Having been brought to an abrupt halt at the beginning of 2020, back when toilet paper supplies were dire, Melbourne Design Week is set to return in 2021 and this time, it’s coming to change the world. Centred around the theme ‘Design the world you want’, the Victoria-wide premier event showcasing local and international design features an 11-day program of talks, tours, workshops and exhibitions — in which expressions of interest for participation are currently open.

Participants will consider how the design community can work together to create a better, healthier future for the planet and its inhabitants. In line with the program’s multi-disciplinary and diverse approach, expressions of interest for the 2021 program are open to a wide range of practitioners, including designers, galleries, educators, innovators and industry.

“Melbourne Design Week has earned its reputation as an internationally renowned platform for Australian design and innovation,” says Tony Ellwood AM, Director, NGV. “This initiative is a celebration of our thriving industry, but also an opportunity for practitioners and visitors alike to encounter and discuss work at the vanguard of design practice world-wide.”

An initiative of the Victorian Government and delivered by the National Gallery of Victoria, the inaugural Melbourne Design Week was launched in 2017. The Victorian Government has also renewed its presenting partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria for a further four years, cementing Melbourne Design Week as a key event on the cultural calendar for years to come.

“As we look ahead to a post-COVID world, design and creativity will play an important role not just in our recovery but in rethinking the status quo to build a better reality,” says Martin Foley MP, Minister for Creative Industries. “Melbourne Design Week, the largest event of its kind in Australia, this year invites the design community to ‘design the world you want’ – an important and timely provocation.”

Melbourne Design Week will run Victoria-wide from Friday 26 March – Monday 5 April 2021. Expressions of Interest to participate in the 2021 program will be open from Friday 4 September – Friday 9 October 2020. 

For further information, visit designweek.melbourne