The making of Living Treasures

In this bonus episode, you’ll meet one of the key people behind the original idea for the Living Treasures series of exhibitions - Brian Parkes. 

How did the idea of recognising Australia’s master craftspeople become a reality? Who chooses Living Treasures? 

How was the first Living Treasures exhibition made on a shoestring budget, maybe some shopping at IKEA?  

How important are exhibitions like these to regional art galleries? How do audiences react? 

And hear about the two Living Treasures Lisa Cahill didn’t get to interview – the late glass artist Klaus Moje and South Australian glass artist Nick Mount. 

Brian is the CEO and Artistic Director of JamFactory, Adelaide’s leading craft and design centre, where he's been for over a decade. Before that, he was Associate Director of the Australian Design Centre 2000 - 2010 (when the Centre was called Object. Now you know where the podcast name came from!). 

Brian Parkes lives and works on Kaurna Country in Adelaide. 

Guests 

Steve Pozel was the former CEO and Artistic Director of the Australian Design Centre who developed and championed the idea for the Living Treasures series during his 16 year tenure with the organisation. He’s now an Innovation Strategist and Facilitator in mindful leadership. 

Bridget Guthrie is the director of Tamworth Regional Gallery in NSW. 

Show highlights and takeaways 

Inspiration from National Gallery of Australia Susan Cohn exhibition [1:47] 

In 2000, the National Gallery of Australia made a national touring exhibition of the work of Australian jeweller Susan Cohn, Techno Craft: The work of Susan Cohn 1980 – 2000. It toured to Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart, Perth and Melbourne into 2001. Brian Parkes says it was the first time that a major institution had done a big touring exhibition of someone who came out of the crafts sector. The late Jim Logan, Assistant Curator of Australian Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Australia, curated the exhibition and Brian Parkes worked with him during this time. 

"All the hallmarks of the Living Treasure series were borrowed from that exhibition, which Jim had always intended as an ongoing series of shows, celebrating the extraordinary wealth of talent in the kind of decorative arts scene in Australia, " Brian says. 

Who nominates and selects craftspeople to be Living Treasures? [5:30] 

First, a jury was appointed by the "key figures - curatorially, academically, theoretically", Brian say. Then, the nominations process lets Australian craft sector organisations, as well as individual practitioners, to nominate Australian artists to be a Living Treasure.  

The criteria to be nominated as a Living Treasure [6:12] 

There are some specific...