Dr Luke Keogh - 'Museum Collections and Australia’s Gardens'

Luke, inaugural White Family Senior Fellow in Australian Garden History at NMA, will showcase some of the objects and stories he has uncovered in his work with museums that have significance and connections that are not always fully represented and interpreted.

Garden objects, ephemera and stories are well-represented in Australian museum collections, though their significance and connections are not always fully recognised or interpreted. It is time for museum curators, garden historians and botanical gardens to have a closer dialogue so they can better tell the ‘garden’ stories in their collections. In his talk curator and historian Luke Keogh will showcase some of the objects and stories he has uncovered in his work with museums, focussing in particular on his recent work with the National Museum of Australia Collection. He will also talk about some of the collaborations with museums around the world that have connected garden histories, museum collections and garden spaces. Luke will also give an insight into his current work that describes the history of Australian plants and the industrialisation of plant cure.

Biography

Dr Luke Keogh is an academic, curator, historian and the inaugural White Family Senior Fellow in Australian Garden History. His book The Wardian Case: How a Simple Box Moved Plants and Changed the World (2020) was Garden Media Guild’s Garden Book of the Year and won the NSW Premier’s General History Prize. His presentation will draw on the work he has completed as White Family Senior Fellow in Australian Garden History at the National Museum of Australia. He currently lectures into the history and museums programs at Deakin University.

Bookings open 14th February

Booking link: https://www.trybooking.com/CXZXH