Craft Australia is issuing this press release to notify all of
our readers and followers that the organisation will be closing from 30 April
2012.
Craft Australia was notified in October 2011 that it would
no longer receive funding from the Australia Council for the Arts. With no
alternative means of significant support to continue to deliver national
advocacy services for the craft and design sector, the Craft Australia Board of
Directors agreed to wind up the organisation.
Additional assistance for this purpose was received from the
Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council for the Arts. The Board and staff at
Craft Australia has spent the past 12 weeks ensuring that the organisation is
wound up responsibly and that as far as is practical, all assets, historical
archives and programs be passed on to new host organisations to be managed.
Since it was established in 1971, Craft Australia has played
a critical role in the development of craft and design in Australia. It
staged exhibitions, many of them touring interstate and overseas. The magazine covered developments in Australia as well as from around the world
of craft and design, particularly the Asia Pacific region. And it hosted a
myriad of workshops and conferences that created a strong sense of community
around the pursuit of beauty in crafted objects. While we mourn this loss,
we are pleased to say that as we prepare to close the Craft Australia chapter
of the Australian craft and design book, we have started a new chapter with
Australia’s national collecting organisations and the network of Australian
Craft and Design Centres, ACDC.
Craft Australia website
The Craft Australia website, in its entirety, has been
archived through Pandora, a web archiving program at the National Library of
Australia. This ensures that all the articles and referenced information on the
site continues to be accessed and is able to be referenced.
craft + design enquiry journal
The future
of the C+DE Journal has been secured with new hosts at the Australian National
University School of Art. Transition support to migrate the journal with
minimal disruption was made available from the Visual Arts Board. Craft
Australia developed the craft
+ design enquiry journal in 2009 to promote the research capabilities in the
craft and design sector. Three volumes of the journal have already been published.
Read more.
The digitised image collection
The National
Library of Australia has also been critical in assisting Craft Australia to
digitise the national historical collection of slides. Over 4,000 images from
this collection, made up mostly from the education slide kits developed by
Craft Australia in the 80s and 90s are now accessible online through ehive, an online collection management
portal. This is a tremendous resource for the sector that is free to access and
will now be managed by the National Gallery of Australia who has included this
digital material in their Research Library.
The Historical Collection
We are delighted to have had the support of the National
Gallery of Australia, (NGA) to secure the Craft Australia historical
collection. The forty-one year archive of the organisation, the Craft Australia
Library of monographs, journals and ephemera have all been accepted into the NGA’s
Research Library. In addition, all of the undigitised slides held by Craft Australia and most of
the collection will also be housed at the NGA. This initiative from the NGA,
Australia’s flagship cultural organisation, is an invaluable support for the
future of the craft and design sector. Additional works from the Craft
Australia Collection will also be going to the Tasmanian Museum and Gallery and
the Art Gallery of South Australia.
The Next Step
The Board of
Directors will meet in Canberra on 15 May to hold a Special General Meeting to
complete the winding up of Craft Australia. Communication with Craft Australia
over this period will be limited. Email contact is the best
way to ensure your enquiries are answered.
Other resources
The ACDC network, will
continue to provide national craft and design support for the craft and design
sector. The network will have a rotating secretariat that will initially be
managed by Craft ACT Craft and Design Centre.
On behalf of
the Board and staff of Craft Australia I thank you for your support, your
letters and your comments in the petition.
It is with a heavy heart that we close
this chapter of the Australian craft and design story. However, we feel
confident the future directions for Australian craft and design will provide
equally engaging and evocative chapters.
Catrina Vignando
General
Manager
April 2012
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