Image: Installation views, Who’s Afraid of Public Space?, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2021. Photography Andrew Curtis. Commissioned by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne.


Who's Afraid of Public Space - Reading Space: The Common Room



Listen: Distributuion Forum Series
From December 2021-March 2022 MAL collaborated with the designers Nicola Cortese, Lauren Crockett and Stephanie Pahnis on their commission Reading Space: The Common Room for the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art's (ACCA) summer exhibitionWho's Afraid of Public Space. Read more about the exhibition here.For this collaboration, MAL contributed resources to the library space and ran a series of three workshops and three forums.

What power dynamics are at play in the distribution of information? How democratic is collective knowledge? And how are individuals and collectives disrupting the flow of information?

The Distribution forum series prods, unravels, makes-visible, and excites non-mainstream ways of information sharing. Engaging publishers, editors, and alternative institutions, the series explores active projects in Naarm/Melbourne that question the traditional flow of information.


Listen: #1 Introduction to Art Librarianship

Nell Fraser (MAL) and Romany Manuell (Monash University) unpack the role of the contemporary art librarian.

Listen: #2 Alternative Collections

Caroline Phillips (Womens Art Register), Nick Henderson (Australian Queer Archives), and Nell Fraser (MAL) discuss the role and importance of independent archive collections.

Listen: #3 Publishing Art Serials

Spiros Panigirakis (Un Projects), Jack Murray (Caliper Journal), and Andrew Copolov (MAL) discuss the power of editing and publishing art and design journals.



12pm-5pm, Thursday-Sunday

Melbourne Art Library, Naarm
Testing Grounds Emporium,
438 Queen St,
Naarm / Melbourne VIC 3000
We acknowledge the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the traditional owners of the land on which we operate, and respect their enduring connection to country. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

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