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Friday, 22 February 2019
4:06 PM
Australia’s
leading international design event, Melbourne Design Week, will this year
include a series of exciting events in Geelong. The inclusion of Geelong as a
regional satellite program for Melbourne Design Week (14 – 24 March 2019) is an
important step in raising awareness locally and nationally about our city’s
designation as a UNESCO City of Design and will provide an opportunity for all
Victorians to discover the depth of design Geelong has to offer.
Melbourne
Design Week is an initiative of the Victorian Government in collaboration with the
National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. As a program supporter, the City of
Greater Geelong has worked closely with NGV and we are excited to host more
than 20 events here in Geelong.
In 2019,
Melbourne Design Week is set to present its largest program to date with more
than 200 plus talks, exhibition, tours and workshops that explore how design
can shape the future. It provides a unique opportunity for our design community
to come together, to present new work, debate ideas, and reveal some of the
ways that design is shaping the world around us.
Attendees
will experience pioneering design concepts, hear from world-leading experts and
encounter cutting-edge technologies that help us to consider new and innovative
possibilities for the future. With 17,000 plus residents contributing to the
development of Geelong’s 30-year Vision for a Clever and Creative Future, we
know that our community has a strong interest in harnessing technology and
creative design to create the future that we aspire to.
The Geelong program
includes a broad variety of hosts and topics and the City is thrilled to see
that so many organisations have embraced the opportunity to showcase their
ideas and design achievements. Those involved include: Creative Geelong,
Design-led Innovation Meet-Up, Geelong Gallery, GHD, G2, Geelong Manufacturing
Council, Heritage Council of Victoria, The Gordon, National Trust, The School
of Lost Arts, and The Reimaginarium amongst others.
The City of
Greater Geelong in partnership with Geelong Regional Library Corporation will
present a keynote address with leading architect and educator Jefa Greenaway
who will talk about giving agency to Indigenous voices through design.
Jefa will
also join a panel including Valli Morphett, CEO of CoDesign Studio, Sae Ra
Germaine, Manager Digital Platforms at CAVAL and Peter Seamer, author of Breaking Point: The Future of Australian
Cities (and former CEO of the Victorian Planning Authority and Federation
Square) for a discussion about creating healthy and engaged communities for a
clever and creative city. The City will also present Places for People &
Mixed Mobility which focusses on mobility in the urban space for people of all
abilities.
The program for
Melbourne Design Week in Geelong is available at www.ngv.vic.gov.au/melbourne-design-week/highlights/design-week-in-geelong/.
The full Melbourne Design Week program is available at: www.ngv.vic.gov.au/melbourne-design-week.
Mayor, Cr Bruce Harwood says:
Geelong’s involvement will
add an exciting new element to Melbourne Design Week, and is a direct benefit
of our UNESCO City of Design designation.
During our trip to Europe last year for the UNESCO Creative Cities annual
general meeting, we spoke to other cities who have used design weeks to promote
their local designers and initiatives. This was one of many ideas we brought
back to explore for Geelong. To see it come to life in such a big way less than
12 months later is outstanding.
We’re a clever and creative city with so many talented people across a range of
design fields. It will be fantastic to have them showcase the work they’re
doing to further strengthen our City of Design status. I’m certain people who
attend the various events will learn about a lot of cutting edge design work
happening in our region that they didn’t previously know about.
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