The Museum of Old and New Art (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Old_and_New_Art) opened in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia in 2011. With a name like that, MONA (https://mona.net.au/) could include any type of art. But looking at the collection, it’s clear that its creator, millionaire gambler David Walsh (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Walsh_(art_collector)), has a fascination with sex and death -- and bets that the rest of us do too.
Walsh himself calls MONA a “subversive adult Disneyland.” The building’s architecture is designed to make you feel lost, and the art is displayed without any labels whatsoever. It’s just you and the art.
In this episode, Hobart-based musician Bianca Blackhall (https://www.facebook.com/biancablackhallmusic/) talks about how she’s watched MONA reshape the creative community and art landscape of the island, what makes the museum different from other art museums, and how Hobart is now in “Sauron's Eye of tourism.”
This month on Museum Archipelago, we’re taking you to Tasmania (https://www.museumarchipelago.com/tags/tasmania). Over the course of three episodes, we’re conducting a survey of museums on the island, and exploring how each of them relates to the wider landscape of museums. Subscribe to the podcast via Apple Podcasts (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/museum-archipelago/id1182755184), Google Podcasts (https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubXVzZXVtYXJjaGlwZWxhZ28uY29tL3Jzcw==), Overcast (https://overcast.fm/itunes1182755184/museum-archipelago), or Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/5ImpDQJqEypxGNslnImXZE) to never miss an episode.

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Topics Discussed

00:00: Intro
00:15: This Month, Museum Archipelago is Taking You To Tasmania
00:47: Museum of Old and New Art (MONA)
01:05: Museum Archipelago on ABC Radio Hobart
01:30: The Way MONA Shapes the Island
01:44: MONA’s Architecture is Designed to Make You Feel Lost
02:42: Bianca Blackhall
03:05: David Walsh
03:50: “A Subversive Adult Disneyland”
04:08: The Holy Virgin Mary
04:13: On the road to heaven the highway to hell
04:29: Cloaca Professional, 2010
04:55: MONA’s Lack of Labels
05:33: “Art Wank”
06:20: Pride in MONA
06:50: “Sauron's Eye of Tourism”
08:20: A Monument to Joyful Secularism
08:43: Join Club Archipelago

More
➡️ The Making of MONA by Adrian Franklin

Transcript
Below is a transcript of Museum Archipelago episode 63. Museum Archipelago is produced for the ear and the only the audio of the episode is canonical. For more information on the people and ideas in the episode, refer to the links above.



View Transcript




Museums on the Australian island of Tasmania are a microcosm of museums all around the world. They struggle with properly interpreting their colonial past, the exclusion of First People from telling their stories in major museums, and having a large, privately owned art museum reshape a small town.

This month on Museum Archipelago, we’re taking you to Tasmania. Over the course of three episodes, we’re conducting a survey of museums on the island, and exploring how each of them relates to the wider landscape of museums.

Today we visit the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It’s known as MONA, and it is by far the largest museum in Tasmania… not only by square footage (it’s the largest privately owned art museum in the southern hemisphere), but also by its influence.


Helen Shield: If you were hosting an international podcast about museums, where would you spend your precious travel dollars to record?


That’s Helen Shield, host of a terrestrial broadcast radio program in Tasmania.


Helen Shield: There’s one obvious answer, isn’t there?


She’s a Hobart local and she interviewed me about this series. Listen to how she describes the way that MONA shapes the island.


Helen Shiel