SHORT NOTE: A life of design in a city of design

I have always been impressed that two eminent and talented Italian architects, Romaldo Giurgola and Enrico Taglietti, moved to Canberra to pursue their work and both ended up falling in love with the city and settling here. Giurgola is well known as the leading architect for the new Parliament House building, but the work of Taglietti also has an extremely broad-ranging presence across the city.

Chandelier designed by Taglietti in the Italian Ambassador’s residence hangs over the launch of the 2019 DESIGN Canberra festival by Chief Minister Andrew Barr.

Comprehensive exhibition
The work of Taglietti, is featured in a comprehensive exhibition at the Canberra Museum and Gallery until 22 Feb 2026. Taglietti: Life in Design was originally meant to coincide with DESIGN Canberra, but when the festival moved from a yearly event to every second year, they went out of sync. Despite this the exhibition remains highly relevant to the long-running and successful festival, which has strong links with Taglietti and his work.

A life of design in a city of design.

‘The soft power of design diplomacy’
The exhibition is outlined in the background material from the Gallery:

Revhead heaven revisited – the possible promise where cars and culture overlap

Here in Canberra the massive convoy called Summernats has just rolled into town for another year. As usual it has incited the locals in a loud mix of love and hate – almost as loud as the car races themselves. Yet, like it or loathe it, cars are at the heart of everyday Australian life. Even if they don’t interest you all that much, or even if you mainly use public transport, you probably also use a car regularly. The Sunday drive, the regional road tour, the daily commute are all as Australian as burnt toast and peeling sunburn. The annual Summernats road extravaganza in Australia’s national capital celebrates this mobile culture. With some imagination, it could be even more – celebrating a central, while challenging, part of contemporary Australian popular culture.

This year the Summernats crowd were even outrageously blamed by a Canberra Times reader for defacing a string of memorials on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin over the new year – in the usual fashion of random comments that no-one cares about, normally only the Greens would get the blame.

Cars are at the heart of everyday Australian life. Even if they don’t interest you all that much, or even if you mainly use public transport, you probably also use a car regularly. The Sunday drive, the regional road tour, the daily commute are all as Australian as burnt toast and peeling sunburn. 

Summernats brings a mixed bag to the national capital – a large increase in atmospheric polution, a huge jump in stylish haircuts and sleek vehicles and, since last year, a parallel festival of popular culture in hipster heaven Braddon, which this year has been expanded to the whole three days of the main event. There has always been a dark side to Summernats, more so the further back you go, but even last year, but organisers seem to have been actively trying to make the event broader and more inclusive.

Cool little capital - the ambition to make Canberra Australia's creative city

Arts policy in the ACT has been more miss than hit, even though intentions have been good and there have been some worthwhile achievements. Unfortunately often the achievements don’t seem to have sprung from an overall vision of a consolidated strategic policy, which has meant that their full value hasn’t been harnessed. There has been a history of consultation stalling and not producing fruitful results. However, the ambition is currently there and building on some of the previous work, there may finally be a policy that focuses support for the arts and links it to the broader landscape of culture and creativity - if only all the interlinked components can be recognised and implemented.

The history of arts policy – let alone any sort of broader policy about culture or creativity ­– has been an uneven one in the ACT. There’s been a succession of Arts Ministers, the last two of whom – Dr Chris Bourke and Gordon Ramsay – each made valuable contributions in their own way. Chris Bourke in particular established a long-running history of support by the ACT Government for ground-breaking DESIGN Canberra. Gordon Ramsay hinted at a vision by the ACT Government for a broader view of creativity and culture linked to creative industries just before the 2020 ACT election in which he lost his seat. Before them there was also an earlier consultation process to develop a new arts policy in 2015, which didn’t produce much in the way of new useful outcomes.

Craft ACT stall at DESIGN Canberra, it's major public initiative

Now Tara Cheyne, an energetic Arts Minister with strategic vision, has overseen the launch of a new, considerably improved policy, ‘Canberra: Australia’s Arts Capital – Arts, Culture and Creative Policy 2022–2026’. This means we currently have a national process underway to produce a National Cultural Policy to succeed the 2013 Creative Australia policy and complementing that at local level a recently-announced ACT arts policy. How the two policies might intersect will be an interesting question. It seems an ideal opportunity to revisit some of the critical elements that help ensure the success or otherwise of any policy aiming to foster creativity, culture or the arts.

Revhead heaven – travelling together into the mobile future

Cars are at the heart of everyday Australian life. Even if they don’t interest you all that much, or even if you mainly use public transport, you probably also use a car regularly. The Sunday drive, the regional road tour, the daily commute are all as Australian as burnt toast and peeling sunburn. The annual Summernats road extravaganza in Australia’s national capital celebrates this mobile culture. With some imagination, it could be even more – celebrating a central, while challenging, part of contemporary Australian popular culture.

The annual Summernats four-day extravaganza of cars and loud revving motors has been a fixture on the Canberra calendar for as long as I’ve lived here – getting on for 22 years. Plenty of Canberrans hate Summernats because of the noise and the crowds and the petrol fumes. Whether they’d hate a large music festival as much is hard to tell. Maybe it’s the NIMBY syndrome – not in my back yard?

Interest in cars pops up in unexpected places. This one was on the traditional site of the Summernats event, EPIC (Exhibition Park in Canberra), but this was during the weekly Farmers Markets also held there.

Good news in a world of gloom – Craft ACT designs a stronger future on the global stage

Amongst all the gloom at the state of our once thriving creative sector, it’s easy to overlook important successes and achievements. Even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic creative organisations have still been endeavouring to maintain momentum with some of the inspiring projects and programs that had been underway, strengthening international partnerships and building longer-term resilience.

In this challenging environment I almost forgot to mention two very important and encouraging pieces of news from an organisation close to my heart. Canberra-based creative organisation Craft ACT, the umbrella organisation for craft and design in the region, has secured an important international coup for its DESIGN Canberra initiative. DESIGN Canberra’s signature exhibition Glass Utopia, featuring 12 Italian and Australian designers, has been selected for the internationally renowned festival, Venice Glass Week, from 3-26 September 2020.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr launches DESIGN Canberra 2019 beneath the Murano

glass chandelier in the Italian Ambassador's Residence back in the world before COVID-19.

Designs on the future – how Australia’s designed city has global plans

In many ways design is a central part of the vocabulary of our time and integrally related to so many powerful social and economic forces – creative industries, popular culture, the digital transformation of society. Design is often misunderstood or overlooked and it's universal vocabulary and pervasive nature is not widely understood, especially by government. The many promises of design come together in the vision for the future that is Design Canberra, a celebration of all things design, with a month long festival this year. The ultimate vision of Craft ACT for Canberra is to add another major annual event to Floriade, Enlighten and the Multicultural Festival, filling a gap between them and complementing them all.

In a rapidly changing world, heading inevitably down a path of greater globalisation, there is a constant tussle between the local and the national (not to mention the international), between globalisation and regionalism. It’s apparent across Australia, not least in the regional centre in which I live, Canberra – a town which also happens to be the nation’s capital.

‘There is a constant tussle between the local and the national (not to mention the international), between globalisation and regionalism’

In recent years Canberra has reached a cultural critical mass, attracting more people to live, work and study in the city. This has been reflected in an increased level of positive national and international recognition. The annual Design Canberra festival is one sign of this.

Ceramics by artist Tjimpuna Williams, Ernabella Arts Centre, in a Design Canberra pop up, 2015. Design Canberra is firmly based on local creativity, but as a national festival located in Australia's capital, it has broad links. In a perfect example of cross-cultural and cross-national collaboration, the ceramics were created during a residency in Jingdezhen, China, in early 2015, with long-time Craft ACT member, Janet deBoos as host and mentor.

A vision for the designed city – design comes of age in the city of Burley Griffin
A celebration of all things design, Design Canberra is one of the most exciting initiatives of Craft ACT. Having started in 2014, Design Canberra is now entering its third year, with preparations well underway for a month long festival this year. The ultimate vision of Craft ACT for Canberra is to add another major annual event to Floriade, Enlighten and the Multicultural Festival, filling a gap between them and complementing them all.

Design Canberra: culture in the backyard – the thread of design connects arts, culture and creative industries

See main article, 'Designs on the future'

This is part of the article, 'Designs on the future – how Australia's designed city has global plans', about the annual Design Canberra festival and the plans for its future. The ultimate vision of Craft ACT for Canberra is to add another major annual event to Floriade, Enlighten and the Multicultural Festival, filling a gap between them and complementing them all.

When I worked in Canberra on national arts and culture programs and policy for over 13 years I had little to do with Canberra itself. My focus was firmly everywhere else in Australia, rather than my own backyard. 

The OZeCulture conference, the national series of conferences for artists and cultural organisations using the web, was the reason I first moved to Canberra in late 2000. I had come from the Powerhouse Museum to join the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts to organise the first of the OZeCulture series and I was closely involved with all the subsequent conferences.

Culture in the backyard

Since leaving the Australian Government Ministry for the Arts in 2014, and moving into a new stage of my career in the arts and cultural sector, I have found myself much more engaged with local arts and culture in Canberra. 

As part of this I have become involved at the heart of developments with Australian design. Since leaving the Australian Government I have been a member of the Board of Craft ACT since late 2014 and, in parallel, an Adjunct with the University of Canberra through the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research in the Faculty of Arts and Design. 

All of these strands come together with my previous involvement in research and policy for creative industries in the vision for the future that is Design Canberra. The promise of Design Canberra was a major reason I was attracted to Craft ACT in the first place.

The thread of design

Looking back, almost 16 years later, it shows how design flows through so much of the arts and culture sector. It is illuminating to see how this thread connects Design Canberra with work I was lucky to be party to over more than a decade, within museums and other cultural institutions, government departments and creative industries.

See main article, 'Designs on the future'

See related article:

Designs on the future – how Australia’s designed city has global plans
‘In many ways design is a central part of the vocabulary of our time and integrally related to so many powerful social and economic forces – creative industries, popular culture, the digital transformation of society. Design is often misunderstood or overlooked and it's universal vocabulary and pervasive nature is not widely understood, especially by government. In a rapidly changing world, there is a constant tussle between the local and the national (not to mention the international). This all comes together in the vision for the future that is Design Canberra, a celebration of all things design, with preparations well underway for a month long festival this year. The ultimate vision of Craft ACT for Canberra is to add another major annual event to Floriade, Enlighten and the Multicultural Festival, filling a gap between them and complementing them all’, Designs on the future – how Australia’s designed city has global plans.

Like Christmas and Easter, election time seems to arrive before it has even left

Election time seems increasingly to come around almost before the preceding one has passed on. At a pre-election ACT arts forum contenders in local elections pitched their policies and plans. There was too much talk of infrastructure and public art, not quite enough of local, regional and national (and international) synergies and nowhere near enough of the crucial role of operational funding and the importance of creative industries and the clever and clean knowledge economy of the future.

Like Christmas and Easter, election time seems increasingly to come around almost before the preceding one has passed on. Perhaps eventually they will overlap and we will be able to celebrate two Christmases, two Easters and two elections at once, thus saving time and energy. That’s very efficient in the new Malcolm Turnbull sort of way. In the ACT we will be really be having two elections at once – or at least in the same year, as both local and national politicians ask us to tell them how they’ve done.

Pre-election arts forum at local icon, Gorman House Arts Centre.

Last night on a hot summer evening I went to a forum organised by local ACT arts lobby outfit, The Childers Group. Its theme was ‘Vision and support: what’s planned and what’s needed for the arts in the ACT region?’ It was at Gorman House Arts Centre, one of the few old art deco outcrops still surviving on the Canberra urban plain. I was there from personal interest but also representing Craft ACT, since I am on its Board. Of course all the views expressed here (and anywhere, really) are my own.

The intriguing world of tiny exhibitions - Craft ACT shows what small organisations can do

Beyond the big blockbusters, across Australia small and smallish arts and cultural organisations are creating a cultural life with our communities - often below the radar - that belies their size. There are many examples - this is just one. Let's just be grateful and not lose it.

We’re all used to the great big blockbuster exhibitions with all their wow and flutter. They are great. What’s really intriguing though is the world of tiny exhibitions, a babbling brook of activity that flows away – often unnoticed – under the tall timbers of the big institutions.

At Craft ACT at the moment you get four of them at once – in one smallish gallery space. That takes some serious curatorial skill and a big range of talent for a curator to draw on. As a member of the Craft ACT Board I get to go to quite a few of our exhibitions but this set of four really entranced me. Like most other small or smallish arts and cultural organisations we have a strong team to produce our exhibitions – exhibitions coordinator, curator, installation team. Unfortunately, as with other similar organisations, they are all usually the same person – so they have to be good at what they do.

Even, found petals, found cloth, embroidery thread, 2016. Image courtesy of the artist

From East Arnhem Land to Canberra 
Before you even reach the gallery, at the top of the stairs, is a small but beautiful display of handwoven bags in ochre colours from the Ramingining community in East Arnhem Land – as far from Canberra as you can get in Australia. Early career artists Marley and Linda Djangirri Malibirr use traditional craft techniques to express stories of Yolngu culture and country. The work, like many in the other exhibitions, is for sale, but don’t think about it for too long – when I was there almost half were already sold.

Design for policy innovation – from the world of design to design of the world

‘Design and the language of design is very broad – much broader than architecture or industrial or graphic design – the forms we are most conscious of. Design is also very much about processes and the development of concepts across almost all areas of human activity. This means it also has a high relevance to the development of policy to solve pressing social challenges, moving beyond the world of design to embrace the design of the world. In a highlight of DESIGN Canberra this year, respected Dutch presenter Ingrid Van der Wacht led discussion about the relevance of design to innovative policy – from local, highly specific policy to grand strategic policy designed to change whole regions and even nations’.

Design and the language of design is very broad. In some ways it is only its inherent practicality that saves it from veering into the nebulous. It is no accident that the crafty New Zealanders, who seem to understand creative industries and innovation far better than we, have long grasped its importance.

Design is much broader than architecture or industrial or graphic design – the forms we are most conscious of – and these are broad enough areas themselves. Design is also very much about processes and the development of concepts across almost all areas of human activity.
This means it also has a high relevance to the development of policy to solve pressing social challenges. In this area the discussion has moved beyond the world of design to embrace the design of the world.

Hotel Hotel foyer dazzles but design extends to another Canberra industry sector - public policy

These were just some of the many ideas grappled with in the nine days of DESIGN Canberra this year – only the second one to date after the inaugural event last year. Suddenly it has become like an inflatable mattress. Once you get it out of its bag you find you can’t deflate it enough to put it away again.

One highlight of the program this year was an invitation-only roundtable on design for policy innovation with Dutch presenter Ingrid Van der Wacht from the company FACTOR-I. The presentation covered some of the many ways in which design is relevant to policy – from local, highly specific policy to grand strategic policy designed to change whole regions and even nations. It was tailored for a range of policy-makers, including those from both the Australian and the ACT Governments.

From the start the organisers of DESIGN Canberra have been conscious of a unique strength of the event due to it being formulated and based in Canberra. This is the easy relationship with international design initiatives due to the presence of the many embassies in the national capital and the way this smooths the process of international collaboration and exchange. Ingrid Van der Wacht was present for the roundtable – and for a series of other talks and presentations – thanks to the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Creating cities by reinventing them – ‘Creating Cities’ reviewed

‘At first glance Marcus Westbury’s ‘Creating Cities’ book looks small, but it’s far bigger than it looks. The book is about re-energising cities by reinventing them but it’s starting point is a deep appreciation of the particular regional city of Newcastle. The revival of Newcastle is a reflection of the more general trend towards the revival of regional centres in Australia. Cities are crucial to the innovation and creativity that interaction and partnerships based on physical proximity can produce – whether major capital cities or regional cities. The efforts at revival all reflected the critical importance of cities. Each in its own way draws upon creativity and innovation and the cultural diversity which underpins it to create places which are pleasant and interesting to live in and to drive economic prosperity’.

At first glance Marcus Westbury’s ‘Creating Cities’ book looks small, but it’s far bigger than it looks. Perhaps it’s like Doctor Who’s cosmic transportation, the TARDIS – coming from a universe of it’s own, in this case the world of Newcastle, and larger inside than outside. There’s a great deal packed into it’s tiny frame – and the compressed ideas it will generate are even bigger in reach and relevance.

It’s hard to imagine a more timely moment for a book such as this to appear. A new Prime Minister has underlined the importance of cities for Australia’s well-being and prosperity and there is a renewed focus on innovation. What this means in practice and whether it will last will be fascinating to watch.

Cargo ship leaving Newcastle Harbour, 2005

There have been moments in the past where government has been interested in cities. During the production of the still recent National Cultural Policy, the Department of Infrastructure, under various names, had a focus on cities, and there have been other attempts to address the importance of this issue. Perhaps we will see a resurgence of Australian Government interest.

The book is about re-energising cities by reinventing them but it’s starting point is a deep appreciation of the particular regional city of Newcastle. In a strange way understanding the particular story of Newcastle helps us better grasp the huge general lessons about cities nation-wide – and indeed world-wide.

National and local - putting arts and culture upfront

In many ways getting a strategic, broad and visionary framework accepted across government is more important than funding. If the case is successful, then over time funding of various kinds will be more likely.

Arts and cultural policy is an important way out spelling out why and how arts and culture are important to both Australia as a whole and to specific states and regions. The ACT Government is in the middle of a review of its Arts Policy Framework adopted in 2012. The revised Framework will be in operation from the middle of 2015 so it’s important not to waste this opportunity to get it right.

The review raises many strategic issues about arts and culture – issues of much broader relevance than only the ACT. Many of these arose during the development of the National Cultural Policy and it's interesting to see them appear again in a more local and regional context.

'Wide brown land', sculpture above the marvellous Arboretum, by a superb Tasmanian design team, is a symbol of the links Canberra has to many parts of the diverse nation of which it is the capital

Developing arts and cultural policy for the ACT is unique because it is both the capital of the nation – hosting most of our national cultural institutions and a strong international diplomatic presence – and at the same time, an important regional centre.

In praise of the Berra

When I first moved to Canberra, almost as an accidental intersection of geography and employment after the Sydney Olympics, I used to say “if you had lived in Sydney and one day you woke up and discovered you were in Canberra, you would think you had died.” Then I changed my mind. It took ten years but it was inevitable. Berrans are a hardy bunch – they can withstand the hot winds of summer and of Australia’s Parliament, the chill flurries from the Snowy Mountains and the chilling news of budget cuts. The Berra is half-way between everywhere.

When I first moved to Canberra, almost as an accidental intersection of geography and employment after the Sydney Olympics, I used to say ‘if you had lived in Sydney and one day you woke up and discovered you were in Canberra, you would think you had died’.

Canberra in the rain from Black Mountain

Then I changed my mind. It took ten years but it was inevitable.

Floating world - a compromise between warring states

Floating world by an artificial lake

Australia’s national capital is a strange floating world by a mountain lake. Reflecting the dream-like nature of the city, the lake is not a real one and the city is a compromise between warring states.

High country - the dry high winter country

When I moved to Canberra, I discovered that I had come back to the country where I grew up—the dry, high winter country in the shadow of the mountains.

Here in the sky country the coastal plains, after rising through the lush, damp forests of the Southern Highlands, have finally given way to the lofty rocky sprawl of the Southern Tablelands, with its stunted trees and thin, shallow rivers.

The source of the Murray in the shadow of the mountains.

But I didn’t grow up in Canberra, but rather in the dry centre of Tasmania, where the Great Lakes and the mountains of the Western Tiers define the brittle, stony landscape.

A tourist in your own town — revisiting the familiar

The true gift is to be able to be a tourist in your own town – to see your everyday locality with fresh eyes every day.

Those for whom a certain language is their second are often more acutely aware of the idiosyncrasies, foibles and strange delights of the language than are its native speakers.

It is much the same with travelling physically. It is usually the inquisitive visitor who fulfills the function of tourist, directing locals to wonders and curiousities they drive past every day without a glance.

The true gift is to be able to be a tourist in your own town – to see your everyday locality with fresh eyes every day.

Like a long lost masterpiece

Many decades ago in Adelaide when I was much younger and a student I used to march in National Aboriginal Day Observance Committee marches. They were shorthanded to NADOC marches, back in the days when Islanders hadn’t yet been included and there was no ‘I’ in the name. They later became better known as NAIDOC marches.

I realised a while back that I must have been marching under the new Aboriginal flag at its birth because it was designed in Adelaide in those years and would have been first carried in local marches there. I had a poster from those years which I used to cart around with me until one day late in 2004 when I was about to move yet again. I  decided to donate it to the National Library of Australia. As a memento I kept a poor quality photo of the poster.