The cultural currency of ‘handmade’ in the age of AI
Artisan CEO Carmel Haugh reflects on its recent inaugural symposium – an opportunity to celebrate Queensland craft and design ahead of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.
The groundswell of talent from makers and craftspeople was palpable. That was the feeling at MADE 2026, Artisan’s inaugural symposium at The State Library of Queensland last month.
As our first major gathering at our new headquarters in Brisbane’s cultural centre, MADE 2026 was an opportunity for makers from across the state to hear from and meet with cultural leaders from around the country.
It was a chance to identify the priorities, partnerships and actions needed to strengthen the sector for the decade ahead. We’ve long known craft and design to be inseparable from our culture and identity in Queensland. Our conversations reinforced the belief that its value is on the rise and we are ready to share it with the world.
Our Nation of Makers panel at MADE 2026 brought together Canberra Glassworks director Aimee Frodsham, Design Tasmania CEO Travis Tiddy, Jam Factory CEO Brian Parkes and Hopevale Arts and Cultural Centre and Indigenous Arts Centre Alliance director Melanie Gibson. It was Gibson who described the positive impacts of cultural practice rippling through her community.
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“For us art is never just about producing a work,” says Gibson. “It is about culture, identity, story, connection and place. We don’t separate art from culture or culture from community. When an artist succeeds, the benefits can flow through families, through young people, through a local economy, and through a wider community. That is why I see Indigenous art centres as more than arts organisations. We are cultural organisations, we are community organisations and we are economic organisations.”
We are hearing this echoed around the country. From Tasmania to the Torres Strait, where craft, design and arts institutions are coming together to forge cultural social enterprises that will bind communities and support sustainable local economies.
Part of knowing who we are, is understanding the things that give our people and communities meaning and purpose. Creative practice does that. Through arts, craft, making and designing our stories surface, our histories are told and our memories are embedded in objects we can hold.
Chair of Artisan, interior designer and craft enthusiast Angela Spillane, says it best: “I have always been drawn to handmade things, particularly when I travel. Over time, those things become much more than objects. I remember where I bought them. I remember something about the person who made them, or the story behind them. I remember the place. There’s a memory embedded in them.”
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In our increasingly automated, digital world, handmade craft is making a resurgence. And there is a simple reason for that – only a human being can make something by hand. And those hands carry our humanity. Craftspeople have always known this, but this awareness and appetite is going beyond our small circle and is also driving something else – cultural tourism.
As Spillane says: “When we think about Queensland heading towards 2032, and the number of people who will encounter this place, in the years and decades ahead, we ask, what will they take home with them? What will those objects tell them about Queensland?”
Everything we do positions our artisans to share their craft with new audiences here and beyond our shores
Artisan exists to support Queensland’s makers and promote contemporary craft and design. Our place-based development programs and partnerships help forge sustainable career pathways to elevate Queensland’s unique talent to national and international prominence.
Everything we do positions our artisans to share their craft with new audiences here and beyond our shores.
It is time to capture the interest, the cultural tourism, the investment and the spotlight that the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games and other major events will shine on Queensland.
Momentum is building and so is the depth and reach of Queensland’s craftspeople – our ceramicists, metalsmiths, glass artists, furniture makers, woodworkers, weavers and textile designers across the state. As their numbers grow, we are witnessing a fresh wave of new talent and an enviable maturation of our mid- and long-term career artisans – all with a deep desire to refine expression, distil identity and share their stories through making.
Artisan is Queensland’s leading organisation for contemporary craft and design. Inaugural symposium MADE 2026 took place at the State Library of Queensland on September 10.
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