University House refurbishment and the University House Print Edition

The University House renovations are almost complete and the Drill Hall Gallery and ANU Art Collection Team have been working tirelessly over the past few months to furnish the newly renovated heritage building with artworks. More than 150 pieces have been hung throughout the building with one of the most impressive aspects of the project being the complicated installation of Leonard French paintings in the Great Hall.  At eight by nine meters, the 18-panel Regeneration required a four-story scaffold and a team of dedicated Drill Hall Gallery installers including Oscar, Ben, Sonja, Olivia, Chris, Issac and Cait. French’s newly conserved paintings are now gleaming in spectacular brilliance, ready to welcome guests back to The House for its official re-opening in mid-August, coinciding with the University’s 80^th Anniversary celebrations.

At the time of its opening in 1954, University House was described as “something of a museum of Australian contemporary art”. Designated as ANU’s number one building, University House’s purpose was to serve as a cultural and social centre for university life.

In its early years University House displayed artworks and sculptures by Australian artists Clarice Beckett, Jean Bellette, Arthur Boyd, John Brack, Ethel Carrick-Fox, Elaine Haxton, Frank Hinder, Gerald Lewers, Margo Lewers, and Tom Roberts. A gift from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation enabled further acquisitions from near and abroad featuring artists Cesar Baldaccini, Richard Hamilton, Patrick Heron, Sidney Nolan and John Olsen, amongst others.

The most significant addition to the fabric of University House is the large-scale mural Regeneration by Leonard French, commissioned for the Great Hall in 1972. In the foyer to the Great Hall are six woven tapestries by artist Valerie Kirk, commissioned to respond to the research of award-winning ANU academics including Nobel Prize winners Rolf Zinkernagel and Peter Doherty, John Eccles, Howard Florey and Brian Schmidt, and Frank Fenner, a four-time nominee.

With its new refurbishment, the House sets out to celebrate the heritage of the Brian Lewis design, and his seamless integration of art and architecture. As part of this project University House has commissioned a new series of prints for accommodation suites by six contemporary Canberra artists – Emma Beer, Ham Durroch, James Lieutenant, Lani Shea-An, Kate Vassallo and Naomi Zouwer – all alumni of the ANU School of Art & Design.

Briefed to create works which would harmoniously integrate with the heritage of the House’s design, the six artists paired with professional printmakers from Megalo Print Studio, Canberra. In these collaborations are echoes of the early collegial ambiance of University House, where the daily interactions implicit in living in an academic community would surely have given rise to interdisciplinary approaches to research, teaching and learning.

On Friday June 26 Megalo Print Studio generously hosted Drill Hall Gallery’s monthly Friends Night. Drinks and delicious food platters were enjoyed in the Megalo gallery amidst the Megalo members exhibition, followed by a viewing of the University House Print Series in progress. DHG curator Hetty Gascoigne led a panel discussion on the project with participating artists Naomi Zouwer and Lani Shea-An and printers Clare Jackson, Francis Kenna and Alex Lundy. Panel members provided insight into the generative and interdisciplinary process of transforming an artist’s practice through the mediums of screen printing, lithography and etching. We finished the evening in the etching and lithography studio learning more about the lithographic process.

A Friends Tour of University House, including viewing the new works in situ, is booked in for August with more details to come. Look out for notification in our August newsletter.

Top Image: 2026 installation of Regeneration by Leonard French in the Great Hall, University House. Photo: Oscar Capezio