For the past four years, we have commissioned a local contemporary craftsperson or designer to create a signature work which is featured in a Craft ACT exhibition and defines the look and feel of the festival’s visual communications.

Acclaimed glass artist Kirstie Rea was selected as the 2020 designer-in-residence for the quality of her work and the rigour of her practice. With a career as an independent maker spanning more than 30 years, Kirstie’s extraordinary practice has been recognized at both a national and international level, featuring in numerous solo and group shows, a recent survey exhibition and esteemed public and private collections.

“With care” is a work relevant to this time. The form of the blanket is used as a generic symbol for comfort and care, but the glass ‘blanket’ has an obvious fragility attached to it. The doorway structure represents the inside and outside, the comings and goings of our lives over the threshold. The stack of ‘blankets’ symbolising care whether coming or going. There is an awkwardness to the scale and materiality of this work as life is now awkward.

To find out more, read our designer-in-residence catalogue and including an essay by Nola Anderson, artist reflections, and a visual journey of the designer-in-residence program.