Reverie Projects, in association with the Villa Alba Museum, is devoted to establishing a dialogue between the historic house in Melbourne’s Kew and contemporary art practitioners. This dialogue takes the form of a series of exhibitions in which the house acts as subject and muse.
A bit about the house…
Villa Alba is a treasured and historic mansion built between 1882 and 1884 during the Marvelous Melbourne boom era. The house was decorated with ornate murals in each room, painted by the Italian artisans who came to Melbourne to paint the Melbourne Exhibition Building. Originally owned by William Greenlaw, the General Manager of the Colonial Bank of Australasia from 1877 to 1892, the house was eventually sold following the deaths of both Greenlaw and his wife. In 1950 it was converted into a nurses’ hostel and the murals were painted over. It is only in the last 25 years that the historical significance of the house and its decoration has been recognized. During this time, a team of volunteer conservationists have been painstakingly scraping away at the over paint to reveal the original frescoes below. Today the house is maintained by a volunteer committee who finance its preservation through public donation alone.
For more information, visit the Villa Alba Museum’s website: http://www.villaalbamuseum.org/
