Craft ACT Events: Happening now

Download a PDF flier of Designing a Capital

Designing a Capital: Crafting a City - 27 May to 19 June

"I have planned a city that is not like any other in the world. I have planned it not in a way that I expected government authorities in the world would accept. I have planned an ideal city - a city that meets my ideal of the city of the future."

Walter Burley Griffin 1912

Planning is well underway for the 2013 Centenary of Canberra celebrations. With the vision of the Canberra 100 team to create a year of memorable celebrations to mark the anniversary, not only for Canberrans but for all Australians, and to proudly celebrate a city that symbolises our freedom, spirit, achievements and aspirations. It is shaping up to be a momentous occasion.

In the years leading up to these celebrations, Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre presents Designing a Capital: Crafting a City, an annual program of exhibitions and events designed to probe and explore the role of the arts in establishing a Canberra culture, highlighting Canberra as a breeding ground for artistic expression.

The Designing a Capital: Crafting a City 2010 program encourages ongoing dialogue through exhibitions and public events to reinvigorate community awareness and involvement in the culture-scape of the extraordinary phenomenon that is our National Capital. Join in unfettered discussion and debate; experience artistic expression; rediscover the local landscape; and uncover experimental design that celebrates new ideas in fashion, hair and beauty.

A bounty of events is on offer to revisit what and who have shaped Canberra thus far, and to provide inspiration for the next century.

Gudgenby traces

Paull McKee and Kirstie Rea
Craft ACT Galleries and Crucible Showcases
Opening Thursday 27 May 6.pm
Friday 28 May to Saturday 12 June

Gudgenby traces is informed by the 2009 artist-in-residence project at the Gudgenby Ready-Cut Cottage in Namadgi National Park. The project provided residencies for two artists, Paull McKee and Kirstie Rea. The exhibition will feature installations inspired by their time spent living in the national park.

Rea draws on her interaction with the space of the Gudgenby Valley. She says, 'It is a space of both volume and vacancy, simultaneously. The valley visually holds onto loss; the loss of lived layers. I wasn't lonely in the space of the valley but I did feel aloneness, the unseen presence of the past still so powerfully present.'

McKee describes his practice as a 'make do' process of gathering found materials to create new textile objects. McKee's residency was a time of reflection upon the idea of returning to, or trying to, recreate what has gone.

city of design talkfest

Craft and the centenary
Craft ACT Galleries
Tuesday 1 June 6.pm - 7.pm

Join in a talk, chat and yak about what makes Canberra tick. Drawing out more answers (or questions) Craft ACT with Craft Australia host city of design talkfest - an informal talk examining Canberra and the impact and influence of contemporary craft and design on this city.

This year's city of design talkfest is titled 'Craft and the centenary'. The talk will be an informal discussion focusing on the vital links between craft, design and the legacy of the modernist movement in Canberra 100 years on. Drawing on the influence of industrial designer Fred Ward, and how he considered the emerging modernist movement as the "province of the young and radical ... and a threat to the established social order".

In his work Ward was both a furniture designer maker as well as an influential leader establishing design policy that has been vital for the growth of Australian industrial design.

As we embrace the upcoming Canberra Centenary celebrations, Fred Ward is a reminder of the innovations in design that have shaped our design culture. In reflecting on his work, the city of design talkfest is an opportunity to look at what the future of design in Australia will look like. How does design define the next 100 years?

Evan Dunstone, Dunstone Designs
Furniture designer and maker Evan Dunstone is one of Australia's leading contemporary designers of solid timber chairs. His company, Dunstone Design, is renowned for its fine furniture and obsessive attention to detail. His team of makers are award winning craftsmen in their own right, and choose to work at Dunstone Design so as to be at the cutting edge of craft based furniture in Australia. Dunstone is a regular contributor to Australian Wood Review and a national judge of woodcraft and furniture design exhibitions and competitions.

Barbara McConchie, School Manager, School of Art, ANU
Barbara McConchie is the School Manager, School of Art, The Australian National University where she administers the functions of the School implementing its strategic plan. Barbara McConchie was the Executive Director of Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre for over 7 years. During this time she worked closely with the Management Committee directing the vision and goals for the organisation.

David Headon
Dr Headon is a cultural consultant and historian. Formerly a teacher at ADFA and Director of the Centre for Australian Cultural Studies (1994-2004), he is now Advisor on the Centenary of Canberra in the Chief Minister's Department of the ACT Government, and Advisor to Senator Kate Lundy. Dr Headon is a regular commentator on cultural, political and social issues on ABC television and radio (regional and national) and WIN television. In recent months, he has presented a series of segments on ABC TV's Stateline on Canberra's rich vein of Centenary history.

Gilbert Riedelbauch
As much as the mind links an idea with a design solution, the hand connects design to the making process. Making becomes the extension of design and forms the essence of craft. New technologies play an ever increasing part in Gilbert Riedelbauch's work practice. The skillful manipulation of tools and process - the basis of making - is equally important for digital work and require an experienced hand. These augment and expand all aspects from the sketching to the making, digital technologies have a hand in it. Using the old together with the new calls for new design solutions and informs the resulting objects. http://virtualterritory.wordpress.com

Catrina Vignando, General Manager, Craft Australia
Catrina Vignando is the General Manager of Craft Australia, the national peak organisation advocating for Australian contemporary craft and design and has over 20 years experience in the sector. As an advocate for the sector she is on the boards of companies such as Innovation and Business Skills Council of Australia, IBSA Cultural Sector Advisory Group. She is currently the Secretary of the network of Australian Craft Design Centres, ACDC, and on the inaugural board of the newly formed Australian Design Alliance.

Drop and plop: the art of public sculpture

Public debate at Craft ACT Galleries
Tuesday 8 June 6.pm - 7.pm

Craft ACT and Canberra Contemporary Art Space presents the Fora series. This series of informal discussions and debates examine topical issues surrounding the impact and influence of contemporary craft and design on the cityscape and city dwellers, and form part of the ongoing dialogue associated with the Designing a Capital: Crafting a City program.

Drop and plop: the art of public sculpture explores the validity of public art and its civic function for the people of Canberra. Come and hear the experts and the most opinionated as they debate the question, "Is public art the least democratic of art forms?"

Join host David Broker, Director Canberra Contemporary Art Space and prepare yourself for a night of light hearted humour, opinion and good old fashion hot-headed competitiveness.

To provide food for thought, we leave you with a quote from Jon Stanhope taken from the Civic Public Art Walking Tour guide, 2005:

"Public art is one of the most accessible of all art forms. Located in the places where we work, live and visit, it is increasingly becoming a significant part of our everyday lives."

Michael Desmond
Michael Desmond is the Senior Curator at the National Portrait Gallery. He worked as the inaugural Manager of the Drill Hall Gallery in Canberra and at the National Gallery of Australia as Senior Curator, International Paintings and Sculpture. Until recently he was the Manager of Collection Development and Research at the Powerhouse Museum. Over the last two decades he has developed many exhibitions was responsible for making a number of significant acquisitions.

Karina Harris, Harris Hobbs Landscapes
Karina is a landscape architect in business with her partner Neil Hobbs in Harris Hobbs Landscapes. Karina is on the board of the Canberra Contemporary Art Space (CCAS) and an avid art collector and supporter of the arts.

Dominic Mico, Director, Tuggeranong Art Centre
Dominic Mico is the Director of the Tuggeranong Art Centre and is an experienced playwright having had 25 of his works produced. He has been a theatre director, a radio theatre critic and founder and artistic director of community theatre organisations around Canberra. He worked as the arts and special events director of the Canberra Day celebrations back in 1976 which is now the Canberra Festival.

Kate Murphy
Kate M Murphy graduated from the ANU School of Art in 1995 and has established her artistic practice working across the media of sculpture, installation, video and performance. She is particularly interested in working in collaboration and has been known on occasion, to create public art. Kate exhibits under the name of Ellis Hutch due to the prevalence of Kate Murphys in the art world.

Kate Lundy
Elected for the fifth time, as part of the Rudd Labor Government Senator Lundy is currently Chair of the Joint Standing Committee for the National Capital and External Territories and a long-standing active member of the Senate Environment, Communications and the Arts Committee. She is also one of the Federal Parliament's representatives on the Advisory Council of the National Archive of Australia.

Natalie Thomas
Since graduating from the VCA (sculpture) in 1999, Nat Thomas has collaborated with others on a variety of projects. With nat&ali (1999-2005) she exhibited extensively at galleries around Australia, including the National Gallery of Victoria, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and the Institute of Modern Art, Queensland. Nat Thomas is a founding member of long running artists collective Damp. Damp exhibited in the 2009/10 Asia Pacific Triennial at Queensland Gallery of Modern Art.

Pecha Kucha Canberra @ Craft ACT

Craft ACT Galleries
Wednesday 16 June 7.pm

Pecha Kucha Canberra is back in 2010, and teaming up with Craft ACT to host four spectacular events in the gallery space. Volume 8 falls within the Designing a Capital: Crafting a City program, and highlights the creative hub of artists residing in Canberra. Keep an eye on the Pecha Kucha Canberra website for updates on how to get involved, what kind of goodies you can come away with on the night, and who's who in the Pecha Kucha universe.

Entry is a gold coin donation.

Local Innovations - the second act

Due to unforeseen circumstances this event has been postponed. We will let you know once it has been rescheduled.

Focused on discovering the new, Local Innovations - the second act is an evening of innovative design by established and emerging fashion, hair and beauty designers. Experience this year's collection of winter fashion by independent Australian designers teamed with experimental hair and makeup artists.

Craft ACT presents this catwalk event in partnership with local women's fashion boutique Department of the Exterior.

Craft ACT Bingo Extravaganza

Craft ACT Galleries
Saturday 19 June 6.pm until late

Craft ACT's fundraiser for the year - the Craft ACT Bingo Extravaganza! We invite you to join Nana Bingo for an evening of fun, food and frivolity. A one-off chance to win unique jewellery by Taë Schmeisser, a designer wall lamp by Gilbert Riedelbauch, dinner at Chairman Yip, and many more amazing prizes donated by Craft ACT members and local businesses.

Craft ACT acknowledges the support of the Southern Cross Club and staff in arranging this event.

Entry $20 includes dinner and lucky door prize.

Bookings are essential. Phone (02) 6262 9333.

To make these events happen Craft ACT acknowledges the support of: