Email not displaying nicley? View it online.

E-box from Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre
Volume 1   Number 1   July 2010

A toast to Robert Bell

Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre hosted a reception this month for Dr Robert Bell to celebrate his Award of the AM in the June 2010 announcement of Queen's Birthday Honours for the Order of Australia.

The evening was well attended and intimate with a gathering of eminent guests, colleagues and friends coming together to celebrate with Robert.

The Centre had great pleasure in welcoming Jane Burns to speak at the reception and we were all captured by her words as she fast forwarded through Robert's life and his achievements.

Robert's warm response was heart-felt, "I am delighted and honoured to receive this award after a forty-four year involvement in craft, design, museums and art galleries that has provided me with so many opportunities to meet, promote, collect and write about the work of craft artists and designers. Their imagination, skill and passion for their work are a constant inspiration for my own endeavours as a curator and I am enriched by their friendship and support."

The Honour was awarded to Dr Robert Bell, 'For service to contemporary craft and design as a curator and advocate, and to the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the National Gallery of Australia.'

Avi Amesbury, Executive Director

Notes

The Centre's Executive Director, Avi Amesbury, is on the Craft Australia Research Centre committee which met in Canberra in May. The Research Centre calls for research papers on specific themes and research areas and are published in their online journal, craft + design enquiry. Volume 2, Cross-cultural Exchanges in Craft and Design edited by Dr Louise Hamby, is now available online.

Pecha Kucha Canberra Volume 8 at the Centre was a roaring success with over 100 people in attendance. Accredited members Gilbert Riedelbauch and Dianne Firth gave inspiring presentations.

Our professional members

Ian Jones workshop
Developing a personal wheelwork style

Elizabeth Kelly
Recipient of the 2010 Winston Churchill Memorial Trust

Monique Van Nieuwland workshop
Lace weaves and learning to weave

Phoebe Porter, exhibition
Clean Lines at the Abbotsford Convent

Julie Ryder in Poland
13th International Tapestry Triennial

Visit our Professional Members calendar

Our exhibitions

Abstract - Ian Factor   Factor's distinctive works establish a creative fusion between abstract design and functional furniture using sustainable timbers.   Review by Rodney Hayward

Substrate, Structure, Surface - Leonie Andrews   Recycled textiles are joined through layering and stitching, united by dyes, printed and stitched marks.   Review by Julie Ryder

Touring nationally
Baseline: Remnant Grassland of Weereewa/Lake George is a thought provoking exhibition by artists Beth Hatton and Christine James that explores the grassland landscape of Weereewa/Lake George in New South Wales. Showing at the Portland Arts Centre, Cnr Bentinck and Glenelg St, Portland in Victoria. 18 July - 14 August

Our Shop

Oliver Smith is a silversmith with a particular interest in hammer techniques and a passion for hot forging. The production of flatware and hollowware using traditional materials and techniques is the foundation of his practice and the source of much of his creative thinking.

Oliver has been represented at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and Museum Victoria in Melbourne.

Oliver's objects are available from our Shop

Opportunities

Janet Holmes á Court artists' grant
Entries close 15 August 2010
This grant provides assistance towards the costs of public presentation of visual arts, craft and design.

Skills and arts development grant
Entries close 16 August 2010
The Australia Council supports excellence in the arts by providing professional development opportunities for craftspeople, designers, media artists, visual artists, arts writers and curators.

Presentation and promotion grant
Entries close 16 August 2010
The Australia Council assists arts organisations to present and promote contemporary Australian craft, design, media and visual arts to audiences in Australia and overseas.

More opportunities Member's login

Industry news

Director-general of the NLA resigns
Jan Fullerton has announced her retirement as director-general of the National Library of Australia.

ANU Vice-Chancellor to retire
ANU Vice-Chancellor Ian Chubb recently announced his retirement. He will leave in 2011 after having spent more than a decade leading and invigorating The Australian National University.

Congratulations
Congratulations to Dr Sharon Peoples, our President, on recently winning first prize at the Buda Historic Home textile exhibition and also Chris Hardy, management committee member, who has been short-listed for Workshopped, a national design competition supporting Australian designers.

Brisbane launch
Unlimited:Designing for the Asia Pacific launches its inaugural event in Brisbane, with a week-long program of public talks, workshops, exhibitions, a business symposium, and a series of master classes and youth events held in and around South Bank.

State of Design
Victoria's State of Design Festival is now in full swing.

Craftsouth has moved
Craftsouth are now on Level 1, 38 Hindley Street, Adelaide. Their telephone, fax and postal address remains the same.

Victorian Tapestry Workshop
The organisation has changed its name to the Australian Tapestry Workshop.

Also showing

Jeff Mincham - Ceramics
A Living Treasures: Masters of Australian Craft exhibition celebrating the achievements of Australia's iconic and influential crafts practitioners, at the Watson Art Centre.

Metalab Collective 5
Annual exhibition showcasing the work of the team behind the scenes at metalab.

• Julie Ryder, Metamorphosi (detail), 2010, exhibition 'Abstract Nature' at the Samstag Museum, South Australia
• Beth Hatton, Introducing Species (Settlement Series), 2007 scotch thistle, yorkshire fog, redanther wallaby grass, allocasuarina seeds, linen thread
• Oliver Smith, Generation I, 2004