Creative Director News

The team is currently working very hard to ensure that package of goodies is ripe and ready for heralding in March

Many of you may not know that the Centenary celebrations will be largely created by Australian talent: this seems appropriate for the celebration of the national capital. But of course this city has always embraced internationalism. Canberra of all places in Australia has a deeply embedded international community: large numbers of diplomats, educators, scientists, students and the scores of language groups amongst people living here are at the heart of the life of the national capital.

Last month one of our small number of international artists made her second research trip to Canberra. Jyll Bradley is an artist who has cultivated a rare practice: she always works in community and very often on horticultural or botanical subjects. One of her projects in the UK went on to win the silver medal at the Chelsea Flower Show. Here in Canberra she is exploring our natural surroundings, talking to people, shaping her project, and all will be revealed in our Preview launch on 12 March 2012, the 99th birthday.

On that day, I'm happy to say, we will make some substantial announcements about more of the 2013 program. This year of celebration, and homage to, Canberra's remarkable history, and our invitation for all Australians to re-imagine the potential and future of the capital is long in the making. While ALL will be revealed in early September 2012, it's great to be able to reveal a few more projects in March, and in particular the year-long nature of our program.

The team is currently working very hard to ensure that package of goodies is ripe and ready for heralding in March, and I know the preview will signal just how rich and extraordinary 2013 is going to be.

In the meantime our lead up projects are all firing. The CAPITheticAL now has over 1,100 registrations from over 60 countries and we're excited to see how many and what kind of entries will eventuate by the end of January. A Legacy of Good Design has ACT craftspeople working on that fabulous prototype which might be the one to be developed into high quality reproducible memorabilia for the Centenary. Again I'll request that you ask friends and colleagues who have once lived in Canberra, or spent time here, to go the Canberra Diaspora site and upload a short video of their Canberra story. In any case, have a look at the site, it's highly entertaining – and very simple to participate in if you have a great story.

As I take this opportunity to wish you, your family and friends, sincere best wishes for a happy holiday period, I do ask you to recall the motto 'It's better to give than receive'. This is the basis for the fund-raising drive Dollars for Dili designed to support capacity-building for the young people of that very young capital and Canberra's friendship city. In our quest to build an activities hut and to construct separate amenities blocks for boys and girls in schools, we're happy to report that the first blocks have been built. So please take that small amount of time to donate just $1 ($2 and more are tax-deductible) to the drive, as we who live in a beautiful city in a beautiful place in Australia, make this small gesture to our neighbouring youth who still need so much support and encouragement towards their future.

Many thanks to you all for your ongoing support of the Centenary, and I look forward to seeing you in the New Year.

Robyn Archer AO
Creative Director
Centenary of Canberra

 (Photo by Heide Smith)