Cate Blanchett Is Turning an Old Cottage Into a Gallery for Her Art Collection But It Will Have to Share Space With Some Endangered Bats
The collector and actress is believed to own artworks by Guan Wei, Paula Rego, and Howard Hodgkin, among others.
Manifesto (2015). Courtesy of the artist and ACMI, Melbourne.
Actress Cate Blanchett wanted to build a space on the grounds of her estate in East Sussex to showcase her impressive collection of contemporary art, but she ran into a problem: The gallery may have to share room with a colony of bats. Maybe some ghosts, too.
Upon submitting plans for the new building last year, which would have seen the two-time Oscar winner knock down a decrepit cottage and shed on the land, surveyors discovered droppings from pipistrelle and brown long-eared bats roosting in the garrets. Because the animals are a protected species, Blanchett is barred from razing the structures without a special license from Natural England.
In 1958, when the young Daniel Thomas was first appointed at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the word “curator” was not in the Public Service Board lexicon. He felt his official title of “professional assistant” was inaccurate so he signed his letters “curatorial assistant”.
In time, the bureaucracy adopted his language and the term is still used to describe the entry level curatorial position for new graduates.
The years I spent working for Thomas as a curatorial assistant in the 1970s transformed my understanding of what art can do. His generous pedantry means that even now I sometimes hear his voice in my ear, questioning the precise meaning of a word I want to use.