Place Makers: increasing Canberra’s cultural capital

Posted on 24 September, 2018

Many cities and regional areas boast lovingly about their ‘culinary pantry’: the mix of local produce and production that makes their cuisine unique.

Canberra has a spectacularly creative and cultural ‘pantry’ thanks to its combination of local and national institutions, the networks it builds between the arts and the warmth of the artistic community. Craft ACT is one of the regional intersections of craft, art and design production, and its annual Members Exhibition is always a special meld of skill and imagination.

This year’s showcase is a blockbuster: bigger than ever before, with 75 practitioners across all of Craft ACT’s membership categories: Ceramics, Textiles, Wood, Metals, Design, Paper, Mixed Media, and Glass. The exhibition highlights Canberra’s distinctive identity, distinguished by design, experimentation and craftsmanship.

Bev Hogg, Big Wig 1, 2018. Clay and engobes. Photo: Brenton McGeachie.

The mix of work is heady and exciting. Established local favourites like Bev Hogg (fall in love with Big Wig, her giant cockie) mix with new local favourites like Richilde Flavell, who has developed a ceramics production business called Girl Nomad, used in many of Canberra’s hippest restaurants. There are international stars like industrial designer Tom Skeehan, and a plethora of glass artists – nine, to be exact – who were recently shortlisted in the prestigious Hindmarsh prize. Glass is one of the strengths of the Canberra craft community, and when you see the work on offer, those shortlists are no surprise.

Tom Skeehan, SO Glass Light, 2018. Glass, LED components. Photo: Charlie White.

Place Makers focuses on current and future making and design. See new work by long-time member Annie Trevillian: her gorgeous printed ‘Baby Wrap’ is designed with the love of a doting grandmother. One of the newer members, Daniel Venables, who graduated from the School of Art + Design in 2017, creates an eclipsed vision of the world with his work Occulus iii: Black Sun, a vessel mounted on a stand designed to evoke a the far-sight of a telescope.

The exhibition even spills out of the building with Marilou Chagnaud (Associate Member, Paper) showing her dazzling installation, The Wave Machine, downstairs in CMAG’s outdoor gallery. This collaboration with Canberra Museum and Gallery also showcases Craft ACT’s other huge contribution to the region’s flavour: DESIGN Canberra.

Annie Trevillian, Baby wrap, 2018. Digital print on organic cotton gauze. Photo: the artist.

Mixing and matching artists to programs and creating new opportunities is what Craft ACT does best, and Place Makers is an apt description of the interweaving of people, events and happenings throughout the year. The look for this year’s DESIGN Canberra website and branding has been created by Designer-in-Residence (and Craft ACT member) Chelsea Lemon, a young wood artisan and graduate of the ANU School of Art + Design. It looks like a logo, but it is a real object, shaped and painted by hand, and can be seen in the Members Exhibition.

Daniel Venables, Occulus iii: Black Sun, 2018. Blown glass and timber. Photo: Adam McGrath.

Placemaking is about designing with the past, present and future in mind, to develop identity and pride, and to increase social and cultural capital. Canberra is a place of makers who bring skills, knowledge, dedication and commitment to create their craft, flavour our city and nourish our community. This exhibition is the best place to find them.

Place Makers. Annual Craft ACT members exhibition runs from 6 September to 20 October.

There are a number of artist talks, organised by medium. Keep an eye on the Craft ACT Facebook page for event details.

HerCanberra is a proud supporter of CraftACT