Ballarat Heritage Festival 2025

Selected highlights from the final two days of the Ballarat Heritage Festival on Saturday, May 24 and Sunday, May 25.  

Predominantly featured are local legends, the Ballarat People Who Promenade, of which, by virtue of a Royal Decree from HRH Queen Victoria (Megan Finlayson, pictured below, right) Shane Jones (pictured above) and I (pictured top) are loyal members. 

Incidentally, my fine designer hat, which dates from the 1940s, was inherited from my late aunt, Ballarat-born Eileen Klein. The fob watch pinned to my coat (not clearly shown in most photos) belonged to my aunt too. Shane’s antique walking stick was also passed down from the Klein family. Very possibly it was originally purchased in Ballarat.

Traditionally the Promenaders meet at the statue of Queen Victoria in Sturt Street. There we toast Her Royal Highness on the occasion of her birthday, which falls on May 24. This year she turned 206. Happy Birthday, Queen Victoria!

From here we promenaded to the Old Colonists Club for afternoon tea, followed by a leisurely stroll to Ballarat Railway Station, a short walk away.

Thank you, HRH Megan and Stationmaster Bryan Putt for inviting us to join your merry band. We had a ball and can’t wait to do it again next year. 

Ballarat Heritage Festival 2024

Unsolved Histories, my solo exhibition currently on view at the Old Butchers Shop Gallery, is an official Ballarat Heritage Festival event.

Ballarat’s renowned Heritage Festival opens this coming weekend, on Saturday 18 May. For those who are planning to include the exhibition in your itinerary - and I really hope you will - here is a little about what you will find.

The Rückenfigur, or rear view figure, has occupied a central position in my work since the turn of the last century. The motif has figured in every medium throughout the history of art, but arguably is most closely associated with the work of nineteenth century German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich. Victorian mourning and sentimental jewellery, Early and High Renaissance art, Elizabethan portrait miniatures, the films of Alfred Hitchcock and surrealist paintings of Rene Magritte are among the disparate influences infiltrating these works. Unsolved Histories charts a course through selected paintings, prints and drawings created over the past last six years, uncovering a link to my own familial connection to Ballarat.

Continue scrolling for additional installation views and to learn about the evolution of the Old Butchers Shop Gallery. Situated in historic Soldiers Hill, it has a heritage all its own. 

For further information about Unsolved Histories and the Old Butchers Shop Gallery, visit the Ballarat Heritage Festival site here:

https://ballaratheritagefestival.com.au/explore/unsolved-histories-exhibition-by-deborah-klein-ballarat-heritage-festival

Unsolved Histories

The Old Butchers Shop Gallery

112 Seymour Street

Soldiers Hill, Ballarat VIC 3350

The gallery is open from 12-4 pm on Saturdays and Sundays - 18-19 May and 25-26 May - or by appointment. I’ll be there on all of these days and look forward to welcoming you. 

Photo credit for image 1: Julie Bennett;

Photo credit for images 4 and 7 from top: Jimmy Pasakos;

The rest are by me.

Coming event: UNSOLVED HISTORIES at Ballarat Heritage Festival 2024

Delighted to see UNSOLVED HISTORIES, my upcoming solo exhibition at the Old Butchers Shop Gallery, listed on the Ballarat Heritage Festival website. I’m always excited for this time of year in Ballarat and doubly so to be part of it.

The link to the Ballarat Heritage Festival 2024 program is here: https://ballaratheritagefestival.com.au

To preview selected works and learn more about UNSOLVED HISTORIES, go here: https://ballaratheritagefestival.com.au/explore/exhibition-by-deborah-klein

Pictured top, L-R: 

Primavera ll, 2021, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 37.5 x 15 cm and Wayfarer, 2021, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 37.5 x 15 cm. Part of UNSOLVED HISTORIES at the Old Butchers Shop Gallery, 112 Seymour Street, Soldiers Hill, Ballarat, VIC, 3350, 4-26 May 2024.

UNSOLVED HISTORIES (Save the date)

It was a lovely surprise to discover this listing in the Autumn Issue of Best of Ballarat in our local cafe this afternoon. Do save the date:

4-26 MAY
DEBORAH KLEIN
UNSOLVED HISTORIES

Deborah Klein’s iconic ‘rear view portraits’ allude to the countless women who have fallen through the cracks of history. Her latest solo exhibition marks the first time this body of paintings and works on paper, created over the last 6 years, has been exhibited in Ballarat. 

Old Butchers Shop Gallery 
112 Seymour Street
Open weekends 12-4 pm or by appointment. 

The exhibition runs in conjunction with Ballarat Heritage Festival 2024.

BALLARAT HERITAGE FESTIVAL 2023

 

The Ballarat Heritage Festival is my favourite time of year in this corner of the world. Here are a handful of personal highlights from the past weekend, culled from many and posted in no particular order. Pictured above: the Ballarat Vintage and Classic Car Club in Lydiard Street directly across from the Art Gallery of Ballarat.

Directly following:

A fascinating and illuminating tour of the joint exhibitions Pre-Raphaelites Drawings and Watercolours and In the Company of Morris at the Art Gallery of Ballarat led by AGB Gallery Director, Louise Tegart:

Master weaver Tim Gresham and his tapestries at Craft Lab 23 in the Ballarat Mining Exchange in Lydiard Street. Pictured L-R: Shane Jones, Annie Drum, Carole Wilson and Tim Gresham:

The Music of Images, a wonderful concert in the elegant Oddie Gallery at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. Led by composer and pianist Richard Chew, the Inscape Piano Trio performed a series of pieces centred around P.R.B., a new work created to mark the opening of the Pre-Raphaelites exhibition:

The Fops from legendary theatre group, Born in a Taxi and vintage motorcycles spanning the centuries in Lydiard Street:

Vintage cars in Lydiard Street North:

Pauline O’Shannessy-Dowling at work in her studio at The Lost Ones Makers Studios in Camp Street:

Rocket and Belle in nearby Mair Street is always worth a visit. Leah’s amazing installation of vintage objects created especially for the Heritage Festival is highly recommended:

Shane and and I were delighted that The Pacific Belles have returned to the Ballarat Heritage Festival. They are primarily inspired by the Andrews Sisters, although Dot, Betty and Mabel (their stage names) are superlative performers in their own right:

We love their work and were thrilled to meet them after their final performance this afternoon. We do hope they’ll be back again next year. 

Photo credit for above shot: Sue Clarke. 

We’ve enjoyed every minute of this year’s festival and it’s not over yet. The Ballarat Heritage Festival continues to Sunday, May 28.