Explorations – No 48 Jun 2010

IVAN BARKO, Foreword

KATIA MENGLET & COLIN NETTELBECK, Conflict or Symbiosis? The Alliance Française de Melbourne and French Cultural Policy since 1980

This article recounts the developments over the last two or three decades in the life and activities of the Melbourne Alliance Française, and the connection between these developments and French cultural policies at large.

Keywords: professionalization, governance structures, French cultural policy, François Mitterand, Jack Lang, Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, French Film Festival, cultural partnership and exchange

MARGOT RILEY, Fashioned from Fleece: Australian Wool and French Haute Couture

The author, a fashion historian, focusses in this article on Sydney and on the connection between the Australian wool industry and the introduction of French haute couture to Australia.

Keywords: wool buyers, French textile manufacturers, haute couture industry, French fashion salons in Sydney, Dior collection shown at David Jones

MICHAEL SHIRREFS, Adventures with an Atlas: Rediscovering the French Government’s Gift of Books to Melbourne in 1880

This account by Michael Shirrefs, a broadcaster, printmaker and composer, describes his re-discovery in the State Library of Victoria of a substantial collection of maps and books donated in 1880 by the French Government to the people of Melbourne. The gift of this half-forgotten collection was made to the Melbourne Public Library, the predecessor of today’s State Library, on the occasion of the 1880-1881 Melbourne International Exhibition.

Keywords: State Library of Victoria, Atlas des anciens plans de Paris, Melbourne International Exhibition, 1880-1881, Archives nationales, Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris (BHVP), Jules Belcour (Consul General in 1880-1881)

BOOK REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTES
Jane Turner Goldsmith, Poinciana, reviewed by Peter Brown
Paul Wenz, En époussetant la mappemonde, notes by Elaine Lewis
ELAINE LEWIS, French-Australian Bibliographical Notes

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