Festival showcases artists with designs on the creative capital

As Craft + Design Canberra celebrates its annual festival this month with events by hundreds of artists across the city, if visitors open their eyes to only one thing – regeneration – Jodie Cunningham will be one happy CEO.

Regenerate is the theme of this year’s festival, the group’s 10th, where an innovative program of exhibitions, talks, tours, activations, open studios and workshops connect to the idea of regeneration but, importantly, according to Ms Cunningham, celebrate Canberra as a creative capital and a global city of design.

“Canberra’s reputation as a hub for creativity and innovation draws together the layered legacies of Ngunnawal cultural practice, in which design, making and culture are intertwined; Walter and Marion Griffin’s visionary design for the city; significant mid-century architecture; and world-class contemporary art and design,” Ms Cunningham said.

More than 22 exhibitions will be held across Canberra this month, celebrating the work of 500 local, national and international artists, craftspeople and designers.

She said the festival connected Canberra with creative minds who champion design-thinking, collaboration and the power of hand-made craftsmanship to drive innovation and tackle real-world challenges, offering a hopeful vision for the future.

“The 2024 festival showcases the incredible capacity of design-thinking and supporting local creative enterprise to solve the big problems of our time.”

She said one such “big problem” of our time, climate change, was at the forefront of this year’s festival.

“We must focus our efforts on reversing the devastating impacts of climate change,” she said.

“It is no longer enough to be sustainable. We must innovate to regenerate environments, relationships and communities.”

Various festival events are being held across the city, with four exhibitions staged at the Festival Hub in Civic Square. They include Urban Biome, a modular art installation showing how regenerative design, material reuse and the integration of native plants can transform public spaces.

Ms Cunningham said Urban Biome was a collaboration between three designers and makers: Thor Diesendorf of reclaimed timber workshop Thor’s Hammer, glass artist Spike Deane from Canberra Glassworks and horticulturalist David Taylor from Ephemeral Country.

The design features handcrafted hexagonal decking tiles, planter boxes and seating made from recycled timber, steel and recycled plastic. It includes terrazzo tile planters, pots and dishes crafted from upcycling broken glass offcuts from the Canberra Glassworks.

“The array of plantings illustrates the interaction between Australian flora and extreme weather events, such as fires, showcasing the regenerative capacity of Australian plants, and highlights how we can enrich landscapes as caretakers of our unique biodiversity,” she said.

“Businesses, government agencies or members of the public will be able to purchase components of the installation – or the whole thing – upon the festival’s conclusion and relocate elsewhere in the city, in their own backyard, courtyards or the like.”

Another of the major exhibitions includes the work of finalists in the Robert Foster Metal Prize, which was won this year by Queanbeyan artist Larah Nott for her work Sake Set number 2 2024.

The judges were unanimous in their choice, saying: “We loved the way this work draws from the traditions of metal craft while offering a clear conversation about the role of technology in the future of metal. Bridging the hand to the digital, software and ancient tools. This is what we were looking for.”

Ms Cunningham described the work of all finalists as exceptional, saying they “showcased imagination, high-quality making skills, good design and innovation. This blending of ideas and practice can regenerate how we see and interact with the world around us”.

This weekend, visitors are invited to a variety of open studios where they can meet the artists and see how they work with glass, textiles, ceramics, mixed media, photography and wood.

“The festival is all about unleashing creativity and nourishing well-being,” Ms Cunningham said.

For more information, visit Craft + Design Canberra Festival 2024.