BONUS: Craft Lab 2025 | Curator’s POV Pt 2

Welcome to Make Good Things Happen, a podcast for makers in business presented to
you by Angela D’Alton and Renee Baker.
Welcome to Make Good Things Happen the podcast. I am Renee Baker and joining me is
Angela D’Alton. Together we are the hosts of this podcast and so far the only guests
as well. And this episode is a bonus episode, bonus episode number two in a series
that we anticipate all about Angela’s recent involvement in Craft Lab 2025,
which if you’re scratching your head wondering what that is, go back and listen to
bonus episode number one. It will explain it all for you. But to give you a very
brief recap, Basically, Craft Lab was an event that Angela was the curator and
producer /organiser, I’m going to say, there was a lot of involvement that you did
as well, but mainly curator where there was a collection of 18 practitioners,
an exhibition, an installation, as well as a dinner that was hosted within the space
called The Great Takeaway. And our first episode, our bonus episode, took us through a
lot of the detail around the practitioners and who they are and what all that was
about. So if you want to know, go back and listen. And in this episode, we wanted
to, or I wanted to ask you a little bit more about the exhibition component of
Craft Lab, which is, I feel like a very strong part of the event and something
that as a curator, I imagine there’s a lot of involvement in. And so maybe to
start with, you can just explain what that element is. ‘Cause to be honest, I can’t
remember if we went into that detail previously. And then after that, I’m gonna ask
you a little bit more about your involvement as a curator and also how you kind of
conceptualise the exhibition. – The exhibit is essentially the central component that
happens in the mining exchange during Craft Lab for the two weekends that we’re open
to the public. It is curated by myself and we take expressions of interest once
again through Creative City, City of Ballarat. And it’s open to, again,
people who live, work, study in Ballarat or have done, but also those who are in
adjacent LGA’s or local government areas, councils, et cetera. So of those
neighbouring councils, people can apply, who are makers. Again, it’s a similar
criteria, I guess, to that which we use for the practitioners in so much as it’s a
craft that has a tradition in production of items for use that potentially has a
contemporary rethinking or reimagining. To the practitioners also exhibit or is their
exhibit kind of just the alcove space that they have? That’s correct. Yeah.
They generally aren’t part of the exhibit because the space that they’re provided in
that alcove is there, there’s to do with what they wish. There’s a few criteria
that we ask of them and that is to demonstrate their work or to at least attempt
to kind of provide some sort of overview of what it is that they do in an
interesting way. Maybe they have an interactive thing going on or bits and pieces
for sale. They might be accepting commissions. It’s a general, I guess, gallery of
their own to manage for those two weekends. So no, they don’t get any more.
And before we go any further, because if you’re listening and maybe you’re in the
Ballarat area or you’re in one of the neighbouring LGA’s and you’re interested in
being part of this. I’m not necessarily even sure if Craft Lab is on next year
because that’s not my section. Where would someone go if they were looking for
opportunities like this? Is that through the Ballarat Council? Is that how you find
out about applying? The City of Ballarat has a department called the Creative City
team. They are all the staff that are responsible for maintaining the creative
component, I guess if you like, of Ballarat and the practitioners that live here,
the creative people who run businesses and the creative people who try and make a
living or have a practice that they want to maintain. And so,
yeah, that team, the Creative City team have their own website that they manage
separately, but you can actually just Google Creative City Ballarat or Ballarat Craft
Lab and should take you to the website responsible for housing all of the
information about Craft Lab, which is managed by that team. So that’s where you can
find out more information about not just Craft Lab and the opportunities that they
have there. But honestly, the team in the City of Ballarat work harder than any
council I’ve ever seen in my life, in the variety of places that I’ve lived.
I’ve never seen a council put in so much effort and time and resources,
but also passion and care and kindness from the team that actually work there.
I can personally advocate for the fact that I know that they all genuinely care
about the creative community in Ballarat and advocate very ardently on their behalf
to the remainder of council and they are providing some of the most elite programs
that I’ve ever encountered to the local community in Craft Lab is definitely one of
those things. Right down to the exhibition where the local artists who maybe aren’t
ready to be a practitioner yet or who aren’t maybe ready to even consider themselves
an artist or a crafter, they might consider themselves a hobbyist. They have an
opportunity to feel valued in their work and understood,
I guess, as a creative person or a creative human, much more than even just a
practitioner. To me it’s an incredibly rewarding process to curate and it’s quite an
honour to be able to connect to these people and find out who they are and what
they do and often be invited into their homes as part of the whole process. The
community is rich and varied and I think one of the lovely things we’re seeing my
colleague, Jesse, when we started doing studio visits, which unfortunately due to the
medical issue that no one, it won’t be a surprise to anyone who’s listened to the
podcast. I didn’t get to do, I couldn’t go out and do the number of studio visits.
That would normally be part of the curation process, particularly for the exhibition.
It is about seeing people in their own space and also having a look around what
they’re not showing you and you can kind of see what they’re working on and have a
more creative conversation with them and there’s an opportunity there for you know
mentoring and guidance and community and connection. I was pretty bummed that I
missed out on part of that process however it is extremely time consuming and I
think that given that I wasn’t well if I’d have done that I wouldn’t have made it
through to the end of the event. It was one of those things where thankfully
everyone understood that I was now going to be curating over email largely and that
it meant we just pivoted and got on with it and all dealt with it.
And honestly, they were all incredibly supportive of it. I would say 99 .9 % of the
people who were involved responded with just the like offering, this is Ballarat,
offering to drop off meals for me, telling me if I needed lifts anywhere or to go
to do anything that they would, they would help. Honestly, it was just, it’s very,
I’m getting emotional, but it was very moving to have that response from this
community. Yeah, I know. And that’s, I think, it’s so lovely to say that usually
and more often than not, creative people who are usually working so hard to do
whatever it is they’re needing to do for themselves are the first to offer help in
times of need. That’s why we love this community so much. Yeah, it’s really true
and through to the end of that whole process, those people continue to inspire me
and support me And it’s really just been very emotional, as you can all tell.
It’s been a very emotional experience for me, becoming part of this community. And
it means a great deal to me. Yeah, which again, if you don’t have context
necessarily living and working in Ballarat is only relatively new to you.
I think we can say that’s right. New, new because you’ve been there for three
years. It’ll be three years in September here. that is still like new in that sort
of space. But as we’ve both encountered before sort of having moved around in
different areas and states for me, it’s not always easy, you know, fitting in with
a new community. And I think it’s just so… Yeah, don’t I know it?
I mean, I’ve moved, I’ve moved a lot and I’ve moved a lot as a child and and and
and entertain. So yeah, I’m pretty across that raw process of changing.
It’s not moving. Moving is hard enough, but changing communities and changing friend
groups and changing your day to day is a different story. The curation of this
event is only made better by how the community responds to being part of this
particular event. It’s got a very big place in the heart here, in people’s hearts
here. It means a lot to them and many of the participants in the exhibit talk
about feeling legitimized by being accepted into an event that many people consider,
myself included, world class in its structure and presentation.
So yeah, it was pretty it was it’s pretty cool the the difficulty again with the
curation process as I said I couldn’t necessarily do those studio visits. So I over
curated by an absolute shit ton In line with the original creative direction of
allowing people to encounter these items through first having to go through First
Nations expression artistically and their and their stories. One of the concepts we
talked about in the design of the of the exhibition was kind of a jewellery box or
encountering something like a treasure or feeling like you’ve literally pulled a
curtain back on something and there’s a moment of awe and there’s a wow element to
what you uncover or you know you feel like you’ve discovered something. it’s a
little bit of a secret. I wanted to go back to that because, yeah, again,
if you’ve just jumped into this episode, the whole craft lab event Angela spoke to
us last episode had a broad theme Intangible. That’s right. And within that broad
theme, there were six subcategories, if you like, and each of the sections of the
exhibition also reflected those so I think you talked about Jenna Oldaker who had
created the the works to those six themes and then you obviously have the exhibition
pieces exhibited on tables that were behind her circular printed banner artworks and
so that’s I think you mentioning that jewellery box idea didn’t know that and i’d
only seen the work through photographs i very much felt that response even just
looking at it online and I imagine seeing it in person would have been even more
so but not to jump around either but it’s funny how you’ve said that you did have
to pivot and curate a lot of this work online and how the challenges that that
presented. I think it’s also interesting, well not to make it about me, but my
whole viewpoint for the show was online because I didn’t get to be in the space in
person and so I was really taking all the bits This is from photographs and video
and so on, but it still had an impact on me and it’s like I still felt a
response to the works. And I think that it’s just that good reminder that yes,
obviously it’s such a huge privilege to be able to see work in person and both are
big advocates of getting offline and getting into the real world and experiencing
things, but how you can really actually still have something to offer through the
online spaces and to be able to host an exhibition that meets both of that without
I guess even that even being a goal like it’s not like well let’s make an online
show. For me I don’t know if it’s because of my traditional commercial event
background but almost everything that I think of and design I have a photo in mind
maybe it’s because I was a stylist photo shoots particularly Then I know that there
are additional goals that need to be achieved by this event.
Photography outcomes are often something that I consider. Maybe that’s,
I don’t know if that’s rightly or wrongly, but it is definitely something that I
consider when I’m thinking about the look and feel of an event. Unfortunately, now
the more photographable something is, the or appealing it is for people to share
with their friends. And, you know, kind of hoping that there is a moment of,
wow, you’ve got to see this. That might happen in that process. And I did talk to
Tara during the event about how highly photographable it looked.
And,
you know, I sort of, we discussed that that was, I mentioned it was by design and
she said she knew that she could tell her. We can. And I, one of the things that
I, and I mean to talk about the commercial event spaces, having worked in design
markets and photographing design markets for social media, back before the,
like this is pre plywood at markets and when a lot of people just had tables.
As soon as someone threw up a background wall, I was so happy because it meant
that the photo would always look so much better. And so again, to be able to kind
of enclose the work within a space and still have depth of field and layers,
I think was really allowed for that in terms of the photography of the work. But
also I’m sure in terms of the experience because you were creating like these little
capsules so that people could really get in amongst it. But what I really want to
know about is, so when, I mean, maybe this is just my own understanding. But when
I think of curating, I think of, you know, working towards a larger picture with,
by finding like all the pieces of the puzzle to kind of make that picture and
looking for works and looking for artists, finding people that might have, I guess,
a following already, but also finding people that are more emerging so you can kind
of create this like nice diverse mix of people. But one thing that I don’t
necessarily think of is the actual staging and the finished product of the work.
So how you might display it or exhibit it or like you say, style it, even though
I do come from that kind of visual merchandising styling background. When I’m
thinking curator, I’m not necessarily thinking that, but what I’m trying to get to
here is there There’s a very specifically designed set of props that you used that
you actually designed and created. I want to hear more about that process because I
felt that the outcome was so strong in the context of everything else we’ve talked
about that I didn’t want it to just be an afterthought, like I want to know the
process of it. Well, that’s nice. Again, when we’ve been having these discussions
about a countering, a jewellery box concept, I guess, In that same discussion,
we talked about different plinth shapes. We talked about colour of the tables.
Tara’s got strong views about certain things, and I wanted to make sure I adhered
to those while I was designing things as well, because she is the creative director.
I am using my creativity to achieve the vision,
I guess, that she has. And so it’s a constant management between practical
requirements and creative brief management between things like, because of the tables
that I brought in, they weren’t necessarily handcrafted like they normally are. So we
had to do something different with them in order for it not to look like a wedding
table, an event table. It had to look like something from an exhibition,
not from a catering dining event kind of vibe, how to look like it was an
exhibition platform. We started calling them platforms on purpose for that reason.
Even though they were used as tables, but we’re going to talk about the great
takeaway in our next bonus episode. Okay. So I guess a lot of different decision
moments involved in a variety of things that I wanted to do. There was the colours
that we wanted to kind of create in each space. So we ended up going with adding
removable vinyl to the tops of all of the tables. Oh, did you? I thought that was
the lighting creating the colouring. Well, it was also the lighting that boosted the
colour. So I had, it was instead of having a white or a plain layer at the base,
we actually had a coloured tone and I had those six colours. I had them all
printed in that vinyl. The removable vinyl was placed on top of the event tables.
And that vinyl was also used on the exterior of a series of plinths that we’d had
made in those different shapes. The shapes, again, this jewellery box feel, someone,
I remember someone saying, “Oh, imagine a triangular plinth or imagine this or
imagine that.” And we all sort of went off in this discussion about imagining, but
I actually did start imagining and I just thought, “You know what? I like that. I
want to do that and I want to have different shapes on different tables to go with
the different colours, to go with the different themes and I want to have them all
be varied but kind of representing the theme in some way.” Again, it gives me just
something to choose. It stops me from having to think as hard about how it’s going
to be if I just stick with the themes and that’s why it’s really important to get
those right from the beginning because you stick to them when you have to make fast
choices creatively. It might sound like I’m cheating, creativity, but it doesn’t
matter to me. It gets the job done. It means that I can be creative when I’m just
putting it all together the last moment. That’s the moment that the creativity
actually happens rather than it being laboriously overthinking each step. If I just
go, I’m just going to stick to the original thinking. And then when I put
everything together, then the last 48 hours for the best, it’s nine months of
planning how it might look and only knowing that it works literally three days
before it opens, actually two days because when everything arrives, I usually I
usually have a moment of panic. How am I gonna do this? And then I start putting
things out. So the way I chose the items was with, again, those six themes in
mind, the colours and the themes and the shapes that I went with that I designed.
So the six different shapes that we had were sort of like what I called a bridge
for history. And we designed it as there were sort of like little steps that went
up to a middle platform and then down again on both sides, if you can imagine,
with a flat top, but then yes, steps coming out from each end. So it was like, I
thought of that as like a bridge and history requires bridges to me. Bridges are a
strong thing of like connecting one thing to another and a bridge felt very much
like a good metaphor for history to me. Story was yellow and triangular.
Unfortunately, that meant that it started looking a little bit like wedges of cheese.
But they were tall and differently shaped enough. And that was because what I’d
originally imagined was a series of that a story meant going around up and down.
So you were like, this felt like a story, the triangular shape, it was all meant
to be in a circle. So it did kind of have a wedgy shape. But in the end, I just
had massive triangles because the one I designed was way too complicated and just
wasn’t possible. The lovely guy Mark at Furals Art, who ended up tolerating my
ridiculous brief, called me on the triangles and went, “Is there something else we
can do?” And I said, “Yeah, of course there is. Explain what the problem was.” I
went away, redesigned it, and he’s like, “Yeah, I can do that. That’s fine.” So
yeah, we had the triangles. So song was the lilac table. I had a series of squares
and rectangles to indicate lines of music on a stave.
I wanted to think about it just as a song in front of me. Spirit was blobbed
shapes because that felt really appropriate to me for something about spirit because
I feel like spirit is amorphous primitive. So healing, which was the pinky colour,
the pale pinky colour, that had hexagons, these really cool hexagons. What I haven’t
also told you is some of these plinths were transparent on some side so that I
could put lights into them and so that they could light from the outside. Some of
them had panels that were reflective perspex, sometimes like a rosy gold,
sometimes like a silvery gold. That was, again, in order to just create this very
jewellery, something that refracted with the light, but also was inspired a little bit
by something that Tara had seen. We were just sort of, there was a few things that
we’d identified creatively that we wanted to sort of find a way to incorporate. And
so I put those in there. And the heart tables, that was 3D printed stuff. And I
wanted to reflect four chambers, four divisions to indicate the heart. And that was
some really cool 3D printed stuff that I did with smack designs, the local 3D
printer. The guys there tolerated my brief. They managed to create prints that really
elevated each of those spaces and made them each feel very individual in their
expression. Of course, the lighting really did add a lot to it. We had worked with
Jason at SLC. He did some really cool stuff. We worked with like a spot on an
aperture. We’ve got these special lights that you can just program from the ground.
So you don’t have to keep getting up and down to fix them and move them and do
all this stuff. Because Tara loves getting involved with the lighting design. They
work together on creating this kind of border around the edge of the table so that
the spot was slightly indented. And it looks so cool on the table. Yeah, it gave
them all this really it up and really added glow. Yeah, it added to the the feel.
And we originally only had one coloured light. We ended up putting two in because
it just wasn’t enough. And it created that glow around each of those spaces so that
those white curtains that were part of the installation also had a bit of a glowy
vibe to them. Yeah, it’s just there’s so many layers. And I think, I mean, the
reason I wanted to know more about it, the more I talk to you about this, it’s
like I hear more and more bits of the concept behind it, which as someone who’s
always struggled with art just for subjective enjoyment versus actually what’s the
concept, what’s the meaning. I used to kind of rebel against any art that had to
have meaning when I was a younger artist. But I suppose as I’ve got older and more
New on some I am more interested in the concept behind things and I think often
you look at art and you wouldn’t even know half of the concept that’s gone into it
but knowing those choices are actually often what or even without knowing those
choices I think having those choices results in usually a more resolved piece because
you look at it and you think that looks really good you don’t necessarily know why
but all of these little details have been thought of along the way over months and
months and months and months of you thinking that’s what we need. That’s what we
need in collaboration with others as well. So that when you do arrive at the end,
it’s almost effortless or it appears effortless. It’s like, oh, that was always meant
to be there. That was always meant to have that glow on the table and the colored
top and all of the different pieces. But yeah, I think the reason I was so
interested in those plinths is Because I did get to see, like I mentioned last
episode, while I wasn’t really involved in this project. I have seen little snippets
and bits and pieces just because we are business partners and we do still wear
possible try and share stuff and say, “Hey, what do you think of this?” So I did
get to see some of your briefing sketches and concepts. And so what I was able to
say was that you drawn digitally for the most part, maybe you had done hand drawing
that I didn’t see, but digital drawing for the most part that you are able to
share with the various local makers who could then, like you say, either say, “Yep,
that’s possible or no, we need to change it,” that resulted in finished product. And
I think because we have makers who listen, who exhibit work in places like design,
market, pop -up, shop, some cases even their own shops, I think it’s really important
to hear that sometimes visual merchandising isn’t just about using what’s available to
you that you actually can create and design something. And if you have the
opportunity, I know it’s not always within the scope or budget or timeframe or
whatever else for people to do this. But if you do have time to actually get
something custom made and really design something that is fit for purpose, you can
have a really, really strong outcome because you’re not trying to fit square peg in
a round hole, you actually can have something that really highlights and showcases
the work. What I’m getting at is these plinths, which I know were such a huge part
of your workload in this project. Like, yes, obviously you picked the works, but you
designed and created these pieces weren’t what was the hero in the end. But without
them, the show would not have looked as amazing as it did. If that makes sense. So
yeah, – It does. – Yeah, it all connected together to really showcase the work.

Yeah, the important thing to remember about any visual merchandising or in my case,
plinths for an exhibition is that it’s, they aren’t the work. And so it was also a
really important thing, something that I communicated regularly with everyone who was
working on the plinths is we’ve got to remember these, this isn’t the star. These
are the supporting cast kind of thing, you know. And so did you find local
businesses that helped create some of the plinths? So I worked with Mark from Furals
Art and Sam from Smaak Designs. That’s SMAAK.
They’re both willing and able. Once you deliver a brief, it’s just important to keep
that communication channel open, but also just making sure that you communicate up
front clearly what it is that you’re looking for. Yeah, sometimes it’s just a matter
of actually asking someone if it’s something that they would like to do as well.
Yeah, which is our experience as well, have what we found, we’ve, that’s something
that both Tara and Amelia have taught me about Ballarat as well. Sometimes it’s
about maybe this person could do XYZ, let’s talk to them and see what’s possible.
And I guess that opened my eyes to more possibilities and more collaborations and
what’s really out there in Ballarat. But the plinths came together really, really
nicely. A lot of them were covered in, as I said, the same vinyl that we used on
the tables. Some had perspex and marked it a fabulous job. So what it meant was
that they displayed the works that I had chosen beautifully on those themes. And
after all of the artwork has been delivered. And I realise I’ve got, it was nearly
190 pieces or 190 something pieces from 46 artists.
And I did not sleep. I’d done a couple of drafts, you know, using the photography
that they’d provided me, you know, just some drafts literally on paper of where is
this piece going to go? Where are these things going to go? And what might work
with this theme and what might work with that theme and how is this going to
interact with that piece. And, you know, I do, I look at the photos that they’ve
all provided probably five or six times a day in between things. If I’m sending an
email, if I’m thinking about it, or if I have a thought about it, or if, you
know, I go back and I just have a quick scan of all the pieces so that I get to
know them really well mentally in terms of their shape and their color. And and it
means that when they arrive, I have a pretty good idea. I’ve already got a loose
plan because you have to leave it loose. You can’t have it certain because you just
can’t. You just can’t. There’s too many variables. What was funny was, even though I
couldn’t sleep on Wednesday night thinking, “Oh my God, we’re going to put all of
these things.” When I got there on Thursday morning and I started doing it, I went,
“Oh, hang on. I’ve been up all night thinking that this wouldn’t fit or this
wouldn’t go here or that this would be a lot harder. The Thursday is that is my
favourite day because it is the day that I get to put everything where I want it
to go and look at the shapes and, you know, touch the pieces and have this lovely
close up understanding of these works and look at the way they interact with one
another and try to make kind of nice shapes and interesting contrasts and that sort
of stuff. That’s really, you know, as you know, what you do in those spaces. Yeah,
it is the best bit because you’re riding the high of the experience and you’re
still far enough away from having to pack it all up. You’re not having to worry
about that just yet. But yeah, you spend those nine months sharpening all of your
pencils and you finally get to draw and play. Am I allowed to ask you if you had
a favourite table or…? I actually don’t. I think that’s just as well. I feel like
each and every single one was special for its own reasons. Each and every single
one had those purposeful moments of awe that I felt like I was trying to have that
moment of, whoa, in each space that there was a couple of things that would almost
take your breath away or just surprise you in some way or just be amazing. So I
So I think I felt like there was for me anyway, there was a moment of that in
each of those spaces to me. It wasn’t hard to do. Some of the work that I had to
work with, it’s just visceral, some of the responses that you have. Like I think
about some of the Patagonia vases by Minna Graham, they are just,
and Marion Fox’s work and Steph Wallace’s work and Koji Hoashi’s work. And of
course, all I’m talking about right now is ceramics because that is the dominant
feature of each of the tables because, again, it ties in with the Great Takeaway,
which we’re going to talk about next week. The first thing I do think about on
each of those tables is the ceramics because that’s where it starts. I know that
that table is centred around that person’s work, so again, it gives me a starting
point. I don’t necessarily marry myself to that, but I try to coordinate it that
way. I do have more to ask you and I feel like you’ve probably got a bit more to
say so as we mentioned we will do, I think it’ll be the third and final only
because you and I both like three so thank you and we’ll speak to you very soon.
Stay tuned for the next Event Breakdown episode where we’ll uncover even more about
Craft Lab. Yay! Thanks for listening to Make Good Things Happen. If you enjoyed this
episode Why not write a review or share it with a friend? For show notes and more
head to mgth .com .au This has been a D’Alton Baker production.

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