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E-box from Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre
Volume 3   Number 2   March 2012   ISSN 2200-1972

Investing in the sector

Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre's Annual General Meeting will complete the 2011 year. Writing the Annual Report has been an opportunity to look at the Centre's achievements and successes over the past twelve months.

One of our many achievements was being awarded the Canberra Critics Circle Award 2011 for Visual Arts "For a series of exhibitions titled Elements held throughout 2011 celebrating the 40th anniversary for this visual arts organisation. The exhibitions were sensitively curated to showcase the work of prominent craftspeople who have worked in the ACT." Industry leaders have written essays on each of the Elements exhibitions, and these are well worth the read if you have not already done so.

A further achievement was the Centre being successful in select tender to administer the Centenary of Canberra - a legacy of good design memorabilia competition. This is a Centenary of Canberra project presented by the ACT Government with support from Business Industry Development. Significantly the project has injected $50,000 directly to craft practitioners and designer makers in Canberra. The winners of the competition will be announced on Monday 12 March 2012 by
Robyn Archer AO, Creative Director of the Centenary of Canberra, at the 99th birthday celebrations. Stay tuned.

Supporting practitioners and contributing to the sustainability of the craft and design sector in the ACT is a major focus for us. In 2011 the Centre was successful in securing purchases for a number of significant works to collectors and collecting institutions. Well over $150,000 was returned to the sector through sales from the exhibition program, and we congratulate the makers who continue to showcase excellence in Australian craft and design.

Our 2012 program is diverse and exciting and continues to promote excellence in the ACT. We look forward to catching up with you soon.

Avi Amesbury, Executive Director

Notes

Talking Water: artists-in-residence - calling for expressions of interest. A series of residencies within Canberra's National Park and Nature Reserve. Applications close 5pm Friday 16 March 2012.

Did you know that Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre offers a mailout service? We can include your exhibition or workshop invitations in our mailout for a small fee:

Dates for the diary, upcoming mailouts in 2012:

Further enquiries contact Amy Kerr, Communication and Event Manager,
02 6262 9333 or amy.kerr@craftact.org.au

Professional members

Julie Ryder, selected artist
Ryder is 1 of 5 artists selected to exhibit projected work in Enlighten during March as part of the 2012 Canberra Festival

Ruth Hingston and Caren Florance, exhibition
Hingston and Florance will exhibit in Material World at Australian National Capital Artists Gallery from 28 March to 8 April 2012

Dianne Firth, exhibition
Firth was selected to exhibit in Art Quilt Elements at Wayne Art Centre, Philadelphia, USA from 30 March to 13 May 2012

The Centre warmly welcomes Belinda Toll as our newest Accredited Professional Member.

Visit our Professional Members calendar

Current exhibitions

Current exhibitions continue until Saturday 24 March 2012.

Parallels - Barbara Rogers
Contemporary textiles exploring the diversity and language of the graphic stripe pattern using shibori techniques.
» Read more in Parallels by Dr Sharon Peoples

Space Dissolving - Melinda Willis
An array of reflections captured and translated into layered installations of sheet glass, fused glass and mixed media.
» Read more about Space Dissolving

Elements: leather - Penny Amberg and Linda Davy
The sixth and final group exhibition in the dynamic Elements series celebrating the Centre's 40th birthday highlights invited artists Penny Amberg and Linda Davy (10 February - 24 March 2012) and Colin Lee and Judy Parker
(6 April - 12 May 2012) over two exhibition periods in the Crucible and Foyer Showcases.
» Read the opening speech by curator Meredith Hinchliffe

Craft ACT Shop

Mog Bremner came to be a textile artist after first pursuing a career as a health professional. Having spent years working with people, she is fascinated by the nature of self and by what it is that gives us our "inner sense of narrative, agency and identity".

Bremner draws on the writings of an American researcher, Douglas Hofstadter, who argues the sense of self arises from the ceaseless interactions between layers of complex, symbol-forming neuronal networks. Bremner uses text in her work because it is both a real symbol and a metaphor for the symbolic processes in the brain. The designs of her scarves are based on her hand-writing, repetitively writing a quote from Hofstadter's latest book I Am a Strange Loop: "…human beings are unpredictable self-writing poems, vague, metaphorical, ambiguous."

View a selection of products available in the Craft ACT Shop

Opportunities

Australian International Design Awards
Entries close 30 March 2012
The Australian International Design Awards provides a service to designers and companies looking to differentiate their products through an independent, trusted and credible awards program.

Launch Pad 2012
Entries close 30 March 2012
Launch Pad is an important design initiative, promoting the development of Australian product design through a unique competition and mentoring program aimed at emerging designers.

Art Unlimited 2012
Entries close 20 April 2012
Art Unlimited invites entries in hanging art, photography and ceramics - for the 2012 event. Works entered must reflect the artist's views of contemporary life or personal environment.

More opportunities Member's login

Industry news

Australia Council for the Arts review survey
Following the announcement by the federal Minister for the Arts of an independent review of the Australia Council, a survey (closing 5pm Friday 9 March 2012) is now open for you to have your say.

Senate Estimates questions Australia Council for the Arts
The Senate Estimates questioned Kathy Keele, Chief Executive Officer, Australia Council for the Arts on the Australia Council review, defunding of Craft Australia and related issues.

Draft ACT Arts Policy Framework
Following the Review of the Arts in Canberra, a draft ACT Arts Policy Framework has been published. The ACT Government invites the community to share their thoughts and views.

ABC TV appoints Head of Arts
Katrina Sedgwick has been appointed to the newly created role of Head of Arts for ABC television.

New public artwork
ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher recently launched a new permanent public artwork by Matthew Harding located in Veterans Park, Civic.

Also showing

Translations
Glass artist Holly Grace, inspired by the Australian Alps, exhibits unique glass forms sandblasted and etched with landscape imagery at Beaver Galleries until 20 March 2012.

Embark
An exhibition recognising new talent by featuring six recent graduates from Canberra and Melbourne. Exhibited at Bilk Gallery for contemporary metal and glass until 2 April 2012.

'the dreaming memory of land as it lay this way and that'
Textile artist, Hilary Peterson investigates sense of place through a variety of mediums including printed and dyed textiles and paper, at ANCA Gallery from 14-25 March 2012.

• Banner: Melinda Willis, Liminal Space 1 (detail), 2010, screen printed, fused and cold-worked glass, cold-worked mirror and float glass. Photograph: courtesy of the artist
• Barbara Rogers, Striped squares 1, 2 and 3 (foreground), and A study in stripes (background), 2011, silk charmeuse, Shibori, de-coloured, azoic dyes, foam inserts, canvas frames, polyester thread. Photographer: Creative Image Photography
• Dianne Firth, Rain (detail), 2009, stitched felt and net. Photograph: courtesy of the artist
• Linda Davy, Kangaroo skin boots (detail), 1983, kangaroo leather outer, pigskin lining, buttons, hand stencilled. Photograph: courtesy of the artist
• Mog Bremner, Silk and wool scarf, $138.10. Photographer: Guy Young
• Holly Grace, Thredbo River, 2012, two piece set, blown and sandblasted glass with powders and metal leaf. Image courtesy of Beaver Galleries