Did you know the exterior of Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery is inspired by an artwork in the Bundaberg Regional Council Collection with a special connection to Bundaberg?
‘Turnabout’, a 1970s screenprint design by artist Florence Broadhurst, is featured on the building’s façade with permission from her son.
Born at Mungy Station near Mount Perry in 1899, Florence Broadhurst rose to be one of Australia’s most fascinating and renowned creatives.
Florence spent her formative years in the region before leaving Australia to perform in South East Asia and China under the stage name Bobby Broadhurst.
She then ran a finishing school in Shanghai before moving to London to become ‘Madame Pellier’, a French couturier who dressed the rich and famous.
Florence moved back to Australia styled as an aristocratic English lady and become an entrepreneur, society figurehead and landscape painter.
Her most significant artistic achievement was as head of a luxury, hand-printed wallpaper business with an archive of over 500 designs, many of which are still featured in interior design today.
Bundaberg Regional Galleries curated an exhibition in 2021, “Florence”, which featured her wallpaper designs and highlighted her influence on fashion across Australia and the world.
The exhibition, supported by the Mount Perry Arts Society Inc., explored how the cultural tapestry of the region in the early twentieth century influenced the creative, independent, successful woman that Florence became.
Find out more about the Bundaberg Regional Council Collection on the Arts Bundaberg website.
