The Recollection Room

Mary MacKillop’s School House, Sisters of Saint Joseph, North Sydney, 2001. Curated with Sally Gray and designed by Freeman Ryan Design.

The Recollection Room was an interpretation of the schoolhouse founded by Mary MacKillop and the Sisters of Saint Joseph in 1900. The central plinth encased exhibits relating to the school and concluded in a large screen adopting the position of the classroom’s blackboard; it displayed changing images to prompt memories and contemplation. Beyond the screen, religious artefacts were viewed through openings, suggesting the visible and invisible nature of spiritual experience.

“There is an unusual level of cohesion between the design and its conceptual and museological basis – both are unusually layered with symbolism and metaphor.”

(Naomi Stead, Architecture Australia, November–December 2001.)

Photographs by Sharrin Rees.