Festival Director's Message

Australian Design Centre is proud to present this annual festival which we initiated after consultation with the community in 2017.

Each year we propose a theme for participants to consider in their event proposals. This year’s festival theme is RESPONSE.

Makers and designers respond to the world around them in their craft practice. They ask questions, research, investigate problems and pose solutions. They explore contemporary issues through making. The events in the Sydney Craft Week Festival 2024 are a RESPONSE to something that perplexes, troubles, inspires or delights us and, when shared, enables everyone to consider or reconsider these issues.

Join us for Sydney Craft Week this October. We can’t wait to see your RESPONSE.

This year's Festival is dedicated to the memory of Liz Williamson, 1949-2024. Liz was a champion of the Festival since the beginning.

Earlier this year Liz wrote a letter of support which included these words about the Sydney Craft Week Festival,  “One of the remarkable Australian Design Centre achievements that I’ve been involved in is the Sydney Craft Week Festival. In mid 2017 the organisation proposed a new event to focus on the ‘beauty of the handmade and the pleasure of making’. Within a few months over 100 events were listed in the inaugural SCW in October 2017, an amazing feat given a short timeline and limited resources. In (2024), the (8th) SCW will run, bringing even more makers, designers, practitioners and collectors together in a city-wide festival in Sydney’s ever expanding, thriving contemporary craft community.”

Lisa Cahill
Festival Director

Images top (l-r): Chi Cup, Photo: Courtesy Macquarie Hills Potters; Brenda Livermore, Of This Place (ii), 2024 Photo: Janet Travener