Exhibition Preview: Stephen O'Brien

COLLECTION | Badges, buttons and pins

100+ metallic and plastic charity and poilitical buttons and badges, various sizes.

An ongoing collection spanning over half a century, purchased from 1950s - 2012.
Personal collection from family, activist and other sources, the badges relate to charities, and later causes over the past 50 years.

Badges, buttons and pins, from the collection of Stephen O'Brien

COLLECTOR | Stephen O'Brien

Library Manager at Newcastle Art School, has worked as an Australian volunteer librarian/documentalist for five years in Nicaragua, as a United Nations Volunteer librarian/media person/IT trouble-shooter with UNAIDS in Zimbabwe, and United Nations Volunteer electoral officer in East Timor, as well as being actively involved in social and political issues locally and internationally. Profile: Stephen O'Brien, ALIA

On the personal significance of the collection, Stephen O'Brien writes: "These badges relate to charities, and later causes over the past 50 years. I can identify the origin and maker of most of the collection."
 
These badges compliment a poster collection which O'Brien looks after and also occasionally exhibits.

To see this incredbile collection social and political artifacts up close and personal, visit us at the Front Room Gallery, June 6 - 21 2012.