Botanic Gardens Trust, Sydney, Australia

Department of Environment and Climate Change NSW

What's new



Red Box Gallery

History

The Red Box Gallery, established in 2003, is located on Level 2 of the National Herbarium of NSW at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney. The gallery is accessed from the Botanic Gardens Trust Reception on Mrs Macquaries Road.

The Red Box Gallery is a professional exhibition space with a climate controlled environment and lighting to museum standards. All exhibitions mounted within the space have specific relevance to the botanical sciences, horticulture or the history of the Gardens’ site as the home of the Cadigal people and of first European settlement on the shores of Sydney Harbour.

The Red Box Gallery is a central and unifying space within the Brown Building. Linking Reception, the Botanical Information Service and the Herbarium through to Administration and Community Education in the Anderson Building, it forms a natural meeting point for staff and visitors. All official guests pass through gallery from Reception to the office of the Executive Director of the Gardens, Dr Tim Entwisle.

The establishment of the gallery was made possible with the generous bequest from the estate of former volunteer Nell Glenora Mackie. Nell, a member of the Friends of The Gardens since 1983, commenced her volunteer work in the National Herbarium of NSW on 17 October 1989. She carried out volunteer specimen mounting for 12 years until ill health forced her to retire in late 2001. She was the only daughter of well known Alexander Douglas Mackie and his wife Mary Eleanor Hall.

Gallery aims

The main aims of the gallery are to

  • promote the Trust’s scientific work by drawing scientists, artists and the broader public to the National Herbarium.
  • create an exciting and contemporary exhibition space to unify the various sections of the building and the gardens beyond.
  • enable the Trust to display the many historic and educational items from the Trust's collections e.g. the extensive Library and Herbarium collections (Banks and Solander and historic plant specimens) and the Banks’ Florilegium suite of original etchings.
  • mount exhibitions that promote the Trust’s scientific work.

Exhibitions

From its inception in 2003 to February 2009, the gallery has mounted 34 exhibitions and has reached an audience of greater than 20,000 people. The exhibition program from November 2003 until December 2009 is listed below.  

Red Box Gallery

Red-Box-Gallery

INDOOR MAP & RED BOX GALLERY
Location map

 

Exhibition      

 From To
Four Centuries Five Artists 19/11/03 27/02/04
2004 Margaret Flockton Award 15/03/04 02/07/04
Museums Light up Sydney 17/04/04 17/04/04
Discovering Explorers 09/08/04 29/10/04
Etienne Cohen* 07/11/04 21/11/04
Trust Staff Exhibition 05/12/04 24/12/04
Orchid Odyssey*  26/12/04 22/02/05
Panoramas Plants and People 07/02/05 29/05/05
Discovery after Dark 02/04/05 02/04/05
2005 Margaret Flockton Award 07/05/05 15/06/05 
plant + paper (Artist in Residence - Christopher Gentle) 18/07/05 12/08/05   
Beijing Botanicals* 15/08/05 07/09/05
Margaret Preston 10/09/05 09/10/05
Woodbine Art* 11/10/05 17/10/09  
Domain Trees* 19/10/05 08/11/05
Flora Tasmanica* 14/11/05 03/12/05
Our Hidden Talents - Trust Staff exhibition 05/12/05 21/12/05
Botanic Gardens Treasures 09/01/06 30/06/06
2006 Margaret Flockton Award 06/07/06 29/09/06
Botanic Gardens Treasures 09/09/06 24/11/06
Our Hidden Talents – Trust Staff exhibition 01/12/06 21/12/06
botanomancy - the secret garden (Artist in Residence - Gaye Chapman) 29/01/07 23/02/07
Heritage Week 03/03/07 11/03/07
2007 Margaret Flockton Award 15/03/07 15/06/07
Discovery after Dark 28/04/07 28/04/07
Carl Linnaeus 18th Century Scientist, 21st Century Legacy 25/06/07 31/08/07
Botanic Gardens Treasures 10/09/07 23/11/07
Our Hidden Talents – Trust Staff exhibition 03/12/07 21/12/07

photo-synthesis (aranzeria) (Artist in Residence - AnA Wojak)

11/02/08

26/03/08
2008 Margaret Flockton Award Exhibition 03/04/08 20/06/08
Replant 05/07/08 15/08/08
Florilegium - The Inaugural Exhibition September November
Our Hidden Collections - Trust Staff exhibition 01/12/08 19/12/08
Ascendant and Descendant (Artist in Residence - Emma Robertson) 19/02/09 27/03/09
Margaret Flockton Award Exhibition 10/04/09 17/07/09 
Darwin 01/08/09 24/11/09
Staff exhibition 30/11/09 18/12/09

*Denotes non Botanic Gardens Trust exhibition
Botanic Gardens Treasures - a changeable exhibition displaying items from the Trust’s collections.
Museums Light Up Sydney/Discovery after Dark - Annual opening of Sydney’s cultural institutions, promoted by the NSW Premiers Department.

^Back To Top