Milingimbi Artist and senior law man Raymond Bulambula and his wife, senior weaver and cultural practitioner Joyce Nalyabu will be travelling to the United States in September 2017 as research fellows at the Kluge Ruhe. This is an exciting professional development opportunity to undertake a four weeks residency at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia. The Kluge Ruhe holds a collection of Milingimbi cultural heritage and Raymond and Joyce will be researching the artworks.
Artists Raymond Bulambula and Joyce Nalyabu will be demonstrating art making in the studio and delivering classes and workshops to students as part of a Melon Fellowship research grant. The Kluge Ruhe residency will allow our artists to provide information on historic artworks from Milingimbi that are held in the Kluge Rhuhe collection.
The Kluge Ruhe mission is to advance knowledge and understanding of Australia’s Indigenous people and their art and culture worldwide. Mr. Kluge began collecting Aboriginal art in 1988. Over the next decade he compiled one of the finest private collections of Australian Aboriginal art in the world. In 1993, Kluge purchased the collection and archives of the late Professor Edward L. Ruhe of Lawrence, Kansas. Ruhe began collecting Aboriginal art while visiting Australia as a Fulbright Scholar in 1965. Ruhe’s collection focussed on bark paintings and sculptures from Arnhem Land.
The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia is the only museum in the United States dedicated to the exhibition and study of Australian Aboriginal art.