Melbourne Design Week 2024 is underway, with a program that highlights and celebrates design in all its forms, from architecture to ceramics, furniture, textiles, and technologies and more.
Running from 23 May to 2 June, this year’s program includes more than 350 events, including exhibitions, talks, open studios, tours, installations and workshops – and most events are free.
Established by the Victorian Government and delivered by the NGV in partnership with the design and creative communities, Melbourne Design Week is a vital platform for emerging and established designers and demonstrates Victoria’s reputation as a national and international design leader.
Melbourne Design Week travels well beyond the CBD, hitting the suburbs and regional locations around the state. From Melbourne Kew to Newport, Coburg to St Kilda, there are also events at regional hubs in Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong and Shepparton.
This year’s theme is ‘design the world you want’ and explores the ways design is helping to shape a new future in areas such as sustainability, food security, renewable energy and much more.
Highlights in the 2024 program include a keynote from Nigerian architect Tosin Oshinowo, a symposium exploring speculative riverside designs for the Birrarung, the tenth year of Melbourne Art Book Fair, Melbourne Design Week Film Festival plus presentations of work by leading local and international designers.
There is plenty for young people and families to engage with, including:
- At NGV International, there is Kids Zine making workshop, as part of the Melbourne Art Book Fair, and the quirky One-Stop-Bug-Shop, offering a variety of insect-based snacks, such as cricket corn chips and candied mealworm via a vending machine.
- Free interactive soundscape and drawing workshops will be presented by children’s arts organisation Polyglot Theatre at Abbotsford Convent.
- The student/teacher STEM Design Sprints at Scienceworks
- And an interactive recycling exhibition Crafting Objects in Footscray.
Galleries and design curators will present a series of exhibitions highlighting the inspiring scope of Australian designers with displays at Craft, Tarrawarra Musuem of Art, Tolarno, MUMA, Pieces of Eight, and more.
There’s also a satellite program, and the 2024 theme ‘Design and Death’ shines a light on the architecture, places, issues, and practices associated with the end of life. Presented by Open House Melbourne, the series of talks and tours explores the relationship between design and death to discover how the spaces we associate with death and burial can ignite conversations about life and how we live it.
Explore the program https://designweek.melbourne/