Merle Hathaway

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Merle Hathaway is an English-born Australian museum curator, exhibition curator, art advisor and project manager active since 1980, and former gallery director.

Early life and migration

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Merle Hathaway was born in 1948 to sewing machine sales representative Lucy (nee Simmons) and mechanical engineer Stanley Hathaway, in Wing, Buckinghamshire where the couple and first child Hazel had moved from Coventry, having survived the bombing of that city in World War II. From 1946–1951 they moved again to New Forest and Ringwood in Hampshire and later caravanned around the country while they awaited their successful application for the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme to emigrate to Australia.[1] They left England on 17 November, 1951 and arrived in New South Wales where they were housed in the migrant camp at Bathurst. The family then settled in Ballarat in a housing commission house until they bought land on which they stayed in a caravan until their house was built.[2] On their retirement Hathaway's parents moved after Merle to Buninyong, where her father died in 1990 and her mother in 2009.

Education and training

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Merle attended Wendouree Primary School, and Ballarat High School and, after her secondary schooling, studied art at the Ballarat School of Mines before taking sculpture in the Art and Design diploma at Prahran Technical College in 1969 for six months. Having married Michael Young, she then moved back to the Ballarat School of Mines to complete her diploma in 1973.[1] She then studied for a Diploma of Education at Hawthorn Teachers College and took up teaching. The Education Department seconded her as art consultant for the Central Highlands and Wimmera districts.[3]

Ballarat

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In the mid 1980s Hathaway coordinated Ballarat's inaugural Next Wave Festival. She then travelled to attend museum education conferences in Paris, Hamburg and London. She surveyed the education programs in Scandinavia, France, Germany and England of over 124 museums.[3] On return, with fellow Community Arts Officer the artist Paul Mason, Merle established Ballarat Arts Umbrella in 1989 in which she served as secretary. When the Arts Officer positions came under threat, and agitation to establish the Mining Exchange as an arts venue had failed. In 1990 they set up Artworks gallery in an old butchers shop in Humffray Street, rented to them for $44 per week, partly funded through Ballarat Arts Umbrella for which Merle also negotiated from the city council, with support from councillor Cath Laffey, a loan of $2,000 repayable over 3 years. Administration was managed by Sarah Sanders, Linda Blake and Anne Roberts and exhibitions were staged by artists including Jennifer Marshall, Dean Bowen, Daniel Moynihan, John Neeson, Rosemary Eagle, Kath Hardy, Loris Button and Rosalind Lawson.[4]

Hathaway was Ballarat Community Arts officer over five years until 1991,[5] during which time she ran a series of arts workshops for the over fifties, with groups convening to discuss the collection and join in practical sessions in various media,[6] wrote An Introductory Tour: Suggestions for Teachers (1988), A Walking Tour Near the Gallery (1990), provided both text and illustrations for Yarrowee Walk (1991), and coordinated the 1990 Ballarat Next Wave Youth Arts Festival.

In 1991 at the beginning of ten years part-time appointment as education officer at the Art Gallery of Ballarat,[7][8] Hathaway was active in the Ballarat Arts Industry Council Steering Committee, newly formed to advise and lobby local, State and Federal Governments and liaise with industry and the community. An emphasis was to support the arts in Ballarat by developing a Council policy and raise funds.[9] Toward this end Hathaway organised an auction of artworks and collectibles at the gallery in July 1991 in support of the Ballarat Arts Development Fund.[10]

Hathaway was curator/educator for the Dromkeen Children’s Literature Collection,[11] then Over 1993-4 Hathaway coordinated Arts in the Park in the Ballarat Botanic Gardens; curated a Ballarat Sculpture Festival; directed the Strategic Arts: Live Chess Game; established the Central Highlands Arts Register; and coordinated Days of Discovery with Ballarat Tourism.[3]

Exhibitions which Hathaway curated at the Ballarat Art Gallery included a schools project Maskarade (1989),[7] and Chris Nicholls' paintings (1997).[12]

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Hathaway was appointed to the Horsham Regional Art Gallery[13] in February 1995, became its Director in 1997, a position she continued until 2008 and was cofounder and Chair of Horsham Regional Arts Association.[14][15][16] At HRAG she instituted a regular newsletter,[17] and oversaw a program of exhibitions inclusive of artists in a wide range of disciplines,[18] including: six ceramicists in Painting in the Round (1995);[19] designer Richard Beck (20 March–21 April 1996);[20][21] the historical exhibition Getting Together (1997);[22] Time and timelessness in archival permanence: 100 years of Australian photography (7 February–16 March 1997);[23] painter Neil Douglas (1997);[24] Phiction: lies, illusion and the phantasm in photography (touring the collection to eleven Victorian venues);[25] Wimmera 2002: second national exhibition of photography (16 July– September 2002);[26] Joseph Brown (2007);[27] and photographer Charles Page;[28] won in 1995 a Local Government Award, Best Management of a Cultural Facility; and achieved Museum Accreditation status for the gallery, as only the second in Victoria, which enabled the gallery to receive loans of work from major institutions including the National Gallery of Australia.[29][30] A specialisation that Hathaway continued from the initiative of her predecessor Jean Davidson in the gallery's collecting, with the assistance of Joyce Evans, was photography, an imperative which persists after Hathaway moved on in 2008, so that gallery holds one of the more notable photography collections in Australia, and continues to exhibit work by significant Australian photographic artists[25][31][32][33]

Subsequently, Hathaway became Executive Officer of the Public Galleries Association of Victoria.[3]

Buninyong

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In 1974 Hathaway and her then husband Michael Young had purchased the 1850s bluestone brewery in Bunninyong, 12km from the centre of Ballarat. The Buninyong and District News of May 2003 recounts the history of the brewery, and notes:[34]

Michael and Merle Young, née Hathaway, on returning from a European working holiday, bought what remained of the Brewery and the adjoining land. Their first job was to build somewhere to live, which they did by making a derelict building in a comer of the grounds into a comfortable little cottage, while still finding time to gradually restore the Old Brewery Building. When Michael and Merle decided to go their separate ways, Merle stayed on and continued the good work.

With the building restored Merle, a constant supporter and frequent patron of the arts,[35] held a continuing program of public concerts of jazz, classical and traditional music, in several of which she also performs on wind instruments,[36][37][38][39] and participated in and led community activities and the Buninyong Festival, winning a prize in the 'Futuristic Fashion Competition' in the festival's 1987 iteration.[40]

On her return to live in Buninyong from her position at Horsham in 2010, in October Hathaway held a concert by two acapella groups, Damask from Melbourne, and Ballarat's Singers of the Black Book, and an instrumental group of recorder, guitar, and Northumbrian pipes performing music both contemporary and from the 10th century and Renaissance, to raise funds for Friends of Buninyong Botanic Gardens and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.[41]

Hathaway became involved in promoting tourism to Buninyong through its Progress Association, attending key meetings with Ballarat representatives in 2011.[42] In 2012 the Golden Plains Shire appointed Hathaway as Arts and Culture officer.[43][44] In 2016, Merle stood as an Independent in the local government elections.[45]

Recent activity

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Since 2010 Merle Hathaway, has volunteered with the Ballarat International Foto Biennale, and since 2017 with the Royal South Street Society, the Ballarat Soup Bus and the Art Advisory Council of Wildlife Art Museum Australia.[3] Operating her freelance business The Artist's Cat., she is commissioned to write submissions, media releases, catalogues and provides curatorial services for artists and artist's estates. Among her activities in this enterprise she has co-ordinated a retrospective of his photography by John Williams (2018, at Magnet Galleries),[46] and four exhibitions and two publications by her fellow alumni, the photography students of Prahran College, for the Prahran Legacy project team.[47][48]

Selected publications

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Books and catalogues

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  • Contributor to Dover, Barbara, ed. (1987). Art works. Curriculum Branch, Ministry of Education (Schools Division). ISBN 978-0-7241-7591-8.
  • Hathaway, Merle (1995). Painting in the round : the work of six Australian artists who use ceramics as a three-dimensional canvas for painting. Horsham Regional Art Gallery.
  • Beck, Richard; Hathaway, Merle (1996). Richard Beck : designer/photographer : the first survey of this important British/Australian Designer. Horsham Regional Art Gallery.
  • Hathaway, Merle; Horsham Art Gallery (1997). Getting together : the art of socialising in days gone by. Horsham Regional Art Gallery.
  • Brown, Joseph; Hathaway, Merle, (curator.), Merle; Morrison, Gordon (2007). Joseph Brown: the artist. Horsham Regional Art Gallery. OCLC 1038062046.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Page, Charles J.; Hathaway, Merle; Kirker, Anne (2007). Cross section : the documentary photography of Charles J. Page. C. Page. ISBN 978-0-9803148-1-6.
  • Douglas, Neil; Hathaway, Merle; Horsham Art Gallery (1997). Neil Douglas retrospective. Horsham Regional Art Gallery.
  • Hathaway, Merle; Nicholls, Chris (2013). Chris Nicholls: Landscapes of the mind. Art Gallery of Ballarat.
  • Hathaway, Merle; Cozzolino, Mimmo (2025). McArdle, James (ed.). Long Exposure : Legacy of Prahran College, (2025 Ballarat Foto Biennale) (1st ed.). Mimmo Cozzolino. ISBN 978-0-9872498-2-1.

Articles

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  • Hathaway, Merle (November 1994). "Dromkeen: an Australian gallery for children's book illustration". Orana. 30 (4): 268–273. ISSN 0045-6705. OCLC 9068961924.

Video

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Awards

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  • 2020: Distinguished Alumna, Federation University.[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Hathaway Family, Assisted English Migrants, 1951". Museums Victoria Collections. Retrieved 7 November 2025.
  2. ^ "Newspaper - 'The Ballarat News', Ballarat, 15 Apr 1983". Museums Victoria Collections. Retrieved 4 November 2025.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "HATHAWAY, Merle. 2020 Distinguished Alumna, Diploma of Art and Design, 1973". Federation University. 1 January 2021. Retrieved 7 November 2025.
  4. ^ Lawson, Rosalind (2010). "Artist Run Spaces 1985 to 2010". Ballarat Arts Alive. Retrieved 7 November 2025.
  5. ^ Buninyong & District Community Association (August 1990). Newspaper Celebrities. Buninyong, Vic.: Buningyong and District Community News. Retrieved 7 November 2025 – via Trove.
  6. ^ Buninyong & District Community Association (November 1991). "Buninyong and district community news". Buningyong and District Community News (159). Buninyong, Vic.: Buninyong & District Community Association. Retrieved 6 November 2025 – via Trove.
  7. ^ a b "Newspaper Celebrities". Buningyong and District Community News (132). Buninyong, Vic.: Buninyong & District Community Association. June 1989. Retrieved 7 November 2025 – via Trove.
  8. ^ Buninyong & District Community Association (December 1989). "Newspaper Celebrities". Buninyong and District Community News. (138). Buninyong, Vic.: Buninyong & District Community Association. Retrieved 6 November 2025 – via Trove.
  9. ^ Buninyong & District Community Association (March 1991). "Newspaper Celebrities". Buningyong and District Community News (151). [Buninyong, Vic.]: Buninyong & District Community Association. Retrieved 6 November 2025 – via Trove.
  10. ^ Buninyong & District Community Association (July 1991). "Newspaper Celebrities". Buninyong and District Community News (155). Buninyong, Vic.: Buninyong & District Community Association. Retrieved 7 November 2025 – via Trove.
  11. ^ Hathaway, Merle (November 1994). "Dromkeen: an Australian gallery for children's book illustration". Orana (30). ISSN 0045-6705. OCLC 9068961924.
  12. ^ Nicholls, Chris; Hathaway, Merle (2013). Chris Nicholls: Landscapes of the mind. Art Gellery of Ballarat. Retrieved 7 November 2025.
  13. ^ International Directory of Arts 2012 (36th ed.). Berlin: De Gruyter. 2012. p. 24. ISBN 978-3-11-023488-6.
  14. ^ Buninyong & District Community Association (1 December 1997). "Merle Hathaway Now Director Of The Horsham Art Gallery". Buninyong and District Community News (226). Buningyong and District Community News: 11.
  15. ^ Lochar, Ruth; Toma, Hildegard; Meinhold, Alexandra (2011). Museums of the world (18th ed.). Berlin: De Gruyter Saur. p. 23. ISBN 978-3-11-023485-5.
  16. ^ Mulligan, Martin; Smith, Pia (September 2007). The Case For A Regional Arts Development Officer Network In Victoria: An evaluation of the Regional Cultural Partnership Program of Regional Arts Victoria. Melbourne: The Globalism Institute, RMIT University. p. 11.
  17. ^ Horsham Art Gallery & Horsham Regional Art Gallery (July 1997). "Gallery news". Horsham Art Gallery News. 8 (6).
  18. ^ Papas, Kath (June 2006). "'Why Horsham?': Creating Connections to Community". Dance Forum. 16 (2). Australian Dance Council Ausdance Inc: 12–13. ISSN 1328-3308.
  19. ^ Hathaway, Merle (1995). Painting in the round : the work of six Australian artists who use ceramics as a three-dimensional canvas for painting. Horsham Regional Art Gallery. Retrieved 4 November 2025.
  20. ^ Beck, Richard; Hathaway, Merle (1996). Richard Beck : designer/photographer : the first survey of this important British/Australian Designer. Horsham Regional Art Gallery. Retrieved 4 November 2025.
  21. ^ Hughson, J. (1 August 2012). "An Invitation to 'Modern' Melbourne: The Historical Significance of Richard Beck's Olympic Poster Design". Journal of Design History. 25 (3): 268–284. doi:10.1093/jdh/eps022. ISSN 0952-4649.
  22. ^ Hathaway, Merle; Horsham Art Gallery (1997), Getting together : the art of socialising in days gone by, Horsham Regional Art Gallery, retrieved 6 November 2025
  23. ^ Van Wyk, Susan; Newton, Gael; Dziekan, Vince; Horsham Art Gallery; Albury Regional Art Centre, (host institution.); Geelong Art Gallery; Waverley City Gallery (1996). Archival permanence : Time and timelessness in 100 years of Australian photography. Geelong Art Gallery. ISBN 978-1-875237-19-7.
  24. ^ Douglas, Neil; Hathaway, Merle; Horsham Art Gallery (1997). Neil Douglas retrospective. Horsham Regional Art Gallery. Retrieved 6 November 2025.
  25. ^ a b McArdle, James; Herbst, Monique; Horsham Regional Art Gallery (2001). Phiction : lies, illusion and the phantasm in photography. Horsham Regional Art Gallery. ISBN 978-0-9579962-1-2.
  26. ^ Horsham Regional Art Gallery (July 2002). Wimmera 2002 : second national exhibition of photography, Horsham Regional Art Gallery, July 16 - September 8, 2002. Horsham, Vic: Horsham Regional Art Gallery.
  27. ^ Brown, Joseph; Hathaway, Merle, (curator.), Merle; Morrison, Gordon (2007). Joseph Brown: the artist. Horsham Regional Art Gallery. OCLC 1038062046. Retrieved 4 November 2025.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  28. ^ Page, Charles J.; Hathaway, Merle; Kirker, Anne (2007). Cross section : the documentary photography of Charles J. Page. C. Page. ISBN 978-0-9803148-1-6.
  29. ^ "APPENDIX 9 Loans". Annual Report. Parliamentary paper (Australia. Parliament) (2002/2003, PP no. 250 of 2003). Canberra: National Gallery of Australia: 153. 19 September 2003. ISSN 1323-5192. Retrieved 7 November 2025 – via Trove.
  30. ^ "Appendix 9 (I) Outward Loans to Exhibitions—Australia". National Gallery of Australia Annual Report. Parliamentary paper (Australia. Parliament) (2003/2004, PP no. 243 of 2004). Canberra: National Gallery of Australia: 171. 17 September 2004. ISSN 1323-5192.
  31. ^ Hawkes, Ponch; Miles, Melissa; Horsham Regional Art Gallery (July 2009). Ponch Hawkes : seeing is not understanding : Horsham Regional Gallery 4 July-24 August 2009. Horsham, Vic.: Horsham Regional Art Gallery (published 2009). Retrieved 7 November 2025.
  32. ^ Poloni, Olivia; Horsham Regional Art Gallery (2019). In her words : a Horsham Regional Art Gallery and NETS Victoria exhibition. Horsham Regional Art Gallery. ISBN 978-0-9579962-4-3.
  33. ^ Eggleton, Alison (2024). Mapping Curatorial Discourse: Positioning Southeast Asian Women Photographers in Australian Galleries. RMIT Research Repository (Thesis). pp. 3725037 Bytes. doi:10.25439/RMT.27676959.
  34. ^ Buninyong & District Community Association (May 2003). "Old Brewery Restored and Hosts a Musical Millenium". Buninyong & District Community News (285). Buninyong, Vic.: Buningyong and District Community News. Retrieved 6 November 2025 – via Trove.
  35. ^ Gott, Ted; National Gallery of Victoria, eds. (2009). Salvador Dalí: liquid desire. Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria. p. 326. ISBN 978-0-7241-0308-9.
  36. ^ Buninyong & District Community Association (April 1987). "Shire Identities Prominent in the Ballarat Court Musicians". Buninyong and District Community News (108). Buninyong, Vic.: Buningyong and District Community News. Retrieved 7 November 2025 – via Trove.
  37. ^ Buninyong & District Community Association (April 1990). "News About Town". Buninyong and District Community News. (Edition 141). Buninyong: Buningyong and District Community News. Retrieved 6 November 2025 – via Trove.
  38. ^ Buninyong & District Community Association (July 2005). "The Buninyong Old Brewery Restored". Buninyong and District Community News. (309). Buninyong: Buningyong and District Community News. Retrieved 6 November 2025 – via Trove.
  39. ^ Buninyong & District Community Association, issuing body (1 March 2012). "March will be a busy time at the Brewery, with 2 major events (1 March 2012)". Buninyong and District Community News (Edition 382). Buningyong and District Community News: 4.
  40. ^ Buninyong & District Community Association (March 1987). "Buninyong Festival 1987". Buninyong & District Community News (107). Buninyong, Vic.: Buningyong and District Community News. Retrieved 6 November 2025 – via Trove.
  41. ^ Buninyong & District Community Association, issuing body. (October 2010). "Get into Spring at Buninyong Brewery". Buninyong and District Community News. (367). Buninyong: Buningyong and District Community News: 5. Retrieved 6 November 2025 – via Trove.
  42. ^ Buninyong & District Community Association, issuing body. (August 2011). "Local Tourism To Take Leap Forward". Buninyong and District Community News. (376). Buninyong, Vic.: Buningyong and District Community News: 1. Retrieved 6 November 2025 – via Trove.
  43. ^ Buninyong & District Community Association, issuing body. (July 2012). "New Arts & Culture Officer". Buninyong and District Community News. (386). Buninyong: Buningyong and District Community News: 10. Retrieved 6 November 2025 – via Trove.
  44. ^ "Merle Hathaway and 'Wind Through the Trees' (photograph)". Golden Plains Miner. 5 July 2012. p. 8.
  45. ^ Cunningham, Melissa (13 September 2016). "Hathaway to stand in election". The Courier. Ballarat.
  46. ^ "'My last 60 years on the streets: John Williams Retrospective (1933 - 2016)'". Art Blart _ art and cultural memory archive. 29 June 2018. Retrieved 7 November 2025.
  47. ^ Museum of Australian Photography (2025). The Basement: Photography from Prahran College (1968–1981). Melbourne: Museum of Australian Photography. p. 7. ISBN 9781876764883.
  48. ^ Hathaway, Merle; Cozzolino, Mimmo (2025). "Herding Cats". In McArdle, James (ed.). Long Exposure: Legacy of Prahran College, (2025 Ballarat Foto Biennale) (1st ed.). Melbourne: Mimmo Cozzolino. pp. 6–7. ISBN 978-0-9872498-2-1.