Tin Sheds Gallery

Tin Sheds officially opened in 1969 as an autonomous art space within the University grounds, and was facilitated by artists, academics and students.  The Tin Sheds spurned a pivotal historical movement in Australian art where cross disciplinary experimentation and politically orientated practices were nurtured for several decades. Its name came from the four tin sheds it operated out of on the site that the current Jane Foss Russell building stands on (154 City Road).

The Art Workshop developed out of art-teaching facilities provided by the Faculty of Architecture and which housed and ran the Tin Sheds Gallery. The objectives of the Art Workshop were to provide skills for communication and expression in the plastic arts.

Until 1975 the Art Workshop was financed by that faculty and the Power Department of Fine Arts. Since 1975 the workshop was financed as a separate department in the University, until 1989 when it functioned separately from any faculty while working closely with staff from both Architecture and Fine Arts.

In 1989 a Committee of Review into the Art Workshop chaired by Associate Professor Warren Julian, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture with Professor Peter Webber (Architecture) and Associate Professor Terry Smith (Fine Arts) considered the functions and location of the Workshop in light of devolution of faculty funding and the amalgamation of Sydney College of the Arts with the University. The Committee recommended to the VC that the Art Workshop be a unit attached to the Faculty of Architecture, and that an academic advisory committee and a gallery advisory committee be established to advise and consider the programs and policies of the Workshop. The report remarked favorably on the activities of the Tin Sheds Gallery and recommended that a curatorial assistant be appointed.

By the end of the year the VC had advised that the Art Workshop would become a special unit within the Faculty of Architecture, and the recommendations concerning the Gallery were still under consideration. Resolutions of the Faculty of Architecture were amended to reflect the particularity of Art Workshop courses and a more flexible program of courses was instituted.

In 2004, the Tin Sheds moved its entire operation into the School with purpose-built workshops and a gallery. 

The gallery is a contemporary exhibition space located within the Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney.

University of Sydney Annual Report, 1985, p.65; University of Sydney Annual Report, 1989, p47 https://honisoit.com/2022/04/the-tin-sheds-an-incomplete-history/ Accessed 26/09/2023