Call to put treasures on display

THE University of Tasmania is sitting on a fortune of hidden treasures that could be a major attraction for the state, says Professor Jeff Malpas. Millions of dollars of rare and fascinating artefacts, collected by the university over the past century, are secreted away in cupboards, under stairs and in basements through the institution. The treasure trove includes artworks, physics and chemistry equipment, fossils, rocks, books and dinosaur footprints. Prof Malpas says they should be on public display in central Hobart where they could draw tourists and academics from interstate and overseas, and be used as a teaching tool for students. He proposes a University Museum of Arts and Sciences to be located in the Treasury building in the central business district or in the waterfront university building on Hunter St. “If this is really going to be a university city, then the university needs to have some sort of iconic presence,” Prof Malpas said. “These collections are a way of engaging in the university’s history and research and getting people to understand what the university does, and to connect with it. “This is something we actually need in the city, somewhere accessible so people can see the material so they become a focus for engagement.”

Frances Tyler, the wealthy American benefactor of one of the university’s most globally significant collections of art, the Tyler Collection, supports the plan.

Ms Tyler and her husband, economist and art collector Geoffrey Tyler, donated a rare collection of Romanian art, and $1 million to manage it, to UTAS shortly before Mr Tyler died in 2012.

“It is now my crusade to ensure that UTAS will make available a space for publicly exhibiting our collection and thus opening the door to a rich trove of art, and opening the university’s door a little wider to the public,” Ms Tyler said.

“There is no substitute for encountering an artwork in the flesh.

“I speak from my 32-year career with the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.”

Prof Malpas has spent the past few years documenting the university’s vast vault of hidden treasures as director of UTAS collections, but this month resigned out of frustration at the slow pace of progress in getting the artefacts out of storage and into the light of day.

“Why wouldn’t you use the Treasury building for the university and TMAG together, with lecture halls for adult education — an iconic building where the university has its collections, where it engages with TMAG, maybe with Mona, and it’s open to the public,” he said.

“These collections must be accessible to the public, properly cared for, and contributing to the cultural capital of Hobart.”