Going for Gold
In 2021 we will celebrate Craft ACT’s 50th – golden – anniversary.
Since 1971 CraftACT has played a vital role in sustaining Australia’s high-quality studio practice and supporting craftspeople, designers and audiences. We are proudly one of Australia’s longest continuous-running membership organisations in the visual arts and we celebrate the many ways our close-knit community has nurtured and transformed artists’ practice for half a century.
This milestone has shaped the theme of next year's DESIGN Canberra festival, transformation. We explored the values, tradition and symbolism of gold and, through that, associations such as alchemy and transformation. We remain constantly inspired by the ways that artists and designers transform raw materials and ideas into objects, spaces and buildings to creatively express layers of meaning, history and connection from the domestic to the public sphere.
Craft ACT members from the Ceramics, Glass, Metal, Textiles, and Wood mediums have helped us mark this anniversary. They have mined the Craft ACT archives and proposed defining images/moments for each of the past five decades. These will be shared on Craft ACT social media and website throughout 2021. Thanks to these members for their generous participation: Bev Hogg, Janet Deboos, Anita McIntyre, Kirstie Rea, Sharon Peoples, Valerie Kirk, Jenni Kemarre Martinello, Thor Diesendorf, Gilbert Riedelbauch, Tom Skeehan.
We could also use your help. Do you know the person in this image?