Saturday 20 December 2008

Goodbye for now...

With 2008 almost out the door and 2009 hot on its heels, it's time for a well deserved rest and some sprucing up to usher in the new year. Craft Victoria will be closed from today, Saturday 20 December and will reopen on Monday, 19 January with a fresh coat of paint and everything!

We recently had our staff Christmas breakfast at our friendly neighbour, Cumulus Inc. A scrumptious feast, just-right coffee and good company was a great start to the day. We also exchanged our Kris Kringle gifts - hurrah for presents! Here are some sneaky shots yours truly snuck in while everyone was unwrapping...




Carmel unveiling Steph's present - a Holly Daze tote bag (hmm, we wonder where she got that from!) and Liz with her very first work of art, a canvas print by Anika (of Sneak Design!)



Steph and her new Christmas decorations (made by Carmel, aww!), Lucy and her surprise gift pack filled with origami goodness and then some, and Trevor before unwrapping his personalised tshirt emblazoned with the words: "Accountants do it better." Forget you, Katherine Hamnett!

But let's not forget what a year it has been! We've had such a glorious exhibition schedule, starting with Cecilia Fogelberg's Super Groupie, Diana Page's Once Upon A Moment and Caz Guiney's Precious Nothing kicking off the season. After that was Craft Victoria's touring exhibition How You Make it, which was lovingly curated by Kate Rhodes. The exhibition recently passed through Object Gallery in Sydney and more recently Latrobe Regional Gallery in Victoria. It is currently in transit at the moment and it's next appearance will be at the Fremantle Arts Centre, WA which is good news for all our friends in the 8000! For the list of destinations, click here.

Next up we had Tiffany Parbs' cosmetic, Stephen Banham's typography exhibition Orbit Oblique and Jessica Morrison's Beast take over the space. Following on from it was installation/illustration genius Dylan Martorell and his exhibition Umbel Ballits which was part performance, sound installation, evolving artwork and greenhouse. We also had Occasional Tables, an exhibition of lovely woodwork from Roderick Sprigg as part of the Next Wave Festival: Closer Together in Gallery 2, and Deirdre Feeney's video installation tell the walls i'm coming in Gallery 3.

With half the year gone and with such an illustrious roster of exhibitors already, expectations were indeed high and Marian Hosking's retrospective exhibition Jewellery did not disappoint at all! Celebrating her achievements and 40 year career, it was truly a stunning exhibition. Following on from that was the launch of new Craft Victoria program A Month About Making, which replaced the Scarf Festival. There was a range of satellite exhibitions, seminars, open-bench residencies, maker events, workshops and talks, and of course the jewel in the crown that was In The Making, an exhibition of work from our professional members.

The weeks flew by and soon it was time to usher in RMIT's Urban Interior Research Group's exhibition Interior Occupation. With performances changing every day, this one kept everyone on their toes with what to expect next! A blink-and-you'll-miss-it exhibition (it ran for just under 2 weeks), it was soon time for Irene Grishin-Selzer's Love You More Than Life, Stephen Gallagher's Melancholic Nites/Arcadian Daze and Anna Davern's Buena Vista. It was yet another stunning exhibition and Anna even hosted a metal collage workshop on a sunny Sunday afternoon to an intimate group of ladies!

With not many months left in 2008, it was time for our penultimate show featuring Julia deVille's Ossuarium, our very own curated exhibition Making Sense and Tamara Marwood's a little ladylike tinkling and smearing. To end things with a bang was our annual Filippo Raphael Fresh! exhibition, a thoughtfully curated show featuring graduate students from across the state.
A big thank you to the thousands of visitors we've had over the past year and for your lovely company during exhibition openings and the like. We couldn't have done it without you! We hope you've enjoyed reading CLOG and we'll back again next year, on Monday 19 January.

Enjoy the festive season and we hope that your bellies are full, the laughter is loud and that your resolutions are optimistic. See you next year!

Love,
The Craft Victoria team.

No comments: