SALLY GRAY | Exhibitions Manager, State Library of NEW SOUTH WALES
Dr Sally Gray is a creative thinker whose self-crafted career has been independent and inventive. She is currently a writer, curator, artist, concept developer and creative producer with projects realised, nationally and internationally, under the umbrella of the arts consultancy she founded in May 1994.
Sally, Gray, Sydney, Artist, Curator
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Exhibitions Manager, State Library of NEW SOUTH WALES

Exhibitions Manager, State Library of NEW SOUTH WALES

Sally Gray at the State Library

As Sally Gray says “Its not about celebration or fabrication of our identity. It’s about the investigation of it. Its about our readiness to come to grips with ourselves in a critical and analytical way.

 

 Sam North (1993)  “The Green and Golden Years”, Good Weekend Sydney Morning Herald pp52-55

As Exhibitions Program Manager at the State Library Sally Gray made an outstanding contribution to the cultural profile of this institution. Her energy, intelligence and creativity brought freshness to the content, presentation and management of each of the Library’s exhibition projects. The exhibitions she directed attracted large audiences and were widely written about and discussed by arts journalists, museum professionals and the general public.

Margy Burn – Mitchell Librarian 1994

 

In 1990 Sally Gray became the inaugural Exhibitions Program Manager at the State Library of New South Wales. In that role, she wrote a new Exhibitions Policy – introducing a focused program for the Library’s purpose-designed galleries. Between 1990 and 1994 she led an exhibitions team in projects interrogating Australian history – through the significant pictorial and documentary materials contained within the famed Mitchell Library collection of Australiana.

 

Sally GrayCuratorial and design director for the following exhibitions:

  • Faith Hope and Construction- Australian Contemporary Architecture, March – August 1994
  • Sydney Harbour – David Moore 50 years of Photography, October 1993- February 1994
  • Right Time Right Place: Lewis Morley Photographs from 1960 to 1992, May- August 1993
  • Australians and Sport: The State of Play, Nov 1992- April 1993
  • Faces of Australia: Image Reality and the Portrait 1788 – 1992, May – July 1992
  • Sydney Exposures: The Photographic Studio of Sam Hood 1925-1950, Dec 1991 – April 1992
  • Mutiny on the Bounty Feb – July 1991[also toured to Museum of Queensland]
  • Black and White Artists Exhibition, annually from 1991 to 1994
  • A Chinese Australian Experience: The Life of William J. Liu, Sept 1993 – April 1994
  • Hearts and Minds: Australian Political Posters of the 1970s and 1980s, Feb- April 1993
  • Picture This: Children’s Book Illustration from Concept to Printed Page, April -July 1992
  • Framing the Famous: Australian Writers and Screen Directors Photographed by Reece Scannell, Aug – Oct 1991
  • George Gittoes: Heavy Industry, June-July 1991
  • Max Dupain: Sydney Nostalgia, Mar -May 1991

 

Reviews

Janet Hawley (1991) “Mutiny Under Scrutiny”, Good Weekend, Sydney Morning Herald, 16 Feb 1991 pp14-17
Geraldine O’Brien (1991) “Legend Lives on for Bligh Descendants”, Sydney Morning Herald 
Fiona Kennedy (1991) “Mutinous Curators Back Bligh”, The Australian, Feb 27 1991
Sasha Grishin (1991) “Behind the Scenes in a Disturbing Tribute to Workers”, The Canberra Times, June 12 1991
David Moore (1991) Review of “Max Dupain: Sydney Nostalgia 1930-1970”, Sydney Review April 1991 pp8-9
Sasha Grishin (1992) “A Milestone Show of Portraiture” Canberra Times 30 May 1992
Joanna Mendelsohn (1992) “Reassessing the Past: Image Reality and the Nature of Portraiture”, The Bulletin, June 23, 1992 p103
 Michel Bogle (1992) “Australian Portraiture”, The Sydney Review, June 1992 pp6-7
Peter Timms (1992) “Towards a National identity” Art Monthly Australia pp3-5
Gary Wotherspoon (1992) “Facing the Past”, The Australian Magazine, May 16-17 1992
Richard Cashman (1992) “Sport Scores at Last” Museum National magazine Dec 1992
Christine France (1992) “Face Value: Portraits of a National Identity”, The Australian, July 4 1992
Peter Cochrane (1992) “Bondi Beach Boys Regroup on a Wave of Nostalgia”, Sydney Morning Herald, Jan 18 1992
Stephen Matchett (1992) “Candid Records of a Forgotten Sydney”, The Australian, Jan 22 1992 p18
Kathy Evans (1992) “Sydney Exposures The Photographic Studio of Sam Hood 1925-50”, Public History Review, Vol 1 1992 p189
Robert McFarlane (1993) “Sixties Fame In Frame”, Sydney Morning Herald, May 22 1993 p47
Murray Waldren (1993) “Frames of reference: David Moore’s Fifty Years in Photography”, The Australian Magazine, Oct/Nov 1993 pp10-16
Sam North “The Green and Golden Years”, Good Weekend Sydney Morning Herald pp52-55
Sally Gray and Graham Jahn (1994) “People Place Object: A Thrichotomy of an Exhibition”, Architectural Review, Winter 1994, p72

 

Image Credits

Top left: Sally Gray with artist Colin Lanceley at the 1993 opening of ‘Right Time, Right Place: Lewis Morley Photographs from 1960-1992’.
Photo: Lewis Morley
Top right: Sally Gray in 1992 in her State Library office working on the exhibition ‘Right Time, Right Place: Lewis Morley Photographs from 1960-1992’.
Photo: Lewis Morley
Above left: Sally Gray at the opening of ‘Faces of Australia: Image Reality and the Portrait’, State Library of NSW, 1991.
Photo: Scott Wajon
Above right: Sally Gray in the art store at State Library of NSW, 1991.
Photo: Scott Wajon
Below right: Poster for ‘Faces of Australia: Image Reality and the Portrait’.
Design: Michael Donohue

Related projects

State Library of New South Wales Sydney

1990 – 1994