Elements

Canberra is home to many of Australia's internationally renowned practitioners and has a reputation as a seeding ground for creative development. To celebrate the achievements of Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre members, past and present, the Centre curated a series of group exhibitions titled Elements. This series highlights the diversity of craft and design mediums - metal and jewellery, glass, fibre, ceramics and wood - and showcases work by influential and leading craft practitioners and designer makers.

The series won 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."

Elements: metal

Elements: metal, the first exhibition in the Elements series, showcased artists Eugenie Keefer Bell, Sean Booth, Robert Foster, Johannes Kuhnen, Rohan Nichol, Sabine Pagan, Gilbert Riedelbauch, and Oliver Smith.

Elements: glass
by Patsy Hely, Canberra artist and academic

Elements: glass, the second exhibition in the Elements series, showcased artists Helen Aitken-Kuhnen, Clare Belfrage, Judi Elliott, Klaus Moje, Kirstie Rea, Itzell Tazzyman, Blanche Tilden and Richard Whiteley.

Elements: clay
by Peter Haynes, University Art Curator, University of Canberra

Elements: clay, the third exhibition in the Elements series, showcased artists
Greg Daly, Janet DeBoos, Patsy Hely, Bev Hogg, Ian Jones, Anita McIntyre,
Gail Nichols, Kaye Pemberton, Joanne Searle, Jaishree Srinivasan, Hiroe Swen and Alan Watt.

Elements: fibre
by Julie Ryder, practicing textile designer, artist and educator for the past 20 years and Accredited Professional Member of Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre

Elements: fibre, the fourth exhibition in the Elements series, showcased artists Keiko Amenomori-Schmeisser, Valerie Kirk, Sharon Peoples, Belinda Ramson, Jennifer Robertson, Barbara Rogers, Fay Skyring, Annie Trevillian and Monique van Nieuwland.

Elements: wood
by Rodney Hayward, craftsman and academic

Elements: wood, the fifth exhibition in the Elements series, showcased artists Ian Guthridge, Matthew Harding, Scott Mitchell, Adrian Potter, Richard Raffan, David Upfill-Brown and Edward Collett.

Elements: leather
by Meredith Hinchliffe, Curator, Canberra arts writer and advocate

Elements: leather, the sixth and final exhibition in the Elements series, showcased artists Penny Amberg, Linda Davy, Colin Lee and Judy Parker, and ran over two exhibition periods in the Crucible and Foyer Showcases.