What's On Now

What's Next in 2025

The Story So Far: Helen Britton

Australian Design Centre proudly presents the tenth artist in the Centre's Living Treasures: Masters of Australian Craft series, Helen Britton The Story So Far. 

Helen Britton is a multidisciplinary Australian artist.  Born in regional NSW and based between Australia and Munich in Germany, Helen's practice includes jewellery, sculpture, drawings, stencils and installations, and is informed by popular culture and folk art, threatened traditions, environmental destruction and human anxiety. 

Living Treasures: Masters of Australian Craft is an initiative of the Australian Design Centre. The series aims to celebrate the achievements of Australia’s most iconic crafts practitioners, through a touring exhibition and a major monograph publication.  

Living Treasures celebrates the work and practice of exceptional individuals who have demonstrated more than three decades of excellence in their chosen discipline.

The Living Treasures exhibitions focus on current work – they are not historic surveys. This concept aims to ensure that the work and ideas presented are current reflections of the practitioner’s process and output. Each exhibition is accompanied by a beautiful monograph, which not only celebrates the work but also delves into each artist’s background in more detail, contextualising their status as a leading practitioner of their craft.

As the tenth artist to be awarded this honour, Helen’s exhibition will tour across Australia from 2025 to 2027 with ADC On Tour, Australian Design Centre’snational exhibition touring program supported by Australian regional and public gallery touring partners.

Opening Night: Wednesday 27 August, 6 - 8pm
Exhibition Dates: 28 August - 4 October 2025

More in 2025 

Gallery 2: Remade- Reloved 10 October - 22 November 2025
Object Space: Jo Victoria 10 October - 22 November 2025
Gallery 1: Second Look: the Legacy 27 November - February 2026
Gallery 2: Trace Lines Landlines by Melinda Young  27 November - February 2026
Object Space: Annemaree Dalziel 27 November - February 2026

Challenging times for ADC

Australian Design Centre is an integral part of the arts ecology in Australia. This small, dynamic, independent organisation has nurtured and supported thousands of artists since 1964, presenting their work locally, nationally and internationally across extensive exhibition, touring, retail, publishing and digital platforms.

Recently we announced the difficult news that both Federal and State governments, through Creative Australia and Create NSW, have chosen not to support Australian Design Centre with four year operational funding.

Despite ADC being recommended by peers for funding, decisions by government quoting a lack of available funds and other priorities, means that NSW will be the only state/territory in Australia without a government funded organisation dedicated to craft and design practice.

This means that from 2026 ADC will no longer have the $500,000 in base level funding needed to support annual operations.

To read the full announcement, click here.

Imagine the Future

We’re interested in formal proposals to help us to reimagine our future from 2026.

We invite proposals in confidence from organisations, institutions, and individuals with an interest in ensuring that the legacy of ADC lives on.

Contact ADC CEO & Artistic Director Lisa Cahill by 15 August 2025 to discuss your ideas: lisa@australiandesigncentre.com

Donate

Imagine if our 30,000+ supporters each gave a $100 tax deductible donation to ADC. This would mean $3 million to continue our operations, securing the organisation to support thousands of designers, artists and makers for the next five years.

Any amount over $2 is tax deductible.

Thank you to the generosity of 220 people, we have raised 46,000 so far.

Community Support

Many people have written to government and voice their concerns in the media about the defunding of ADC. Here are some of the things they have said:

"We must remember the important role that craft and design practices play in innovation in Australia. It is unbelievable that our government should consider it not a priority."

"ADC has played a pivotal role in our development, offering us early opportunities, professional mentorship, and a platform to share our work with wider audiences. Through their belief in our practice, we have been able to grow from a small independent studio to an award-winning business whose work spans exhibitions, public art, educational programs and national institutions."

"To withdraw support from the one institution in NSW that champions expertly crafted objects is not only shortsighted, but emblematic of a broader, troubling trend in which material culture and long-term artistic labour are devalued...This would be an unacceptable loss — not just for artists like myself, but for future generations and for the broader Australian public, who deserve access to the richness and depth of our nation’s design culture."

Read about ADC's funding challenge in the media:
ArtsHub 'Australian Design Centre loses state and federal funding faces uncertain future'
ArtsHub Opinions Analysis
ArchitectureAU 'The Australian Design Centre needs our help'
WoodReview 'Australian Design Centre base funding to be withdrawn'
The Guardian
Canberra Times
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald 7 July 2025
ArtsHub 'Defunding Success in the arts is not saving money - it's destroying value'
ABC Saturday Breakfast Radio with Dom Knight
John McDonald Editorial 'Beggars' Banquet'
John McDonald Editorial 'Secret Sharers'

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Acknowledgement of Country
Australian Design Centre is proud to be a creative place located on Gadigal Country. We acknowledge and pay our respects to the Traditional Owners, the Gadigal People, and to Elders past and present. As a cultural organisation with national connections, we also pay our respects to all First Peoples across the country.

About Australian Design Centre 
Established in 1964, Australian Design Centre is an independent impact organisation based in Darlinghurst, Sydney. We support and promote Australia’s innovative designer makers, established and emerging, and encourage people to engage with design, craft and creativity through dynamic and high-quality national touring exhibitions, publishing, digital and educational activities.

ADC is supported by the generosity of our partners and donors, the Australian Government through the Visions Australia program, the NSW Government through Create NSW (until the end of 2025) and the City of Sydney.

ADC is a member of Australian Craft and Design Centres network, Australian Museum and Galleries Association, Arts Law, NAVA, Regional and Public Galleries NSW and the Sydney Culture Network. 

Images:
Jeff McCann, ADC Opening Night, 2025. Photo: Jacquie Manning. ADC Opening Night, 2025. Photo: Stephen Wilson Barker. SIXTY, ADC On Tour - Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of BMCC. ADC Opening Night, 2025. Photo: Stephen Wilson Barker. ADC Opening Night, 2025. Photo: Jacquie Manning. ADC Opening Night, 2025. Photo: Jacquie Manning. re/JOY Opening Night, 2024. Photo: Jacquie Manning. Vita Cochran, ADC Opening Night, 2025. Photo: Jacquie Manning. Helen Britton, 2025. Photo: COTA. MAKE Award 2023, Install, 2023. Photo: Amy Piddington. Sydney Craft Week, 2024. Photo: Rueben Davis.