Living Treasures: Masters of Australian craft - 29 October 2007
Living Treasures - their time has come
The Living Treasures: Masters of Australian Craft series is now firmly cemented into Object Gallery's annual program and we are proud that it has grown to become one of the most significant initiatives within the Australian craft sector today.
As early as 2002, we identified the lack of public recognition of Australia's most prominent crafts practitioners as an opportunity for Object. We decided to take a bold lead in celebrating and recording the work of the most outstanding and influential individuals in the field. In settling on the title, Living Treasures, we were consciously evoking the wonderful Japanese tradition of recognising national living treasures. We believe it is the best term to enable a broad public to better appreciate the cultural value of these important artists and the craft skills they have each spent decades perfecting.
Each year Living Treasures is developed to include a major monograph publication surveying the artist's career, a solo exhibition of new work by the artist at Object Gallery, a public lecture and a national tour of the exhibition to regional and metropolitan centres around the country. The artists are selected by a jury of well respected curators following a national nominations process where six artists have been chosen to date; Les Blakebrough (ceramics, 2005), Klaus Moje (glass, 2006), Marian Hosking (jewellery, 2007), Liz Williamson (textiles, 2008), Kevin Perkins (wood, 2009) and Robert Baines (metal, 2010). In 2009 we will begin the process to select the next three Living Treasures.
Our objective from the beginning was highly ambitious for our organisation and it was crucial to form partnerships to achieve our aims. Craft Australia and the state craft and design organisations were all supportive from the beginning. Core funding for each show has come from Object's National Exhibitions Strategy, a program funded by the Australia Council. Additional resources to produce each show and publication have come from various state governments, universities, foundations and sponsors.
Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of the Living Treasures program to date is the extraordinarily positive response that we have received from audiences, the media, tour venues and schools. The first two exhibitions have been an enormous success as they both continue to tour well into next year. The Marian Hosking show will travel to 12 venues nationally over the next two years and, based on previous success, some venues have even booked future Living Treasures shows without even knowing who the exhibitors might end up.
It is encouraging that there is such strong interest in these icons of Australian craft.
Steve Pozel
Director
Object: Australian Centre for Craft and Design
October, 2007
