Future Proofing: Preserving Contemporary Tapestry

To celebrate the fourth Tapestry Design Prize for Architects (TDPA) in 2021, join architects Peter Williams AM, Amy Muir and Australian Tapestry Workshop Director Antonia Syme AM as they discuss how historical connections between architectural space and tapestry can be drawn upon in the contemporary world, while also exploring the ways that tapestries may transform public and private space in the future.

Panellists will take the audience visual tour; from the Sydney Opera House, where Jørn Utzon designed the tapestry ‘Homage to Carl Emmanuel Bach’; to the collaboration between Aldo Giurgola (Mitchell Giurgola Thorpe) and artist Arthur Boyd for the Great Hall tapestry in Australia’s Parliament House. These tapestries will be a departure point for panellists to consider and discuss contemporary approaches to this exciting medium and explore how traditional skills and art forms can enrich architectural contexts.

The TDPA seeks to stimulate new creative conversations between architects and contemporary weavers, and to expand the appreciation of the historical and technical craftsmanship of tapestry and its intersection with architectural spaces. Previous prizes have seen architects designing tapestries for award winning sites including: Pharos Wing, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart (MONA) (TDPA 2018); National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (TDPA 2016) and the Australian Pavilion in the Giardini, Venice (2015 TDPA).