Building the building

Building the building, a visually engaging display that traces the history of CDU over the past fifty years. The display is in the new Charles Darwin University city campus, Danala | Education and Community Precinct (ECP), in the heart of the city of Darwin.

The display includes more than ninety photographs, news clippings, drone photographs of the building during construction, as well as rarely seen recorded interviews and archival footage of key historical events. One of these is a home-video of the unveiling of the original Casuarina campus by HRH Prince Philip on 10 March 1974, just months before Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin and destroyed most of the newly constructed campus buildings.

The display in the main gallery has been put together by nationally recognised curator, researcher and writer, Janet Parfenovics who now lives and works in Darwin. Parfenovics describes the display as a pictorial journey that captures key moments in the history of the University, primarily through photographs from the CDU Library and archival collections.

Building the building includes a display that showcases aspects of the CDU Art Collection and Art Gallery in the adjoining Annexe Gallery space.  

Curated by Gallery Curator Joanna Barrkman, it includes a selection of exhibition posters from forty-five exhibitions presented by the CDU Art Gallery since 2009. It also includes a slide presentation of selected works from the CDU Art Collection which comprises more than 3,600 works by artists who live and/or work in, or have cultural connection to the Northern Territory, and nearby regions of Kimberley in Western Australia, Far North Queensland, Indonesia and Timor Leste.

To mark the opening of Danala | Education and Community Precinct and the opening display, the Gallery has commissioned local artist, Franck Gohier, to create a limited-edition screen print, with copies available for sale through the Gallery Shop.