Simeoni Young, Put A Plant On It, 2019. Photo courtesy of the artist. From the event ‘Discarded Delights, Urban Talismans’ by The Bench.
Makers Making Change ‘Change Makers’, our 2020 Sydney Craft Week Festival theme, is as much about making change as it is to the way we respond to changing circumstances, says Lisa Cahill. In the past 12 months the craft community has responded to the effects of climate change - the bushfires that ravaged South Eastern Australia destroying homes and livelihoods and the consequent thick smoke that blanketed cities effecting health and wellbeing – and COVID-19. All of us are affected in so many ways by the virus whether it is the illness itself, grieving for a loved one, anxiety about health, income, education or restrictions on travel that mean we are unable to physically be with friends and family. Our lives are markedly different from this time last year. @sydneycraftweek
Many makers have put aside their practice to respond by making things to raise money for various causes, to celebrate those working on the front line or small individual actions that make lives better. Mask making, medals for medical staff, online auctions for fire affected communities and countless other examples demonstrate how people are pivoting to meet the needs of the times. In Sydney theatre designers and set builders are making home office furniture and sewers across the city can’t keep up with the demand for masks.
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