The following formal submission have been made public
Submitter: Kym MacmillanBean Building Extension and Central Energy Plant
First, I wholeheartedly support the proposed redevelopment - I see the AWM as a crucial element of our national character and critical in the preservation of our history and traditions.
Having said that, I'd like to offer just one comment on the proposal for the Bean Building extension:
One of the issues which some people have with the AWM redevelopment is that they focus on the misconception that it is only a Memorial, and therefore the other elements potentially distract from or devalue it's role as a Memorial. One way to address this would be to highlight the fact that from its very conception, it was intended to be more than a memorial and that Bean in particular saw it as a museum and a place of study/research as well as a Memorial. I would like to see a small portion of the public area of the new Bean building devoted to the early writings and works of Bean and Treloar, to emphasise the fact that these new elements are totally in keeping their their early vision. I understand that even while the War was still ongoing, Bean was very conscious of securing artifacts for an Australian museum and making sure that they did not all end up in the British Imperial Museum. So even in 1917-18, he had started to form the idea of a combined memorial, museum and centre of learning to keep the ANZAC spirit alive. The story of this early vision should be told within the AWM and the new Bean building is the obvious place to tell it. It would not need to be a large display, but a couple of display cases with a few photos and copies of some of the early letters and documents would suffice - a audio recording of bean talking about his vision (if such a thing exists) would be excellent.
I noted that in the video session there was a suggestion about highlighting the work of the Australian War Records Section in London - my suggestion aligns with that idea and the two could be combined.
Having said that, I'd like to offer just one comment on the proposal for the Bean Building extension:
One of the issues which some people have with the AWM redevelopment is that they focus on the misconception that it is only a Memorial, and therefore the other elements potentially distract from or devalue it's role as a Memorial. One way to address this would be to highlight the fact that from its very conception, it was intended to be more than a memorial and that Bean in particular saw it as a museum and a place of study/research as well as a Memorial. I would like to see a small portion of the public area of the new Bean building devoted to the early writings and works of Bean and Treloar, to emphasise the fact that these new elements are totally in keeping their their early vision. I understand that even while the War was still ongoing, Bean was very conscious of securing artifacts for an Australian museum and making sure that they did not all end up in the British Imperial Museum. So even in 1917-18, he had started to form the idea of a combined memorial, museum and centre of learning to keep the ANZAC spirit alive. The story of this early vision should be told within the AWM and the new Bean building is the obvious place to tell it. It would not need to be a large display, but a couple of display cases with a few photos and copies of some of the early letters and documents would suffice - a audio recording of bean talking about his vision (if such a thing exists) would be excellent.
I noted that in the video session there was a suggestion about highlighting the work of the Australian War Records Section in London - my suggestion aligns with that idea and the two could be combined.