Ballarat ✿ UNESCO Creative City for Craft and Folk Art

Enjoy our stories that feature Ballarat, a city in central Victoria that builds on its gold rush heritage to foster skilled making with meaning.

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Andrea Barker: Memory of a Shard  - Catherine Payne finds archeological resonances in the ceramic works by Andrea Barker.
Steph Wallace ✿ Holding the Void - Our June Laurel has made a vessel that reflects the volcanic and mining cavities that resonate through her second home in Ballarat.
Russell Jack ✿ Saving dragons - Dianne Dempsey's biography of Russell Jack reveals how caring for the dragon was a way of sustaining a Chinese diaspora culture.
The hidden art of flower petal bead making - Shalome Lateef threads stories and petals into garlands of prayer.
Loom Rescue Group: Holding the thread together - Ana Petidis continues the collective spirit of the Handweavers and Spinners Guild
Basketmakers of Victoria: Projects with fibre - Jan Chamberlain reflects on an organisation that loves working together.
The Selkirk House commission: Drawing is knowing - Bren Luke's illustrations highlight the precious details of heritage architecture.
Brisbane Art and Design Festival 2023: A vessel for diversity of creative practice  - Pamela See reviews a ceramics exhibition that reveals a vibrant Brisbane scene using clay as a language of fragility
Gilty: Consuming contemporary jewellery - In her audacious exhibition, Claire McArdle invites the audience to consume and destroy her precious jewellery.
Make and bring your own chopsticks - We ask Vipun Chanchlani about the challenge of making your own chopsticks and how we should bring our own to restaurants.
Devoted: Adding weight to weaving - Ana Petidis draws on her Greek heritage to revive the spiritual value of weaving.
Bren Luke ✿ Life at a distance - Our August laurel is awarded to Bren Luke for his poignant animated illustration of a streetscape in Japan, which invokes the concept of ma, negative space, to reflect the era of social distancing.
dhurrung wurruki nyayl ngarrp – kunang - Tammy Gilson reflects on the combined Wadawurrung connection to Country and English sense of industry that has shaped her artistic path and social leadership.
A cloudy day collecting clay among the gullies and the gums - Cassy McArthur is finally able to return to the granite country where she collects the clay that honours its intricate beauty.
A healing walk: The Lake Bolac Eel Festival story - Neil Murray recounts the origins of the Lake Bolac Eel Festival in a walk of reconciliation.
Nyibol Deng ✿ A recycled life - Nyibol Deng uses her African connections to create unique textile products from a combination of recycled jeans and Malawi wax prints.
Eureka! Ballarat is a new UNESCO Creative City for Craft and Folk Art - The city of Ballarat in Central Victoria, south-east Australia, was recently designated a UNESCO Creative City for Craft and Folk Art. In response to our questions, Tara Poole, Coordinator Creative Cities, says that Ballarat will "lead by example" in sustaining heritage and stories through crafts.
Local colour: The search for a plant dye industry in Sydney Cove - Liz Williamson reveals the importance of natural dyes in the establishment of Sydney as a British colonial settlement.
Louisean King ✿ Solis - Roger Saddington explores the exhibition by Louisanne King whose sculptural fabrications reflect a mourning for the loss of nature.
Kirsten Coelho, Large bowl, Still: Kirsten Coelho’s ceramics - Julie Ewington finds stillness at the heart of Kirsten Coelho's centrifugal ceramics.