2022 Craft ACT's Annual Report

Goal 2: Collaboration
Ensure more local, regional, national, and global audiences have access to, and engage
with, the Australian craft and design community.
Dairy Road DESIGN Markets, DESIGN Canberra, 2022. Photography 5foot
Audience
development +
attendance
The DESIGN Canberra Festival
is the primary outreach
program of Craft ACT. It fosters
innovation, facilitates quality
discourse, supports professional
development, and promotes
social inclusion. After two years
of the pandemic, the Festival
made an impressive comeback—
with the 2022 program bigger
than ever before with over 250
events including symposiums,
talks, tours, exhibitions, public art
installations, and workshops for
audiences of all ages leading the
community forward into a new
level of creativity, connection,
wellness, and urban activation.
The results for the 2022 festival
were impressive with significant
increases in audience diversity,
numbers, and satisfaction (full list
of statical data see page 10).
In 2022, we commissioned two
evaluation projects to develop
qualitative evaluation frameworks
and methodologies to measure
the impact of the Festival
programming on our audiences,
partners, and stakeholders based
on our organisational values
of connection, inclusivity, and
wellbeing. We worked with DESIGN
Canberra partners University
of Canberra and Thinkplace in
co-designed workshops, and
implemented evaluation tools
including surveys, interviews, and
focus groups during the festival to
inform the continuation of highquality
audience experiences and
inform the development of a more
sustainable festival model based
on quality outcomes for both
audiences and stakeholders.
The four main concepts selected
to evaluate were connection,
wellbeing, creativity, and inclusivity;
with the results indicating that of
these concepts, ‘inclusivity’, was
ranked highest by our audiences.
An encouraging outcome for
Craft ACT—proving that the wider
community of both members
and participants felt welcomed
by and included in the Festival.
We were delighted to discover
from the results that more than
78% of attendees felt connected
to a shared creative experience
in an inclusive environment, with
more than 70% stating that after
engaging in a DESIGN Canberra
program their wellbeing had
improved.
Online inclusivity was commended
in relation to the Creative
Journaling Challenge and the
online workshops for those not
living in Canberra. Delivering
workshops online extended our
audience reach, with attendees
joining from all over the ACT
region, Sydney, regional NSW,
Victoria, and Queensland.
‘Creativity’ was also readily
recognised and powerfully felt
through active participation in
activities such as Nurture Making
by Hand workshops and the
Creative Journaling Challenge. We
were excited to find that other
kinds of participation were also
seen as creative, in a more passive
way, such as attending artists talks
or producing events as a member
of a cross promoted organisation.
A sense of connection; sense of
wellbeing; creative experiences;
and inclusive experiences are
what Craft ACT aims to continue
to focus on with our community.
Through these guiding values we
will continue to grow and maintain
our audiences with integrity and
depth.
DESIGN Canberra audience
development and attendance
snap shot:
Engaged 470,660 people
(↑310% from 2019)
51% new visitors to the Festival
27% Interstate audiences
75% new audiences online
Enhanced creativity, inclusivity,
and wellbeing
78% of attendees felt
connected to a to a shared
creative experience in an
inclusive environment
70% attendees stating that
after engaging in a DESIGN
Canberra program their
wellbeing had improved.
DESIGN
Canberra Festival
programming
The ninth edition of the DESIGN
Canberra Festival asked how
we can and should transform
our world though design. In the
context of the challenges our
community and our world have
faced over the last few years
including the global pandemic,
the climate emergency, the fires,
and the floods; this year's festival
used design thinking and creative
enterprise to solve the big issues
of our time, improve our wellbeing;
and to foster a vibrant, equitable,
sustainable, and innovative
23