2022 Craft ACT's Annual Report

Culture on the Move director,
Ronnie Jordan (Kalkadoon Pitta
Pitta), and her son, Colin Jordan,
taught bush animal weaving to
children of all ages at the Canberra
Centre. Ceramic artist, Fran
Romano, taught ceramic vessel
making at the Canberra Centre to
an enthusiastic group of under 12s.
In addition to these workshops,
DESIGN Canberra ran drop-in
craft sessions at the Friday City
Sessions at the Festival Hub. These
featured clay hand building with
Craft ACT staff and weaving with
Wiradjuri artist, Jessika Spencer.
The Nurture Making by Hand
workshops were held in the
Festival Hub Shop workshop
space, Civic Square, and Canberra
Centre by Craft ACT member
artists across a variety of mediums
and employed craft and design
techniques to promote wellbeing.
Wellbeing activities included
textiles, silk painting, clay making,
felting, stitching, spoon making,
and spatial weaving. The adult
and kids’ creative workshops
raised $11,475 for our artists and
attracted 566 participants, with
126 participants in our Creative
Kids program.
The DESIGN Canberra Festival
featured 31 exhibitions across
multiple venues. These exhibitions
showcased Craft ACT artist
members as well as local, national,
and international practitioners. The
diversity on show demonstrated
the breadth and depth of which
craft and design is the fore front
of our everyday lives. The Festival
kicked off early with:
• the inaugural 2022 Robert
Foster F!NK National Metal Prize,
honouring the late Robert Foster
by celebrating ten contemporary
metalworkers, designers, and
craftspeople.
• Home Life curated by Elisabetta
Pisu, with DESIGN Canberra
partners the Embassy of Italy
and IMF Foundation in Rome,
an exhibition speculating how
household objects will evolve.
• Seeing Seventies, showcasing
the results of the 2021 DESIGN
Canberra Festival photography
competition with the theme,
‘Design in the 70’s.
In addition, the Canberra
Contemporary Art Space hosted
a number of the Festival’s
exhibitions. This included:
• New Zealand artist, Tyler
Jackson and his exhibition
Aurora—a light bathed
installation designed with
influence from the Bauhaus;
• Designer-in-Residence Lucy
Irvine’s The Stills, the signature
work of the Festival.
• A collaborative work,
Roguetopia, by Lucy Irvine and
Davey Barbar, of an invading
contemporary weaving
infiltrating iconic 1970’s Canberra
architecture.
• HOME:MADE, a curated
Eggpicnic Canberra Airport Installation, DESIGN Canberra, 2022. Photography 5foot
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