Exchanging Ideas in CONTEXT - Colour | Growth | Form

DATES March 20-22 2025

LOCATION Canberra, Ngunnawal (Ngunawal) and Ngambri Country. Friday main seminar day will be at Ainslie Arts Centre located at 30 Elouera Street, Braddon.

CPD 6 formal points available on the Friday

CONTEXT will consider Canberra’s progression from outback sheep station to village and onwards to its status as our nation’s capital. It will explore the planning process over the years and the city’s rural context, seeing it as a prime example of a regional centre that has experienced considerable growth and what growing pains have been experienced along the way.

We all know Canberra for its iconic buildings, however CONTEXT will look to reveal some largely unknown elements; it will bring to the fore its creative underbelly and unexpectedly vibrant art and design community that thrive beneath its formal surface.

FRINGE EVENTS
A fringe program of optional events will be provided on the Thursday and Saturday to offer the opportunity to engage with the local area in a fun and relaxing way. Details to be advised.

THE LOCATION
We will gather in Canberra for this event, fitting as the name itself is derived from a local Aboriginal word for ‘meeting place’. Its site was specifically selected as a place to develop our nation’s capital and does not have the usual prominent landscape and/or trade features associated with the development of a large urban centre. Instead, everything is created from the assessment of three significant landscape elements - Galambary (Black Mountain), Nadya Ngambri (Mount Ainslie) and Kurrajong (Capital Hill) set about the small Molonglo River.

The primary venue for this exchange of ideas will be the Ainslie Arts Centre, where the Friday talks and panel discussions will be held. This art deco building was created out of the original Ainslie Primary Infants’ School. The structure was part of the original series of suburbs built faithfully to the Griffin Plan for Canberra. This section of Northern Canberra is the earliest developed area around the main Civic Hub and the period building has been faithfully developed, retaining all of the original spatial allocations associated with the early school.

RAA events are open to associated disciplines and interested community members as well as RAA members.

We will notify when details and registration for Thursday and Saturday Fringe Events becomes available.

Please note that event program and details are subject to change.