Promoting Australian Indigenous designers
Lisa Cahill is CEO and Artistic Director at Australian Design Centre. With more than 25 years of experience, just prior to joining ADC, she was the founding CEO of the Australian Design Alliance. She has held various government roles in Canberra and Melbourne, a stint as a Ministerial Adviser, SBS, the Australia Council for the Arts and the City of Sydney. She was also Research Manager for the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies. Working variously as a Curator, Writer and Creative Producer in the visual and performing arts, Lisa co-curated the Australian exhibition for the Triennale of Craft in Kanazawa, Japan in 2013 and New Weave: Contemporary Approaches to the Traditions of Weaving at ADC in 2014. Currently Lisa is co-chair of the Australian Craft and Design Centre Network and is a member of the Council of the Sydney Culture Network.
Australian Design Centre (ADC) supports and promotes Australian Designers who work with Indigenous art and craft. The Centre is based in Sydney but its foot/exhibitions are all across Australia.
Living Treasures has been the main exhibition platform for the last fifteen years and one masterwork is presented each time. Some of the significant exhibitions and works of ADC include ‘Dhuwi’ by Lucy Simpson which represents men and women in their community, weaves by Lorraine Connelly Northey, Tjunkaya Tapaya’s self-portrait by weaving grasses, Nicole Monks’ work based on kangaroo, Lola Greeno’s work with shells which represent Tasmanian indigenous culture. Furthermore projects include Open House, Isolate Make etc.
Open House: Tamworth Textile Triennial showcased a shark made with ghost-nets. These were the nets which were discarded in the sea. Isolate Make: Creative Resilience in a Pandemic was a project in which the ADC commissioned 9 artists. Lucy Simpson was one of them who collected bullet shells and strung them together into a long necklace which reminds one of the aboriginal deaths in custody. They also sent out 100 blank journals handmade by indigenous craftsmen and received 60 back which were displayed. These journals consist of different views on the impact of colonisation on indigenous people.
Apart from exhibitions and projects, ADC also organises a number of talks and events. They organise a series of lectures like Design 101, a window gallery like Object Space located in the window of Australian Design Centre HQ on William Street in Darlinghurst. Mural project is a collaborative work of Jason Wing, Dennis Golding and Lucy Simpson which represents the connection to the indigenous ancestors. The Jewellery project helps the artists create and sell traditional jewelleries which are sold through an object shop.