Join Simone LeAmon, CEO of the Design Institute of Australia and former Curator of Contemporary Design and Architecture at the NGV, for a guided tour of the exhibitions activating Abbotsford Convent during Melbourne Design Week.
Across three decades of curatorial practice and independent design, Simone has consistently championed Australian designers and their communities of practice. This tour brings that lens to a single site, where the Convent's heritage laundries, parlours and courtyards form a hub for Melbourne Design Week, including more than twenty exhibitions and events.
Tour highlights include presentations by DIA members and the broader design community including Friends & Associates' 100 CHAIRS, Tom Fereday's Arum, Studio Shields' Synthesis, Wilson & Dorset's The Sheepskin Suite, the Veleffs' Domestic Revery, and UnitePlayPerform's Reclaim and Transform Initiative. Along the way, Simone will draw out the through-lines: material experimentation, circular thinking, the relationship between design and making, and the role of place in shaping how design is read.
A personal moment comes at Ash Allen's Lines of Force, where one of Simone's own pieces has been reinterpreted in steel weldmesh alongside works by Helen Kontouris and Laura McCusker - an exhibition honouring three women who have shaped contemporary Australian design.
Part exhibition tour, part field guide, and part conversation about how designers are embedding new ways of thinking into practice. This tour promises to be a rich and engaging exploration of local design in action.
For DIA Accredited Designers, attendance at this event is worth 2 CPD Points.
DIA Community events are presented with the support of our Community Partner Clipsal.