Dr Robert Harland, Reader in Urban Graphic Heritage in the School of Design and Creative Arts at Loughborough University, has been awarded the University of South Australia, SIDA Foundation and The David Roche Foundation Curatorial Research Fellowship. The award is made to researchers and practitioners across all disciplines that seek to shape the future of design and creative arts research. Robert will spend six weeks in Adelaide between 2023–24. A project synopsis is as follows.
Adelaide’s graphic heritage: The quintessential contested colonial city
Through collaboration with the University of South Australia, the SIDA Foundation, and The David Roche Foundation collection, the project will provide opportunities to explore how decorative arts illuminate and substantiate the concept of graphic heritage as a representation of Adelaide’s past, present, and future.
It will explore how heritage interpretation is communicated through graphic images across various scales of the Adelaide city region. A graphic heritage perspective will be utilised to highlight the contested identity of Adelaide as a quintessential colonial city.
The aim is to establish the parameters for an auditing tool to provide an overview of the defining graphic heritage assets that determine and define the heritage places and spaces associated with Adelaide. A key objective is to explore how graphic heritage contributes to a shared domain for discourse and reconciliation that benefits all Australians.
Image: Looking west from King William Street down Currie Street in 1920 showing the Adelaide Steamship Company building and the White Horse Hotel as the smaller building at the end. Courtesy of the Image: Looking west from King William Street down Currie Street in 1920 showing the Adelaide Steamship Company building and the White Horse Hotel as the smaller building at the end. Courtesy of the State Library Catalogue Reference: B 30652