In Adelaide in 1956, furniture designer Fred Ward delivered a paper at the 6th Australian Architectural Convention on the problems of furniture design. Ward described Australian furniture design at the time as a practice severely disadvantaged by competition from cheap and poorly made product and restricted by a seemingly endless demand for stylistic copies from the past. Ward identified that these limitations of quality and innovation were, to no small extent, the result of the uncritical and ignorant patronage of the public consumer.
» Catalogue essay by curator Joanne Cys
Fashion is a tricky and volatile playground. With multiple layers and forms consisting of commercial and non-commercial layers, it echoes the very garments it thrives upon. The results are a spectrum of designs ranging from en mass ready-to-wear goods through to the artistry of one-off, crafted pieces.
» A review by Raymond Thomas Hines
The Visual Arts and Craft Strategy (VACS) is a joint government response to the Contemporary Visual Arts and Craft Inquiry Report (the Myer Report), undertaken for the Australian Government by Rupert Myer in 2001-2003. The third issue of the Bulletin highlights some of the projects undertaken by Craftsouth, Craft ACT and Craft Australia.
» Bulletin
Advertisement
International exhibition of design bindings
Where: Depot Gallery II
2 Danks Street, Waterloo (Sydney)
When: 10.00am - 6.00pm Tuesday - Saturday
Until 12 April 2006
Curator's Talk: 2.00pm - 4.00pm
Saturday 8 April 2006
Featuring one hundred and twenty five unique bindings of a limited edition book of short stories by Paul Wenz, written in 1905, and illustrated by Australian artists Daniel Pata, Michael Kempson and Rew Hanks in 2005.
The book is printed on handmade paper from Euraba Paper Company in Boggabilla, NSW. Copies have been bound by one hundred bookbinders from Japan, France, Belgium, Canada, USA, Netherlands, Estonia, New Zealand and Australia.
www.bookbindingexhibitions.com.au
Subscribe to Craft Australia's 716 craft·design and know what's happening in Australian and international craft and design.
Subscribe to Craft Australia's Export discussion list.
To advertise in 716 craft·design, please contact Avi Amesbury at Craft Australia on 02 6273 0088 or avi.amesbury@craftaustralia.com.au
The Australian visual art and craft sector has benefited from a four-year $39 million package known as the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy (VACS). This initiative by the current Government, delivered through the Australia Council, was a result of the recommendations by Rupert Meyer following an inquiry in 2002 into the health and status of the visual art sector.
Reflecting the recommendations of the Myer Report, the strategy has been targeted at supporting individual practitioners, arts infrastructure and marketing. We are halfway through the initiative and questions are being asked about the outcomes of this package. To provide some answers on this issue, the Australia Council organised a meeting in Adelaide in March for the protagonists and recipients of the VACS initiative to discuss the upshot of VACS funding on the visual art sector.
The list of meeting attendees reads like a who’s who of the Australian visual arts sector. (more)
A representative from each of the art sector groups gave a report on the national outcomes achieved in their field as a result of the VACS funding.
Christine Ballinger (ACDO)
Tamara Winikoff (NVACN)
Alasdair Foster (CAOs)
Advertisement
From field to collector grade, here is your opportunity to view and purchase some of the best handmade knives in the world from Australian makers. See hunting and kitchen knives, fine pocket knives, bowies, daggers and swords.
Also knifemaking books, videos and equipment; handle and blade supplies.
All knife sales are restricted to adults, some styles require a collector's permit.
As part of Creative Capital series initiated by FORM in Western Australia Chris Powell, Chair of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) was invited to Australia as a key speaker on the forum program.
Whilst in Australia CHASS hosted a visit to Canberra organising a series of meetings with senior bureaucrats, the heads of cultural institutions and Ministerial staffers.
NESTA is a funding body based in London, set up to support and promote talent, innovation and creativity in science, technology and the arts. It was suggested as a model for Australia in Iain McCalman's recent report to the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council.
The NESTA model invests at every stage of the innovation process; providing early stage seed capital for promising ideas for new products and services; investing in UK talent to ensure it stays in the UK; and experimenting with new ways of engaging the public in science, technology and the creative industries.
Background brief
NT artist Aly de Groot has been selected to exhibit in Talente 2006. Aly is one of eight Australians to have been selected by the German based presenters.
One of the three Merit Awards at the Cowra Arts Festival went to Hilary Crawford, South Australian glass artist for her work Floating cellules and honourable mention to Megan Bottari from the ACT for her glass installation Descending shades of sunshine: from the great Australian series 2006.
Glass artist Janice Vitkovsky is the recipient of the New Design 2006 Object Award for Studio-Based Practice and fashion designer Kasia Billinski for Design for Manufacture. Object's annual design award for final-year design students across Australia introduces the most outstanding design graduates in the country, working across product design, textiles, fashion, ceramics, glass and furniture.
This year’s judges were Steven Pozel (Object), Libby Sellers (Design Musuem, London), Patrick Greene (Museum Victoria), David Clark (Vogue Living), Catarina Vignando (Craft Australia) and Anne Watson (Decorative Arts and Design, Powerhouse Museum).
The exhibition is showing at Object Gallery from 25 March to 7 May and will then travel to the Melbourne Museum.
In August 2004, the Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon Dr Brendan Nelson MP, and the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator the Hon Helen Coonan, announced that the Australian Government would fund a National Review of Education in Visual Arts, Craft, Design and Visual Communication.
The Centre for Learning, Change and Development at Murdoch University has been commissioned to carry out the review, which commenced in June 2005 and will be completed by June 2006.
Get involved
The Inquiry into the recently legislated Sedition Clause included as part of the Anti-terrorism Bill passed by federal parliament in December 2005 is currently underway. Submissions can be easily done online via the Australian Law Reform Commission website.
The Northern Territory Arts and Culture Alliance (NTACA) has engaged Peter Alexander and Graham Walne as consultants to research and assess the feasibility of establishing a Territory wide Arts and Cultural Network. The consultants are seeking input and advice from a wide range of stakeholders in early April. Email jpalex@ozemail.com.au for session dates and times.
Craft Australia is supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.
Craft Australia is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Copyright © 2005 