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Bernard Smith (1916 - )
and
Kate Smith (1915 - 1989)
Bernard Smith came to Glebe in 1967, following his appointment as Power
Professor of Contemporary Art and Director of the Power Institute of
Fine Arts at the University of Sydney. At that time financial
institutions were not interested in offering mortgages on property in
what was regarded as the rundown suburb of Glebe. How times have
changed!
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Kate Smith
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He and Kate Challis were
married in 1942, when both were teaching in NSW. It was a happy
marriage, complementing each other's qualities. While proving a very
supportive wife to an increasingly public figure, Kate never lost
her own identity. In Glebe Society matters, for instance, Bernard
had the public authority, verbal assurance and writing skills to be
a forceful and effective President, both at the inception of the
Society and in a subsequent term of office. Kate was the grassroots
worker, who knew people in Glebe, helped them, and developed a
social organisation invaluable when an occasion called for people to
rally for a protest or a photo for issues involving The National
Trust, as an example.
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Kate and Bernard jointly collaborated in the
research which resulted in a key work about Glebe,
The Architectural Character of Glebe. Bernard has also
published numerous important works on art history and an
autobiography of his early life, The Boy Adeodatus. A work by
Kate has recently been edited and published by Bernard, Tales of
Sydney Cove
-- which is seen by Bernard as contributing "its mite to the
reconciliation process".
Upon Kate's death in 1989, Bernard sold a
number of the modern paintings they had acquired over the years in
order to establish an award at The University of Melbourne for
Aboriginal Australians.
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Bernard Smith
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