Designing a Capital: Crafting a City

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2010 Designing a Capital: Crafting a City

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Gudgenby traces

The Designing a Capital: Crafting a City 2010 program encouraged 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.

To kick off the 2010 program, audiences experienced the reinterpretation of the local landscape - the Namadgi National Park - through the Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre curated exhibition, Gudgenby traces - Paull McKee and Kirstie Rea.

The program continued with audiences listening to an unfettered panel discussion examining Canberra and the impact and influence of contemporary craft and design on this city at Craft and the centenary, City of design talkfest. Following this, Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre and Canberra Contemporary Art Space presented Drop and plop: the art of public sculpture as part of the Fora series. Everyone enjoyed this great debate as the teams animatedly explored the validity of public art and its civic function for the people of Canberra.

The 2010 program finale ended with Craft ACT's fundraiser - the Craft ACT Bingo Extravanga! - with the hordes joining Nana Bingo in the Centre's Gallery for an evening of fun, food and frivolity.

A bounty of events was on offer that revisited what and who have shaped Canberra thus far, and provided inspiration for the next century.

Gudgenby traces

Paull McKee and Kirstie Rea
Craft ACT Galleries and Crucible Showcases

Gudgenby traces was 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 featured installations inspired by their time spent living in the national park.

Rea drew on her interaction with the space of the Gudgenby Valley. She said, "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.

» Read the exhibition review by Dr Sharon Peoples

city of design talkfest

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

Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre with Craft Australia hosted 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 'Craft and the centenary' was 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 was an opportunity to look at what the future of design in Australia will look like. How will design define the next 100 years?

Speakers

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.

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

Drop and plop

Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre and Canberra Contemporary Art Space presented 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 explored the validity of public art and its civic function for the people of Canberra. The experts and the most opinionated debated, "Is public art the least democratic of art forms?"

Providing food for thought, 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."

Host David Broker, Director of the Canberra Contemporary Art Space, and our great debaters kept the crowd shrieking with laughter, a great night was had by all.

» Canberra Contemporary Art Space - Power and People

Great debaters - team 1: Public art is the least democratic of art forms.

Karina Harris
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.

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.

Dominic Mico
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.

Great debaters - team 2: Public art is the most democratic of art forms.

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.

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.

Pecha Kucha Canberra @ Craft ACT

Pecha Kucha Canberra (PKC) teamed up with Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre to host Volume 7 as part of the Designing a Capital: Crafting a City program. Speakers explored a favourite theme - the possibilities, realities, frustrations and inspirations of our city. We believe that Glen Martin, PKC coordinator, said it all when he described the evening as "another winning installment of Pecha Kucha Canberra".

Craft ACT Bingo Extravaganza

Bingo extravaganza

Craft ACT's fundraiser for the year - Craft ACT Bingo Extravaganza! - was a sell out success. Nana Bingo hosted an evening of fun, food and frivolity with many happy bingo winners proudly leaving the building with prizes tucked under their arms.

Craft ACT acknowledges the generous support of the Southern Cross Club and staff in arranging this event and giving their time on the evening.

Craft ACT thanks local business, supporters and its members who give generously each year donating their craft and design objects to make this evening a success. This year prizes were donated by:

ANU School of Art
Beauty Spot
Beez Images and Designs
Chairman and Yip
National Gallery of Australia
Alison Munro
Amelia Thompson
Barbara Rodgers
Belinda Jessup
Carole Griffiths
Catherine Reid
Eva Shroeder
Georgina Donovan
Gilbert Reidelbauch
Hanny Dewar
Joy McDonald
Linda Davy
Lisa Barrat
Ruth Hingston
Sharon Peoples
Simon Maberley
Sinead Buckney
Tae Schmeisser
Yi Evans

Images (top to bottom)

Canberra Icons
Kirstie Rea, Robin (detail), 2009
[Dining room at the] University House, Canberra, Architect Prof. Brian Lewis, 1961 (detail), Wolfgang Sievers 1913-2007
Canberra Icons
David Broker presenting at Drop and Plop: the art of public sculpture, 2010
Kate Murphy presenting at Drop and Plop: the art of public sculpture, 2010
Karina Harris presenting at Drop and Plop: the art of public sculpture, 2010
Michael Desmond presenting at Drop and Plop: the art of public sculpture, 2010
Gilbert Riedelbauch, Obrut Light, 2009
Diana Hare and Nana Bingo at Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre's Bingo extravanganza, 2009

Photograph 1 and 4: Louise Whyte
Photograph 2: courtesy of the artist
Photographs 3: collection of the National Library of Australia
Photograph 4: courtesy of Pecha Kucha Canberra
Photograph 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10: Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre
Photograph 9: Creative Image Photography

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