Call for artists to design Marrickville Library’s Patyegarang Place
Monday, 20 May 2019
Inner West Council is calling for expressions of interest for a public art installation that celebrates local Aboriginal culture and heritage.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists are invited to apply to design and install an engaging mural artwork on five water tanks in the new Marrickville Library’s Junior Garden, a children’s space in the centre of Patyegarang Place.
Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne said that Patyegarang played an important part in Indigenous history.
“Patyegarang was thought to have been one of the first people to have taught an Aboriginal language to the early colonists in New South Wales,” he said.
The artwork will be in a dedicated children’s zone with a playground – the Junior Garden.
“The junior garden takes the library experience outside,” said Mayor Byrne. “It’s being carefully designed to reflect a sense of play and discovery and local flora and fauna.
“This part of the Inner West was originally known as the ‘kangaroo grounds’, and the centrepiece of the garden is a large kangaroo sculpture by Australian artist, Joanna Rhodes. There are several artworks associated with the new library. Contemporary public art is core to the vision of this new community facility – art that compliments the architecture, design and sustainability features and honours the heritage of the site and surrounds.”
The new contemporary artwork should reflect Aboriginal heritage and history, stories, perspectives and contributions of Aboriginal people and communities to past and future generations of Marrickville, the Inner West and beyond.
Individual artists may team up together to create the new installation over the water tanks.
Marrickville Library at Patyegarang Place is due for completion in spring 2019.
Council is partnering with BVN Architects and Mirvac to develop the old Marrickville Hospital site and deliver the new Marrickville Library and community spaces, which has been named Patyegarang Place after Patyegarang (c 1780s), an Australian Aboriginal woman from the Cadigal people of the Eora nation.
The new library will also feature a dedicated youth space, quiet reading areas, study rooms and a place for the over 4,000 historic art books from the library collection.
Stage 1 EOI submissions close Friday, 7 June 2019 at 3pm. More information at www.innerwest.nsw.gov.au/LibraryWaterTankEOI.
A site tour will be held on Tuesday, 28 May 2019 at 11am for interested applicants. If you are attending the site tour you must register your attendance via email.
EOI submissions should be emailed to angela.hondros@innerwest.nsw.gov.au