NGV to deliver inaugural Victorian Design Program

The National Gallery of Victoria has joined with the Victorian Government to deliver a new program dedicated to celebrating, promoting and strengthening Victorian design.

The Victorian Design Program will offer a curated yearround calendar of events for the design industry, students, businesses and the broader public, culminating in a new Melbourne Design Week each March.

“The Gallery’s vision is to present and make accessible design and architecture for a broad range of audiences, from business to creative professionals to families.

I believe that by more closely aligning Victoria’s design community with the broad audiences reached by the NGV we can motivate, connect and inspire even more, by reimagining the lasting and positive effects of design for the entire community,” said Tony Ellwood, Director, NGV.

“This four-year initiative partnership is a major investment in the future of Victoria’s design industry and one of the signature actions to come out of Victoria’s first creative industries strategy Creative State,” said Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley.

“Victoria is home to a diverse and high calibre design industry. This program is designed to promote the value of design all year round and create a distinctive Design Week event that will rival the best in the world,” said Foley.

Speaking at the 2016 Premier’s Design Awards, Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley said the program would be developed and presented in collaboration with the design industry.

The 2017 Melbourne Design Week will run from 16 to 26 March, curated by the NGV in collaboration with an industry advisory panel, including:

• Claire Beale, National Director, Design Institute of Australia;
• Cameron Bruhn, Editorial Director, Architecture Media;
• Alison Cleary, Victorian Chapter Manager, Australian Institute of Architects;
• Vincent Lazzara, Chairman, Australian Graphic Design Association;
• Susan Tait, Co-Founder and Creative Director, TAIT
• Karen Webster, Head of Strategy and Development, Whitehouse Institute of Design

The program will include exhibitions at the NGV and other venues; international guests and keynote speakers; business-to-business programs; product launches, children’s projects and more.

It will also feature a new open-access program developed in partnership with Open House Melbourne, connecting Victorians to design-led businesses, manufacturers, facilities and institutions.

Victorian design professionals and organisations are now invited to submit proposals for Melbourne Design Week events responding to the theme ‘Design Values’.

The full program for Melbourne Design Week 2017 will be announced in early February 2017. 2017 Melbourne Design Week will run from 16 to 26 March. Further information is available from the NGV website.