Nicholls used the artwork to visually explore and honour Curtin University\u2019s international growth over the past 50 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe selected Andrew for this project because of his experience in creating wonderful illustrative and narrative artworks and his connection with Curtin as an alumnus,\u201d said the Gallery’s Collection Manager, Barbara Cotter.<\/p>\n

Nicholls graduated from Curtin in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts (Art) with first class Honours.\u00a0 Since then, he has received two Creative Development Fellowships from the Western Australian Government and has undertaken commissions for several organisations in Australia and the United States, including a large ceiling mural for the City of Perth Library.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor quite a long time now I\u2019ve thought about drawing a flock of birds in flight,\u201d Nicholls commented. \u201cThe black cockatoos are a really strong memory from my own time as a student at Curtin.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Flock (50 Birds)<\/em> a Carnaby\u2019s Cockatoo, an Australian native and a familiar sightfor those on the Bentley campus, flies alongside 20 species of native birds from countries across the world as a visual representation of the global university Curtin has become.\u00a0 Today there are over 100 nationalities represented in Curtin\u2019s student body, including those on campuses in Malaysia, Singapore and Dubai.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this project we wanted to celebrate both Curtin\u2019s 50th<\/sup> anniversary and the many graduates who have gone on to forge successful artistic careers over the past five decades,\u201d Barbara explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe aim was to bring together different elements of Curtin\u2019s history, rather than focus on a single image or moment in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the recent 50 Years of Innovation<\/em> Gala Dinner, plates with sectional prints of Nicholls\u2019 artwork were given to guests to commemorate the occasion.\u00a0 The underside of each plate has a brief description of the artwork\u2019s significance.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Story by Kyrstie Rankine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An artwork commissioned for Curtin University\u2019s celebration of 50 Years of Innovation is on display at the John Curtin Gallery. The artwork, Flock (50 Birds), was created by Curtin alumnus Andrew Nicholls and is part of Curtin\u2019s 50fifty campaign launched earlier this year to further expand the University’s impressive art collection.\u00a0 Nicholls used the artwork… read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[292,194],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-john-curtin-gallery","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/archives\/50years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/archives\/50years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/archives\/50years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/archives\/50years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/archives\/50years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/archives\/50years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/archives\/50years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/archives\/50years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/archives\/50years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/archives\/50years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}