My Space: Tania Hirschausen (Post Office Projects)
What makes a truly creative space?
Words by Timothea Moylan
Image by Belinda Monck
Post Office Projects (POP) is a Port Adelaide gallery and studio space housed in the main street’s historic post office. With its cutting-edge programming, grassroots community and contemporary adaptation of heritage space, it’s a hive of creative activity that reflects all the best bits of the surrounding precinct. This issue, we caught up with Tania Hirschausen, POP’s Assistant Curator, to find out why spaces like this are so important for artists and how she got her start in the curatorial world.
Describe your creative practice.
Curating is my creative practice – it’s a way of expressing myself and telling stories that is different to artmaking, but it’s still very much part of the arts ecosystem. I think sometimes it’s maybe a little bit misunderstood or undervalued.
Well, let’s help set the record straight. How did you get started as a curator?
I saw an ad in the print version of The Adelaide Review – it was for the University of Adelaide’s Master of Curatorial and Museum Studies program, run [in conjunction] with the Art Gallery of South Australia. I had been in the arts for my entire career, studying as a visual artist originally. I went into visual arts education and then had my own commercial photographic practice. But when I saw this ad, a light bulb went off in my head. I enrolled the next day.
What drew you to the art of curating?
It sounds ridiculous, but in all those years leading up to that moment, it never occurred to me that I could be a curator. It was never something that was presented to me. Throughout my visual arts degree, I was the person who was always in everybody else’s studio, like, ‘What are you guys up to?’ I was always so interested in and excited by what everybody else was doing and less passionate about the work that I was producing. So, it makes perfect sense.
Post Office Projects is a unique space within the local arts landscape. What do you love most about working here?
So many things. Our Director, Eleanor Scicchitano, is a force to be reckoned with. What she’s created here is really special and important in South Australia. There’s a real sense of inclusiveness and community. We need more spaces like this – places where local artists can exhibit their work [to] address the gap between graduating from a visual arts degree and becoming a practising, self-sustained artist. There can be a bit of a gap everywhere, but it feels more immense here in South Australia.
How do you feel the Port as a destination plays into the gallery’s energy?
There’s definitely a vibe here that you don’t get anywhere else: grungy, gritty, open, progressive, cool. There are little bars and restaurants that keep popping up – like 10 Gallon Hat – and being close to the water is really lovely. It feels grassroots and community-driven. There’s lots of hope and creativity.
Any exciting things coming up you’d like to share?
We have two new exhibitions by Jess Taylor and Shirley Jianzhen Wu, which open on November 17 and explore the complexity of contemporary feminine power. And, as part of Eleanor’s mission to build professional development into all that POP touches, I’m independently curating the first show in the main gallery for 2025. So that’s exciting!
And last but not least, what are your go-to tunes while you work?
My taste is pretty eclectic – I love everything from lo-fi beats to Northeast Party House, country and beyond.
You can find Post Office Projects Gallery + Studios at 175 St Vincent Street, Port Adelaide. To keep up to date with everything POP related follow them @pop_gallerystudios.
