Articles - 29 May 2007

Craft Australia - the General Manager reports

Youth Forum Award Winners

In October 2006 Craft Australia launched its second online forum, Youth@craft·design, targeting youth and emerging makers. The forum identified new pathways to sustainable practices in the arts and included the sage mentoring of emerging makers who have successfully negotiated these issues in the establishment of their artistic careers.

A significant component of the site was the online gallery showcasing the work of students and emerging artists. Craft Australia invited practitioners to participate in the program with the view that a selected artist from each category would be awarded a feature story, profiling their work, in 716.

Craft Australia is pleased to announce that the artists in both the student and emerging maker category have now been selected. The artists are Rosary Coloma and Eleisha Nylund joint winners in the student category and Rhonda Lin in the emerging maker category.

Gaida Macs, the program coordinator for the online forum, will write an article about them that will be featured in the July issue of 716. The selection was based on three criteria, artistic merit, innovation and conceptual development of work. A panel of expert judges made the decision based on the images in the online gallery. They included Pippa Dickson, artist and mentor in the Youth@craft·design online youth forum, Gilbert Riedelbauch artist and lecturer in design and new media at the ANU School of Art and Avi Amesbury, Communications Manager at Craft Australia and ceramic artist.

Thank you to all the artists who submitted images of their work to the online gallery. The work is still viewable on the Youth@craft·design Gallery and will remain accessible from the Craft Australia website for ongoing reference.

On the world scene

The General Manager recently met with 2 international delegates from the museum craft and design fields touring Australia with the support of Austrade and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. They were Jaeyoung Kang, Chief Curator of WOCEF from Icheon Ceramic Museum in Korea, where the 4th World Ceramic Biennale was recently presented. The other visitor was Virginia Tandy, Director of the Manchester Art Gallery who are soon to present Kylie - the exhibition, a fashion exhibition that has been touring Australia.

Their visit was to gain an understanding of Australian contemporary craft design practice with the view of including more Australian work in the exhibitions curated by their respective museums. Programs such as WOCEF in Korea offer lucrative prize money for artists. The exhibition is an international showcase of work in ceramics and affords artists great international exposure for their work.

This year Australian ceramicist, Gail Nichols, was awarded the bronze prize for ceramics and was amongst 5 other international artists to receive awards. Australian ceramicist Janet Mansfield was on the international panel of judges involved in adjudicating the results of this year's biennale exhibition. Final results are available from the WOCEF website.

Some upcoming international biennale's that are currently accepting proposals include the Cheongju International Craft Biennale in Korea, which is open to all mediums. This is also a juried exhibition attracting a grand prize totalling $30,000. Applications due 6 July.

The 2008 Taiwan Ceramics Biennale is another exhibition and competition to consider.

Milan Furniture Fair

While focusing on the international craft·design scene, we include a segment in this news about the Milan Furniture Fair held in April this year. For an overview, Designboom have compiled an amazing array to tantalise and bewilder, for those of us who could not be there.

Of the vast selection it is worth noting the image gallery featuring the work of David Trubridge, New Zealand designer, whose work is currently presented in the Smart works exhibition showing at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. Other Australians featured through Designboom galleries include Susan Cohn who showed work through the contemporary jewellery company Chi ha paura. Want more? Check out the British Council, Designers' Block and Salone Satellite image galleries. Also many design schools have presented the works of their students at the fair.

Given the key focus of this event it is disappointing that not more Australians are officially represented or participating. Perhaps this could be an outcome of the MMM (Maker to Manufacture to Market program) where the marketing of newly developed products is taken to the heart of international design and industry.

Bianca Looney, one of the first of three artists to receive the MMM grant in 2005 presented work at this year's Milan Furniture Fair in the FuoriSalone program in an exhibition called Intentions presented at the Hotel Nhow. Bianca has been a mentor on the Craft Australia Youth@craft·design online forum. Meet Bianca Looney.

Further opportunities for craft artists working in the area of design can be seen on the Craft Australia website through the new initiative we are presenting this year titled 2007 Year of Design calendar. This program highlights activities undertaken in Australia that feature craft and design in the broader design arena.

Catrina Vignando
General Manager
Craft Australia June, 2007