Author: WoCCA

Please join us for a Cooee via Zoom about contemporary jewellery in our national collections. Speakers:

• Eva Czernis-Ryl (Exhibition Curator) Powerhouse Museum
• Simeran Maxwell, (Associate Curator – Australian Art) National Gallery of Australia
• Tiffany Shafran (Coordinator Exhibitions and Public Programs) from Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery.

The discussion will be led by WoCCA board members Vicki Mason and Liz Shaw.

Date: Tuesday 22nd April 
Time: 5-6pm (AEST) 
1 hour event via Zoom 

Register here

Craft Cooee is a bimonthly event on various craft topics within the South Pacific Region. It is a casual chance to get together for a chat. We hope you will join us on the 22nd April 2025!

Image: 2023 Award Winner Zoë VENESS / Wreath 2023 / Neckpiece: archival paper, stainless-steel cable, sterling-silver tubing / 42 x 42 x 4cm / Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery – Toowoomba City Collection 2417 / Purchased 2023 with funds donated by Toowoomba Gallery Society Inc., 2018 / © Zoë Veness

Join us for a Zoom event hearing from glass makers across Australia and Aotearoa / New Zealand.

Date: Tuesday 18th February 
5-6pm AEST / 7-8pm NZ 
1 hour event by Zoom 

With speakers from Australasia involved in glass conferences, residencies and awards. This is a World Crafts Council Australia event.

Zoom registration here

Speakers:

• Kirstie Rae, recipient of the World Crafts Council Craft Masters Award (along with Jennifer Kemarre Martinello) – speaking about the AusGlass Conference, Poatina, Tasmania / Lutruwita, Australia 14-16 Feb 2025
• Philip Stokes, upcoming NZ Society of Artists in Glass NZSAG conference ‘Gather’ Whanganui, New Zealand 21-23 Feb 2025
• Clare Belfrage, inclusion in Homo Faber Guide (Italy) @homofaber and the Soneva Fushi – Artist Residency (Maldives)
• Mel Douglas, Soneva Fushi (Maldives) and Loewe Craft Prize finalist (Spain / Korea)
• Nadèdge Desgenétez, recipient of the FUSE Glass Artist Residency (Australia)
• Levi Hawken, Molly Morpeth Canaday Award finalist (New Zealand)

With moderator Layla Walter hear about FUSE Glass Prize (Au), Tom Malone Glass Art Prize (Au), Canberra Glassworks, NZ Glassworks, Jam Factory, and congratulations to the New Zealand artist who received the prestigious Rakow Commission 2024 (Corning Museum of Glass, USA)

Craft Cooee is a bimonthly event on various craft topics within the South Pacific Region. It is a casual chance to get together for a chat. We hope you will join us on the 18th of Feb 2025!

Image: Kirstie Rae, Australian recipient of the World Crafts Council Craft Masters Award

Liz Williamson (1949-2024) was a revered Australian craftsperson. Since she began weaving in the 1970s, Liz dedicated herself to textiles as a creative medium. Her beautifully textured scarfs were worn proudly as an icon of Australian craft. Her exhibition work reflected a deep commitment to the power of weaving as an expression of our cultural identity. This was realised most recently in her epic Weaving Eucalyptus Project (2020) which toured Australia. Besides her own work, Liz was a prolific teacher and generous mentor. In 1997, she established textiles at the College of Fine Arts UNSW where she taught until 2020. She was also tireless in travelling around Australia and giving workshops, especially at her beloved Sturt Gallery & Studios. Beyond all this, she was a proud champion of Australian crafts, which she demonstrated when she was elected President of the World Crafts Council – Australia in 2022. In 2007, the Australian Design Centre designated Liz as an Australian Living Treasure and in 2023 she was selected for the World Crafts Council Craft Master Award.

This recent loss is a shock to all of us at World Crafts Council – Australia. We send our condolences to all those who knew her. We will share details of any upcoming events in her memory.

THE TEXTILES ISSUE – contemporary Australasian Textiles

Join the World Crafts Council Australia board for an online conversation about contemporary textiles with the editors of the recent Art Monthly Australasia magazine, Julie Ewington, Anne Brennan and Blake Griffiths. Writers in The Textiles Issue explore different approaches to making, individual memory and cultural associations and teases out why textiles are so visible in contemporary cultural conversations, in exhibitions, biennials and triennials. The editors will give insights in their research and the surprises / difficulties / issues involved in making ‘The Textiles Issue’. 

Julie Ewington is a curator and writer based in Sydney with a lifelong commitment to exploring work by Australian artists and a passion for textiles of many origins. She is Chair of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Arts and a member of the Board of Samstag Museum of Art. 

Anne Brennan is a freelance writer who has published extensively on craft, design and the visual arts. Her long immersion in craft and design, initially as a practitioner and then as an academic in an art school, has fuelled an enduring interest in the relevance of craft’s analogue processes in a post-industrial world. 

Blake Griffiths is an artist and curator with a focus on textiles. His practice is informed by a research interest in textile thinking. As an arts worker, Blake has championed regional arts practice and is the current Head of La Perouse Museum. 

Date: Tuesday 8 October 2024, 4pm to 5.30pm. 

Registration: Zoom
Magazine: Art Monthly Australasia, THE TEXTILES ISSUE, Quarterly issue 339, Winter 2024. https://www.artmonthly.org.au/current