Sunday Arts Magazine

2022 Recipient – Angela Bailey

Curator and photographic artist, Angela Bailey’s fellowship will result in The GLAD Project, an exploration into the often secreted queer lives of performance artists. Bailey notes that there are queer stories and queer icons across the full breadth of the Australian Performing Arts Collection; “This project is an opportunity to further bring out and highlight these queer lives and connections, and to open up the Collection for broader discovery”. The project will result in a multi-faceted creative work with an online exhibition, physical installation as well as a performative element. The work is expected to be presented around June 2023

2021 Recipient – Cathy Pryor

The Frank Van Straten Research Fellowship for 2021 was awarded to Ms Cathy Pryor. Cathy’s project Rare Flowers and Golden Butterflies – women and magic in mid-20th century Australia, focuses on the careers of three female magicians; Esme Levante, Myrtle Roberts and Loretta “Moi-Yo” Miller Montes. Often hired as attractive assistants to be sawn in half or to be the foil for other tricks, Rare Flowers and Golden Butterflies demonstrates that women played a pivotal role both on stage and behind the scenes through telling the stories of their fascinating careers.

Discover more about these female magicians in the online exhibition – Rare Flowers and Golden Butterflies

Listen to the outcome of Cathy’s research, an audio documentary – The Illusory world of Esme Levante for Radio National’s The History Listen

2020 Recipient – Kate Rice

Dr Rice used her fellowship opportunity to research a number of historical theatrical performances documented in the Australian Performing Arts Collection and produce a series of performative podcasts that bring these forgotten stories of the Australian stage to life. Dr Rice explored a range of subjects including the 1919 Influenza Pandemic, child performers and a fight for copyright in the early twentieth century.

Read more about Dr Rice’s research:
Theatre and the Influenza Pandemic of 1919
Researching the Performing Arts Collection Without Leaving Home

Listen to the creative docu-drama podcast about what happened to Melbourne theatre during the 1919 pandemic in Performing the Past