SCW19 | Theme and date announcement

Sydney Craft Week returns in 2019 with a mission to recognise the exceptional quality of local craft, while also unlocking our sense of joy in making with the theme “Play”.

Australian Design Centre is excited to be launching the third Sydney Craft Week (SCW), a ten-day festival from Friday 11 – Sunday 20 October 2019.

SCW unites the very active craft sector within Sydney's creative community - including ceramicists, jewellers, quilters, knitters and other textile artists, plus timber workers, print makers, leather crafters, Indigenous makers and creatives of all kinds who work with their hands. Events are held all over Sydney, from inner city, to suburbs north, south, west and east of the city centre – with a spattering of events found in the Greater Sydney region and beyond.

Theme

Play is this year’s festival theme. The act of playing allows us to create openly, with a sense of spontaneity and joy. It gives us license to be experimental, to try new things and make mistakes. Play is educational – it helps us to discover or rediscover techniques and to consider new thinking and concepts.
 

In 2019, SCW encourages you to immerse yourself in all things play. Switch off and create. Be inspired to consider new possibilities. Dive into a new craft or reconsider your approach to creating. Play should not just be for kids– we want to see young and old and everyone in between cutting, pasting, hammering, stickering, sewing, weaving, wielding, squishing, firing, carving, building, moulding, embellishing and reinventing. Playing for the sake of play!

Creativity is encouraged in submissions to this year’s festival. We want to see how you play with this theme.

2019 Advisory Panel

We are delighted to have the support of our 2019 Advisory Panel to help shape the festival. Thank you to: Sky Carter, Liza Feeney, Felix Gill, Bridget Kennedy, Deb McDonald, Janine Smith and Bic Tieu. We will be introducing the panel to you over the next few weeks on social media.

Call for Entries

Galleries, retailers, art and design schools, cultural institutions, organisations, collectives and individuals are invited to register an event to be part of the festival. Events might be an exhibition, talk, workshop, market, retail event, open studio or installation. Applications are open 2 May - 12 June, enter now.

Key Dates for 2019

2 May: Entries open

12 June: Entry deadline

11 July: Participants notified and ad specs sent

25 July: Final text and images sent to ADC for program

19 September: Program live

Festival: Friday 11 – Sunday 20 October 2019

Opening Night: Friday 11 October 6pm – 8pm at ADC

Craft Up Late:

Tuesday 15 October 5pm – 8pm: Sydney City, Darlinghurst, Surry Hills and Redfern 

Wednesday 16 October 5pm – 8pm: Eastern Suburbs 

Thursday 17 October 5pm – 8pm: Inner West

Fees

Participant fee: $83 incl. GST

Program ad fee: Half page $208 incl. GST; Full page $290 incl. GST; Double page $400 incl. GST

Please note that this year, SCW has changed the terminology for entries from “EOI” to “entry” – the process has not changed and entrants are still required to pay their participant fee on submission of their entry.

More information

Stay tuned next week for more information on the application process and festival program. Find SCW news stories here.

If you have any questions, please get in touch with the Sydney Craft Week team

Email: hello@australiandesigncentre.com

Phone: 9361 4555
Web: www.sydneycraftweek.com
Social: @sydneycraftweek

Images

Paula do Prado, Conduit (detail), 2018, Photo: Document Photography; Paula do Prado, El Grito, 2018, Photo: Document Photography

Thank you to Paula do Prado for sharing these images with us.

Paula do Prado lives and works on Gadigal Land (Sydney). Born on Charrúa and Guaraní land (Montevideo), Uruguay, Paula emigrated to Australia in 1986.  Her work explores the intersections between her African, Hispanic and European heritage together with her experience of living as a migrant on stolen land. Paula’s practice is predominantly textile based but also includes self-portraiture, painting and objects.

We asked what Play meant to Paula in her creative practice: “To play is to learn, to refine, to risk, experiment, challenge, perform and rehearse. I am a maker. Play is essential to my being. With each stitch, with each internal and external flow and coordination of movement, my mind, body and soul are at play. Play is divine. As my hands and fingers are in movement, weaving, beading, threading and bending, I am doing the ‘work’. Play is active resistance. I create using my hands and call on my ancestors. Play is a space for joy and love.”