Violet Town Museum & backART Art Gallery
The Museum is on a site that was once a blacksmith, hardware supplies and undertakers business in the 1890s. The old building has now been restored by volunteers.
The museum aims to preserve the stories of Violet Town's interesting and resilient community.
Exhibitions focus on particular themes or significant past events in the history of the town and district. These are taken down or reduced two or three times a year to make way for new exhibitions.
Outside at the rear there are some signs by Michael Leunig.
Violet Town's Entry sign comes to grief
This sign was erected by the Violet Town Action Group (VTAG) at the Hume Freeway entrance to Violet Town in 2011. Wanting to break from traditional entry sign formats the group approached renowned cartoonist Michael Leunig, a long time resident of nearby Boho, to design a new image to represent the town and welcome visitors.
Michael's enthusiastic response was -
"So let it rip I say. I still like it very much and think it sets a terrific community standard for creativity and daring for the wider district and is a credit to the town - and I say that not because I designed it but because the community was gutsy, light hearted and adventurous enough to approve it and support it. Nice one!
There will be the inevitable detractors but all the better for community health. Something to be opinionated about! Something to ponder and be challenged by. But really, a rather colourful and joyous thing. The nation needs much more of that at every opportunity. Maybe only small, unpretentious and relatively cohesive communities like Violet Town are capable of authentic collective creativity and experiment. A model for the nation! The last refuge of some wonderful old fashioned values.
I do go on .... (excerpt from a letter written to the organising group on 8/11/2011)
The quirky design Michael came up with was accepted with glee by VTAG. Four signs were printed and erected at each of the Violet Town entry points.
April 2015 - Disaster struck. A huge eucalypt branch fell on the sign at the town's Eastern entrance, causing irreparable damage.
But the general feeling was that, even in its mangled state, it should not be thrown away. It had both historic and artistic value to our town. So it was straightened as much as was possible and put aside until an opportunity came to decide what to do with it.
2019 - The BackArt gallery
The BackArt gallery was completed in September 2019. It is a community gallery and so provided the opportunity that VTAG had been waiting for, a place to display the Leunig sign and have its story told. Two volunteers worked for several days pulling and levering the bent steel framework away from the sign. They then flattened the metal sheet and helped the builders attach it here, on the BackART gallery wall, where you see it today.
Opening Hours:
The museum is open Wednesday to Sunday 10.00 am to 4.00 pm.
Cost:
Free admission.
Exhibitions
Exhibitions have included:
- Hotels and Inns of Violet Town explores the changing style, importance and locations of the hotels and inns in Violet Town over time.
- No Toxic Dump The 2002-2004 community campaign to say no to the Victorian Government's siting of a TOXIC WASTE DUMP on Baddaginnie/Violet Town farmland.
- Southern Aurora Tragedy On 7 February 1969 a terrible crash at Violet Town between the Southern Aurora and a goods train claimed 9 lives and injured countless others. The exhibition highlights the human stories of those affected, including the rescue workers from the local community who responded and the difficulties they faced in an era half a century ago.
- Cowslip Street - Then and Now A photographic exhibition documenting the changes to the streetscape of what is now Violet Town's main street over the last century.
backART Gallery
The backART Gallery is located behind the Museum and is open during Museum opening hours with free entry. Exhibitions featuring local artists' work are regularly held in the space.Photos:
Location
20 Cowslip Street, Violet Town 3669 Map
✆ 0403 004 912
Email Enquiry
Web Links
→ www.violettown.org.au/local/violet-town-museum
→ Violet Town Museum on Facebook
