{"id":752379,"date":"2026-06-22T07:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T07:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/752379\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T07:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T07:07:13","slug":"new-library-opens-at-hobarts-mona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/752379\/","title":{"rendered":"New library opens at Hobart\u2019s MONA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hobart\u2019s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) has opened the doors to Phrontisterion \u2013 a new library home to a collection of more than 30,000 books and maps, held by the museum\u2019s founder David Walsh \u2013 which was first unveiled last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The project\u2019s title \u2013 a term that means a \u201cthinkery\u201d \u2013 borrows from the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes\u2019 comedy The Clouds, in which he ridicules the \u201cself-certainty of the educated,\u201d a communique from MONA notes. According to the museum\u2019s press release, \u201c[The library is] a place to explore, be entertained, and research topics as diverse as ancient brewing methods, winter rituals, heavy metal pollution, Antarctic exploration, science fiction, sex, casinos, charcuterie and the museum collection.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

View gallery<\/p>\n

MONA\u2019s librarian Mary Lijnzaad said, \u201cIf you want to know what David [Walsh] is really like, browse his bookshelves.\u201d They include rare books such as Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cFirst Folio,\u201d Sir Isaac Newton\u2019s Opticks and Charles Darwin\u2019s Origin of Species, among many others.<\/p>\n

The media release from MONA notes that \u201cthe way Phrontisterion organises books is as idiosyncratic as the collection itself,\u201d using novel technology developed by Art Processors \u201cto treat books as curatable objects rather than conforming to the Dewey Decimal System.\u201d<\/p>\n

Art Processors\u2019 Nic Whyte commented, \u201cDavid [Walsh]\u2019s brief was simple: let us put a book anywhere and still find it. So we\u2019ve built a library with no fixed order that stays completely navigable. As far as we know, that doesn\u2019t exist anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Katsalidis<\/p>\n

View gallery<\/p>\n

The architecture and main interior fitout of Phrontisterion has been designed by architect Nonda Katsalidis, working with Mona\u2019s design director Adrian Spinks for designs in Phrontisterion\u2019s map room, study, cellar and lounge, as well as the children\u2019s library.<\/p>\n

Located in the space beneath the inverted-ziggurat levels of a concrete amphitheatre titled Elektra, by German artist Anselm Kiefer, Phrontisterion is connected to the museum\u2019s existing buildings via tunnels in the sandstone.<\/p>\n

\"Rouge<\/p>\n

View gallery<\/p>\n

Alongside the library\u2019s collection of books, there are artworks by Joshua Yeldham, Lucas Grogan, Rachel Marks, Ben Jakober and Yannick Vu, Matthew Barney and Julian Charri\u00e8re on display, as well as a desk, staircase and several chandeliers by local blacksmith and artist Pete Mattila.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hobart\u2019s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) has opened the doors to Phrontisterion \u2013 a new library…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-752379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}