Canberra’s annual celebration of all things design, DESIGN Canberra, is back for 2017, and this year is inspired by the spirit of modernism, and is celebrating creativity, experimentation, and optimism.

Running in locations all over Canberra from the November 6 – 26, Design Canberra 2017 is set to offer insight into the talent pool of makers, designers and thinkers that are working, living and creating in the nation’s capital. This year’s festival will showcase works from the latest recipient of The Belle Alessi award, Rene Linssen together with Alison Jackson, Tom Skeehan and many more established and emerging designers.

“Design is in Canberra’s DNA,” says Rachael Coghlan, CEO and Artistic Director, Craft ACT, who are organizing the festival, “From the time of Walter and Marion Griffin’s visionary design a century ago, to iconic experimental modernist architecture of the 1950s and 60s, and contemporary and sustainable design developments today, Canberra has been — and will always be — a living design laboratory”

Design Canberra promotes local and engaging design and craft, and helps develop new and expanded audiences, forges marketplace connections and facilitates unexpected and exciting collaborations. With over 100 events, exhibitions, talks, tours, activations, markets, collaborations, artist studios and open homes, Design Canberra, will transform our nation’s capital into a hotspot for design.

“We are excited to offer this year’s schedule of more than 100+ events throughout the busy calendar. It is our most beautiful and most ambitious festival program yet. DESIGN Canberra is an incredibly important part of the arts community. It is so important to support local artists, designers and makers to forge unexpected collaborations and marketplace connections, and develop new and expanded audiences” Says Coghlan.

In the spirit of a living design laboratory, DESIGN Canberra will experiment with new ideas and expand the most successful programs into new directions in the 2017 festival.

For full details and event listings, see the Design Canberra website.