About Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre

I am starting to receive more responses to my invitation to exhibit with us which is fantastic and has made me keen to get on and do a new post.

I've been thinking that I need to do a profile of Craft ACT mainly through images, so have gathered a few together to post. This is to reassure everyone that we really are a contemporary craft and design gallery in the small city of Canberra, Australia.

Craft ACT (and the ACT stands for Australian Capital Territory) is a membership based organisation that has been running for over 30 years.

This is an image of Craft ACT Member Jennifer Robertson holding a piece of her triple layered weaving, with an image of Australia's Parliament House in the background.

The first image above is a work by Itzell Tazzyman titled The World's Imaginary Corners from the exhibition 2 Materials, an exhibition of Craft ACT Accredited Professional Members. The second is an image from the exhibition Geometry Rhythm Light, curated by David Sequira and the image features the work of Deb Jones in the fore ground with the work of Maureen Williams at the back in our gallery.

This is the work of Bev Hogg from our exhibition Dimensions Variable. These figures are all hand built in clay, glazed and fired.

We represent approximately 200 members and a range of medias including textiles, glass, ceramics, jewellery, furniture design, metal and other areas that have a discourse about objects. Each year we exhibit between 150 to 200 artists in our galleries in the heart of the city of Canberra. We also host events which constitute a public program including off site exhibitions, artists talks, forums, debates, festivals, education projects, professional development seminars and more!

Left: Chora, a public art work created by Canadian artist Penelope Stewart as part of the project 24:7 Dwell a series of public interventions; middle: Craft ACT member Imogen Keen launches her new handbag - the Bocket with a joint fashion parade with local fashion retailer The Department of the Exterior; right: Christmas decoration nade by me for the Craft ACT Christmas exhibition.

Craft ACT is a funded organisation by our local government, ACT Government and the Australia Council an arm of the Federal Government. I'll have to post their logo's to this blog as it is important to recognise their support. In Australia we are very fortunate to have Governments who are responsive to the arts and provide public funding for the development of local culture and support to Australian artists. I know this isn't the case in many other countries. We raise a proportion of our annual funds and the rest comes through various grants. A lot of my time is spent writing these grants to secure our future.

Below are some images of our home - Canberra and the front of our building where we are located.

Left: View of Canberra from Mt Ainslie; Centre: The sign to Craft ACT; Right: A view of the National Museum of Australia on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin taken from a hot air balloon.

Well I hope this gives everyone a bit of an insight into Craft ACT. Will blog again soon.

Cheers

Barb