#neilson's

[roentarre]

Desert assorted at Neilson's

Traralgon Neilson's

[roentarre]

Desert assorted at Neilson's

Traralgon Neilson's

[usnewsplus-blog]

City of Sydney set to approve Judith Neilson's $32 million answer to MONA

City of Sydney set to approve Judith Neilson's $32 million answer to MONA

An artist’s impression of the proposed $32 million cultural facility for Chippendale set to be approved by the City of Sydney council. Photo: City of Sydney

Moscow models: Judith Neilson and Penelope Seidler appear in AES+F art project

Sydney is one step closer towards building its own MONA, with the City of Sydney council set to approve a $32 million gallery and performance space in Chippendale.

A development application submitted by billionaire arts philanthropist Judith Neilson, who owns the nearby White Rabbit Gallery, involves the construction of an art gallery and performance space separated by a garden. Two apartments for visiting artists are also planned for the site at 37-49 O’Connor Street, Chippendale.

The site of Judith Neilson’s proposed arts facility in Chippendale is currently occupied by a derelict warehouse. Photo: Sahlan Hayes

When Ms Neilson’s latest cultural facility is constructed, she will have spent more on arts spaces than the $70 million it reportedly cost the flamboyant David Walsh to build Australia’s biggest private art gallery, the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart.

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"It already is more," she told the Australian Financial Review in March of her comparative contribution. "It already is way beyond it."

The site of Ms Neilson’s cultural facility, which the AFR reported would be called Phoenix, is currently occupied by a vacant fire-damaged, partially demolished two and three-storey warehouse, according to the development application lodged with the City of Sydney.

Arts philanthropist Judith Neilson at her White Rabbit Gallery. Photo: Peter Braig

The proposed facility lives up to its name by rising above the terraces and warehouses of Chippendale – exceeding height limits with the approval of council planners.

But it will also be subterranean with three basement levels containing a car park, backstage facilities and part of the gallery.

The gallery and theatre space will be permitted to operate from 10am to 10pm seven days a week, with a maximum of 260 people allowed inside the facility at any given time.

A cross-section of Judith Neilson’s $32 million gallery and performance space in Chippendale. Photo: City of Sydney

Ms Neilson has said the facility was inspired by a realisation that the visual arts were merging with the performing arts.

"The visual arts have moved off the wall, and become very interlinked with performing arts," she told the AFR. "You can see it, it’s happening everywhere. And I don’t think there’s any going back."

Ms Neilson may not attract headlines like the flamboyant owner of MONA, but she is one of Australia’s most generous philanthropists, donating $10 million to the University of NSW’s Faculty of the Built Environment in January.

A garden designed by artist Janet Laurence will link the gallery to a performance space in Judith Neilson’s proposed Phoenix cultural facility. Photo: City of Sydney

The Zimbabwean-born art collector and philanthropist is the founding director of White Rabbit Gallery, which holds the largest collection of post-2000 contemporary Chinese art outside of China.

A portrait of Ms Neilson painted by Jiawei Shen, How to explain art with a white rabbit, is featured in this year’s Archibald Prize exhibition.

Ms Neilson became Australia’s second-richest woman in 2007 after her former husband, Kerr, floated part of his company Platinum Asset Management on the stock exchange.

At the time, the mother-of-two and qualified graphic designer’s personal fortune was estimated at $1.25 billion.

A team of architects will create Ms Neilson’s cultural centre, with the gallery designed by John Wardle Architects and occupying the eastern wing, while the performance space will be designed by Durbach Block Jaggers. They will be linked by a garden designed by conceptual artist Janet Laurence. Specialty furniture and joinery in the complex will be created by designer Khai Liew.

Ms Neilson’s building plans have been recommended for approval by the council’s director of city planning, Graham Jahn, and will be considered by the council’s planning and development committee on August 4.

As part of winning consent, Ms Neilson is required to contribute almost $48,000 to the council to improve public facilities.

http://usnewsplus.com/2015/07/28/city-of-sydney-set-to-approve-judith-neilsons-32-million-answer-to-mona/

[newberrylibrary]

Ephemera Phriday in...Trade Card Tramp

From the 1870s on, trade cards (the ancestors of the modern-day “trading card”) could be found in the packaging of many mass-produced products. Whether they were included in packs of cigarettes, packs of bubble-gum, or chocolate bars (as the trade card above was), trade cards were popular collectible items, and efficient forms of advertising.

The trade card above is one in a series of 120 manufactured for the Canadian dairy/candy company Neilson’s. They portray "Movie Actors and Actresses in their famous characters," as the card proudly proclaims. This card features Charlie Chaplin as the two main characters of the film The Idle Class. One is an upscale businessman, and the other is his famous Tramp, for whom, over the course of the film, the businessman is often confused (hilarity ensues!).

Happy Ephemera Phriday!

[newberryprinting]

In the late 19th century, many businesses began advertising by issuing advertising cards. These cards feature an advertisement for a product or service as well as an attractive image, which often did not have anything directly to do with the product. Since printed images (and especially color prints) were relatively expensive for the general population, people would collect the free cards to use as decorations or to put in scrapbooks. 

The trade cards above advertise Neilson’s chocolate bars on one side, but feature photos of film stars on the other. They were issued by the Chicago-based Max B. Sheffer Card Company. Often abbreviated M.B.S.C., the company was well-known for its collectible postcards of silent film stars. The advertising cards pictured here are not dated, but the Mary Miles Minter card was likely printed before 1923. Her career ended following the 1922 murder of Hollywood director William Desmond Taylor. Love letters from Minter to Taylor were found in his home and the press implicated the young actress’s mother in his murder, ruining the family’s reputation.

Newberry call number: Wing Ephemera File, Max B.Sheffer Card Company 

[theoxfordman-blog]

There Will Be Bucks

Plain white bucks.

The Oxford Man takes to heart the old adage that a man can be judged by his shoes. He keeps his loafers clean and polished, and thinks when it comes to shoes, it is OK to spend a little more for quality's sake. But occasionally he stumbles upon a bargain, as he did with a pair of white bucks this week.

We will save these shoes for after Easter, of course. (Laced to the Oxford Man's feet at this moment are what we in Oxford call "Duck Boots," the all-weather boot sold by L.L. Bean. Forgive us for going on this tangent but the Oxford Man must mention that when he was a student at Ole Miss, the style during rainy, wintry weather was a London Fog-style trench coat, crew-neck sweater and Duck Boots with our khakis or jeans tucked into the boots. We do not see Duck Boots on campus that often among the student population these days, but we still wear them.)

We wish to focus not on Duck Boots, but on white bucks. We have owned a few pairs of white bucks in our time. The Oxford Man purchased his first pair of bucks from Church Shoes in New Orleans, when he was a freshman at Ole Miss. We saw more white bucks back then than we do now. These shoes will not stay white, though we will make an early attempt to keep them so. We remember years ago when we brought our bucks and our other shoes to Wiley's Shoe Shop, which used to exist on the Square. Eventually our white shoes would become too worn for even Mr. Wiley to bring back; this was perfectly fine, as we would then wear the hell out of them without socks and with shorts, through the end of the summer. (When they are still new and clean, we wear them with with long pants, and with socks, for this is Oxford, not Charleston. Put on some socks.)

After he left Oxford and Ole Miss, the Oxford Man didn't wear white bucks, and didn't plan to resume doing so. But we are again an Oxford Man, and earlier this week, we bought a new pair at Neilson's. We must explain Neilson's, the department store on the Square, lives by the notion that quality outlasts price, hence its reluctance to mark down clothing or carry low-quality merchandise. This strategy has served the store well, as it has last as the oldest store in the South. It began operations in 1839 and only closed during the Civil War; the store founder William Smith Neilson had the wisdom to convert his savings and other holdings into gold before the war, so the story goes, which he buried beneath his garden. He was able to quickly resume operations after the war, while other shop owners went bankrupt. 

But the store does have a few sales, to clear out seasonal merchandise. Oxonians highly anticipate the progressive sale held just after Christmas. This sale extends into February, and it ends when it ends (I believe this weekend).

Back to the white bucks. Neilson's doesn't stock very many men's shoes, but the ones it does carry are of good quality — Cole Haan, Clark's, etc. The store also has a store-brand shoe. The white bucks we found were the store brand, which are equivalent to, say, Florsheim. We didn't seek out this new pair of white bucks — it found us. There the box was, at the bottom of the sale rack, the only pair of its kind, in the Oxford Man's size. 

Surely, this was meant to be. We paid a little over $40 for the shoes, which were originally $125. These are the plain bucks with the classic, reddish sole; the store is now carrying a more expensive, and very nice, perforated white buck with a brown leather sole.

We think this was karma. Our new white bucks are in the closet, and we can now look forward to Easter. That's when the white comes out. You may see us in our bucks. Oxford, in the spring, is the best place and time to wear them.