DESIGN Canberra 2020 is calling for leading architecture, design and craft initiatives to be part of the annual three-week festival, that takes over the nation’s capital from 9 until 29 November, celebrating Canberra as a global city of design and a living design laboratory.

Now in its seventh year, the fast-growing festival – which attracted a record 114,770 people in 2019 – showcases the city’s thriving design community and in 2020 will present more than 200 events, exhibitions, talks, tours, activations, markets, collaborations, artists’ studios and open homes.

With humanity facing unprecedented challenges including climate change and a global health pandemic, DESIGN Canberra’s 2020 theme of ‘Care’ is intensely relevant.

“In 2020, the value of care is more important than ever: for our community, for our environment, for architecture and for our world. The festival will become a collaborative forum for contemporary, experimental and authentic design to celebrate and explore the ways that care and caring is valuable and vital,” explained CEO of Craft ACT: Craft & Design, and Artistic Director of DESIGN Canberra, Rachael Coghlan.

For the craft and design sector, care underpins a designer’s or maker’s commitments: to forge new relationships to materials; to invest time in developing techniques and skill, and to honour design’s tradition of exchange, mentoring and collaboration.