The collections began with the Nicholson Collection of antiquities in 1860 and continued to grow to include the Macleay Collections of natural history, ethnography, science and historic photography, and the University Art Collection. The three collections were brought together under Sydney University Museums in 2005.[6] The museum is named after
Chau Chak Wing, a
Chinese-Australian businessman who donated $15 million for the building's construction in 2015.[7] Other major benefactors were
Penelope Seidler, the
Ian Potter Foundation and Nelson Meers Foundation.[7] The museum was officially opened on the 18 November 2020.[8]
In September 2023 it hosted the
International Council of Museums Committee for University Museums and Collections Conference, "Truth-telling through university museums and collections".[9]
The building is located on Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, opposite the
Main Quadrangle and
Fisher Library.[5] The building was designed by Johnson Pilton Walker.[11] The building is five-storey, with four levels of exhibition space with six main galleries: Ian Potter Gallery, Macleay Gallery, Nicholson Gallery, Penelope Gallery, Power Gallery, and the China Gallery.
Indigenous Australian design features were incorporated design and landscaping of the building.[12] The forecourt incorporates a replica of a
pre-invasion Aboriginal
petroglyph of two
wallabies originally located in
Westleigh and the foyer prominently displays a
Welcome to Country in the
Sydney language.[12]
Construction of the new museum was completed in 2020.[5]
Collections
The museum has three main collections, the Macleay Collection, the Nicholson Collection, and the University of Art Collection.[5]
Macleay Collection
The Macleay Collection is the oldest natural history collection in Australia, originating in the cabinets of
Alexander Macleay, and expanding through the collecting networks of the Macleay family from
Charles Darwin to
Sir Stamford Raffles.[13]
It contains historically rich collections of
Aboriginal,
Torres Strait and
Pacific Islanders' cultural material, including objects collected on the early scientific expedition, the
Chevert, and those collected in the early years of anthropology at the University of Sydney.[13]
The work of University of Sydney scientists is reflected in the collection of scientific instruments and apparatus used in research and teaching, and is part of the story of scientific practice in Australia.[13]
The Historic Photograph Collection records life in Australia and the Pacific region, from the late 1840s to the 1960s, as captured by both commercial and amateur photographers. It includes a wide range of photographic formats, reflecting the changing technology of photography.[13]
In addition, the Macleay Collections holds material reflecting the museum's history, including a significant library, furniture, documents and ephemera relating to the major collectors.[13]
Nicholson Collection
The Nicholson Collection contains nearly 30,000 artefacts representing ancient cultures from the
Mediterranean,
North Africa,
Middle East and
Europe.[14] Spanning from the pre-Neolithic to the late medieval period, these artefacts hold intimate stories of people’s everyday lives, ancient environments, and cultural activity for over more than 10,000 years.
The collection was founded in 1860 by
Sir Charles Nicholson (University Provost 1854–62) with a donation of
Etruscan,
Greek,
Roman and
Egyptian antiquities acquired to establish a museum, "calculated materially to promote the object[ives] for which the [The University of Sydney] was founded." (Nicholson's letter of presentation, 1860).[14] By 1870, the University of Sydney's Museum of Antiquities included over 3,000 artefacts and had been nicknamed the
Nicholsonian Museum.[14]
Over the past 160 years, the Nicholson Collection has expanded through ambitious acquisition programs, generous donation and private bequests. International excavations in
Egypt,
Cyprus and the Middle East, partly sponsored by the University of Sydney have also contributed significant objects to the collection.[14]
University Art Collection
The collection contains more than 8000 works including paintings, sculptures and ceramics.[15] Among the first donors was one of its founders, Sir Charles Nicholson, who gave some 30 European paintings, tapestries and sculptures in 1865.[15] The strength of the collection lies in
Australian painting – including
Indigenous art – as well as significant holdings in European and Asian art.
Gululu dhuwala djalkiri: welcome to the
Yolŋu foundations[50]
Awards
In 2021, the museum won the
Museums and Galleries National Award (MAGNA) and two Museums Australasia Multimedia and Publication Design Awards (MAPDA).[51] The museum won the 2023 UMAC Award for its object-based learning program.[52] It is the first time the UMAC Award has been won by an Australian university.
Teaching
Internally the museum's object-based learning program aims to provide access to the collections to university students.[53] This has including increasing
cross-disciplinary collaborations with parts of the university that did not traditionally engage with the collections, such as the
University of Sydney Business School.[5][54]
Research
Egyptian-Australian community initiative
In 2022 the curators of the Nicholson Collection and our research partners from the Egypt's Dispersed Heritage Project, Heba Abd Al-Gawad and
Alice Stevenson, invited members of the
Egyptian-Australian community to a weekend long focus group to discuss the ways in which Egyptian heritage is interpreted and ways forward for participation.[55]
Egyptian stelae
This interdisciplinary project examines 20 ancient Egyptian
stelae, made from limestone, pottery and wood that were produced and decorated between the
New Kingdom (c.1500–1069 BCE) and the
Ptolemaic Period (c.332–30 BCE).[56]
Excavating MacGregor
The first
Administrator of
British New Guinea,
William MacGregor, made a significant collection of objects between 1888 and 1898, specifically for its future citizens. The aim of the project is to re-assemble and re-connect this material by 'excavating' its private and official components, focusing on the makers and traders to disentangle the social relationships embedded in the objects.[57]
Human remains research project
This research project seeks to understand better different public attitudes and responses to the display of human remains with a particular focus on museum visitors and
Egyptian communities in Australia’s diaspora, in
Egypt, and elsewhere.[58][59]
The Jericho Research Project
An ongoing research project to investigate the museum's holdings from
Jericho in the
West Bank.[60] The collection was obtained as the Nicholson Museum was one of the financial sponsors for
Kathleen Kenyon's archaeological research in the region.[60]
In July 2017, the museum launched a
crowdsourcing project to help identify and catalogue the Woodhouse Photographic Archive of
glass-plate negatives taken in Greece during the 1890s and early 1900s.[67][68]
Publications
The museum has published a biannual magazine, Muse, since 2012.[69] The magazine has won design awards from Museums Australia.[70]
Other publications include:
Conway, R. (Ed.). (2021). Djalkiri: Yolngu art, collaborations and collections. Sydney University Press. ISBN 9781743327272
Ellis, David (2020). Director's choice. Chau Chak Wing Museum. London: Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd.
ISBN9781785511134
Fraser, J., Lord, C., & Magnussen, J. (Eds.). (2022). Speak my name: Investigating Egyptian mummies. Sydney University Press. ISBN 9781743328460
Stephens, Ann (Ed.). (2021). Light & Darkness: Late Modernism and the JW Power Collection. Power Publications. ISBN 9780909952020
^
abcdeSimpson, Andrew (2023). The museums and collections of higher education. London ; New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
ISBN978-1-003-18653-3.
^Ellis, David (2020). Director's choice. Chau Chak Wing Museum. London: Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd.
ISBN9781785511134.
^
ab"Benefactors". The University of Sydney. Retrieved 2023-11-24.
^Wardak, Dewa; Razeed, Abdul; Thogersen, Jane; Guerry, Eve (2021). "Collaborating on a creative solution to teach creativity to Business students". Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education (Special Issue 22: Compendium of Innovative Practice): 1–6.