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2026 Craft + Design Canberra Festival Program

Exhibition, Free Robert Potter Exhibition, Free Robert Potter

Robert Foster 10 Year Memorial Exhibition

7 – 15 November 2026 | Grainger Gallery

In celebration of a maker whose vision continues to resonate as an enduring act of creative dissent, Robert Foster 10 Year Memorial Exhibition brings together 10 of Robert's most significant original works alongside new collaborative pieces by 10 artists whose practices were deeply shaped by his influence.

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Workshop Robert Potter Workshop Robert Potter

Slow Stitched Talismans: Acts of Gentle Dissent

12 November 2026 | Craft + Design Canberra

In quiet dissent against a world that values speed over stillness, this workshop invites you to explore hand stitching techniques to slowly shape and adorn a talisman made from natural fibres and filled with flowers. Slow stitched talismans honour care, imperfection and the power of handmade objects as vessels of memory and protection. 

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Exhibition, Free Robert Potter Exhibition, Free Robert Potter

Small Rituals | hand carved, handheld

5 November – 12 December 2026  | Craft + Design Canberra

Senden Blackwood's hand-carved granite vessels challenge the culture of speed, mass production and disposability. Through painstaking craftsmanship, geometric forms and the enduring presence of stone, his work celebrates slow making, material intelligence and the lasting value of objects shaped by time, patience and the human hand. 

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Exhibition, Free Robert Potter Exhibition, Free Robert Potter

Soft Matter

5 November – 12 December 2026 | Craft + Design Canberra

A quiet act of dissent against the conventions that have long diminished craft, Soft Matter presents ceramic sculptures that challenge social and material hierarchies, embracing softness as a site of strength, complexity and possibility across the boundaries of craft, sculpture and still life. 

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Public Artwork, Free Robert Potter Public Artwork, Free Robert Potter

Stories in the Dark

5 –  15 November 2026 | Civic Square

Stories in the Dark is an animated public light installation in Civic Square by Eggpicnic. Shifting between daylight and nighttime hours we see and hear species and ecosystems that have been ignored or erased, challenging us to confront ecological neglects. Transforming our attention into responsibility and making dissent a deliberate act of ecological care.  

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Exhibition, Free Robert Potter Exhibition, Free Robert Potter

Tuggeranong Arts Centre Exhibitions

23 October –  12 December 2026 | Tuggeranong Arts Centre

Dissenting the trend of mass manufactured consumer goods, Tuggeranong Arts Centre presents outstanding craft and design in three exhibitions that privilege slow craft to refute disposable consumerism in favour of intergenerational investment in quality crafted and designed objects.

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Workshop, Free Robert Potter Workshop, Free Robert Potter

Very Cross Stitch

11 November 2026 | Canberra Contemporary

Join feminist artist and craftivist Dr Tal Fitzpatrick for a ‘Very Cross Stitching’ workshop as part of her solo exhibition Quietly Seething: Fate, Fury and Transmutation at Canberra Contemporary. Participants will be invited to stitch directly into Tal’s exhibition artwork, while sharing and connecting over what makes them cross.  

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Tour Robert Potter Tour Robert Potter

Walk On Country

15 November 2026 | Black Mountain

Walk on Country with Tyronne Bell (Ngunawal ) through the tracks and trails of Black Mountain, gaining a First Nations understanding of bush foods, artefacts and stone tools, with panoramic views of Canberra along the way. This tour reads the landscape through Ngunawal knowledge held and carried forward since long before Canberra was planned, offering the 2026 Festival theme of Dissent as continuity of culture on Country. 

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Public Artwork, Free Robert Potter Public Artwork, Free Robert Potter

Weaving Waters

5 July – 13 December 2026 | Tuggeranong Arts Centre

In dissent against the decline of the Murray Cod, Tuggeranong Arts Centre invites you to join collaborative community weaving sessions, using natural fibre and recycled materials to complete a large scale textile sculpture. Hear First Nations stories and learn about the environmental conservation efforts surrounding this threatened and culturally significant species. 

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Workshop Robert Potter Workshop Robert Potter

Wing It! A Children’s Atelier for Hatchlings of Change

- November 2026 | The Learning Nest Co.

Wing It! Is a bold, hands-on children’s atelier where young ‘hatchlings’ explore a range of unexpected materials such as UV paint, odd car parts and splatter tools in a creative mess. This boundary-breaking workshop invites children to experiment freely and challenge expectations through invention, imaginative problem-solving and creative risk taking.  

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