Craft Futures: Entrepreneurship, Sustainability and Cross-Cultural Exchange

Craft Futures: Entrepreneurship, Sustainability and Cross-Cultural Exchange

Craft Futures aims to advance research and advocacy on the links between craft and fashion-based entrepreneurship and sustainable development.

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About the symposium

Date: Friday 20 March 

Time: 9am – 6.30pm (Registrations open from 8.45am) 

Location: RMIT Garden Building, City Campus (Building 10, Level 6, Room 89) 

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The Craft Futures symposium aims to advance research and advocacy on the links between craft and fashion-based entrepreneurship and sustainable development. It is part of a wider project that responds to the challenging context of contemporary craft and fashion markets. 

In a context of large-scale mega-brands and fast fashion companies, craft and fashion based social enterprise offers new models of value. The devastating environmental and social consequences of these commercial industries and companies are well established, and there is an urgent need to support alternative economic practices that empower vulnerable communities and promote environmental responsibility. Many craft practitioners work in isolation, and there is a need to develop stronger connections and cross-cultural knowledge between craft and fashion entrepreneurs working towards shared goals. 

Through conversation around shared concerns, this symposium aims to support partnerships, cross-cultural advocacy and knowledge sharing that will address shared challenges and support access to global markets.   

The symposium is part of a research partnership between RMIT University and Birmingham City University, for the project, Expanding contemporary craft and fashion entrepreneurship for sustainable development. This project is funded by the UK Academy of Medical Sciences Networking Grant Scheme (NGR1\2031). 

RMIT University logo
Birmingham City University logo.

Agenda

8.45am

Registration
9am

Event Opening
9.15am Welcome to Country
9.30am

Keynote 1: Culture in the Making: Crafting Identity Through Practice

Speakers: Kerri Clarke and Molly Mahoney
10.20am

Keynote 2: Care and Community: the Value of Socially Engaged Craft in the UK 

Speakers: Karen Seaward-Patel and Susan Luckman (discussant)
11.05am

Morning Tea
11.40am

Panel 3: Sustaining Indigenous Craft Enterprise 

Speakers: Ella Doonan and Jon Hewitt 
12.30pm

Panel 4: Cross-cultural Marketing and Storytelling 

Speakers: Dewi Cooke, Jiahui Liao and Kelly Zhu 
1.15pm Lunch
2pm

Panel 5: Crafting Place

Speakers: Xin Gu, Harriette Richards
2.50pm

Panel 6: Valuing the Handmade 

Speakers: Yassie Samie, Alice Payne, Zoe Mellick and Tiziana Ferrero-Regis 
3.35pm Afternoon Tea
4pm

Panel 7: Craft Materiality 

Speakers: Emma Lynas, Mia Stratmann, Rahni Maclean and Rashmita Bardalai
4.45pm Refreshments
5.15pm

day/do (here/there) Book Launch 

Speakers: Grace McQuilten, Rimi Khan, Becky Lu and Thao Nguyen 
6.30pm Event Concludes

Speakers

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Kerri Clarke

Kerri Clarke

Kerri is an arts and cultural practitioner who works in long-standing collaboration with Senior Possum Skin Knowledge Holders, artists, and community members across south-east Australia. Her practice is grounded in relationships built over many years through shared cultural work, deep listening, and accountability to community. 
Molly Mahoney

Molly Mahoney

Molly Mahoney is a proud Boonwurrung, Barkindji, and Wemba Wemba woman whose artistic practice is grounded in the continuation of ancestral knowledge. Guided by the teachings of the women in her life, Molly carries forward cultural traditions that have been practiced on Country for countless generations.

Associate Professor Karen Seaward-Patel

Associate Professor Karen Seaward-Patel

Karen Seaward-Patel is an Associate Professor in Media at Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK. Her research interests centre on inequalities in cultural work, particularly in craft, and the role of socially engaged craft in the creative ecosystem. Karen has led two AHRC funded Innovation Fellowships with the UK Crafts Council, revealing the extent of racism and microaggressions in UK craft.
Professor Susan Luckman

Professor Susan Luckman

Susan Luckman is Professor of Culture and Creative Industries, Founding Director of the Creative People, Products and Places Research Centre (CP3), and the Cultural and Creative Industries Research Platform Leader of the EU Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at Adelaide University.

Ella Doonan

Ella Doonan

Ella Doonan is an accomplished arts manager, creative producer and writer, currently engaged as Development and Marketing Manager at Agency Projects and a freelance project manager.  With 20 years’ experience across the Australian arts sector, Ella has worked at the intersection of community-led practice and professional excellence.
Dr Jon Hewitt

Dr Jon Hewitt

Dr Jon Hewitt is a Lecturer in RMIT's School of Fashion and Textiles. With over 15 years of industry experience within the fashion sector in design, PR management, wholesale and consultancy, Jon's academic research interests include the marketing practices of social enterprises (based in the fashion sector), marketing sustainable fashion and consumer behaviour. 

Dewi Cooke

Dewi Cooke

Dewi Cooke is the CEO of The Social Studio, a not-for-profit social enterprise providing work and training opportunities in fashion and the creative industries to refugee and new migrant communities. Here, she oversees an RMIT-accredited training program, an ethical manufacturing studio and a socially-conscious retail venture as well as numerous creative and community projects. 
Jiahui Liao

Jiahui Liao

Jiahui Liao is a PhD candidate in Culture, Media & Creative Industries at King’s College London and currently a visiting researcher at RMIT University. Her doctoral research examines how traditional Chinese craft businesses operating in the UK develop transnational business models and marketing practices, and how founders’ entrepreneurial characteristics shape cultural and commercial decision-making. 
Dr Kelly Zhu

Dr Kelly Zhu

Kelly is currently a lecturer working for the Bachelor of Fashion Enterprise program at School of Fashion and Textiles. Her work bridges industry practice (fashion, marketing) and rigorous academic investigation in consumer behaviour and social commerce, specifically, online group buying and live-streaming commerce.

Associate Professor Xin Gu Gu

Associate Professor Xin Gu Gu

Associate Professor Xin Gu is an academic leader and internationally recognised expert in cultural and creative industries (CCI) policy. Her work critically engages with the implications of digitalisation for cultural production, cultural participation, and diversity of expression. She has served as Director of the Master of Cultural and Creative Industries since 2017 at Monash University.
Dr Harriette Richards

Dr Harriette Richards

Harriette Richards is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Fashion and Textiles at RMIT University. She is co-founder of the Critical Fashion Studies Research Group and Ways of Being theme leader in the Weft Research Centre. Harriette is a cultural studies scholar whose work focuses on fashion cultures, gendered histories and ethical and sustainable fashion systems.

Associate Professor Tiziana Ferrero-Regis

Associate Professor Tiziana Ferrero-Regis

Tiziana Ferrero-Regis is Associate Professor in Fashion, leader of the research group TextileR in the School of Design at QUT, and leader of the programme Sustainable Production and Consumption in the Centre for Environment and Society.  Since 2021, Tiziana has been researching on circularity in local contexts, playing a leading role in transformation strategies within the local industry.
Dr Zoe Mellick

Dr Zoe Mellick

Dr Zoe Mellick is a Lecturer in Fashion in the School of Design, Queensland University of Technology. Her research focuses on defining and actioning sustainability within global textile and apparel value chains. Zoe has examined understandings around sustainability and its value along cotton value chains, as well as circular business models and their impacts. 
Professor Alice Payne

Professor Alice Payne

Professor Alice Payne is Dean of the School of Fashion and Textiles at RMIT. Her research focuses on environmental and social sustainability issues throughout the life cycle of clothing. Recent work has examined labour issues in the cotton value chain, technologies to address the problem of textile waste, consumer practices for circularity, and circular design.
Dr Yassie Samie

Dr Yassie Samie

Dr. Yassie Samie is a Postdoc Fellow and educator at RMIT School of Fashion and Textiles, focusing on sustainable circular fashion and textiles ecosystems. Her research examines place-based approaches to enable regeneration, sufficiency and circular economy. Her PhD on urban metabolism for unwanted textiles earned nomination for the "Emerging Circular Leader Award" by the Australian Circular Economy Hub and Planet Ark Environmental Foundation.

Dr Rashmita Bardalai

Dr Rashmita Bardalai

Rashmita's background as a textile and graphic designer spans the fusion of traditional craft practices with modern materials, alongside the development of novel functional fabrics. Her interdisciplinary research sits at the intersection of fashion pedagogy, material innovation and sensory-emotional design, investigating how people, materials and emotions come together in everyday fashion through sensory attributes, product attachment and design for wellbeing.
Dr Emma Lynas

Dr Emma Lynas

Emma Lynas has coordinated and delivered material-focused studio courses since 2006, with a focus on combining traditional media techniques with digital technologies. She is a graduate of the BA Textile Design program (RMIT), holds a Bachelor of Teaching (UTAS) and a PhD (RMIT), and has experience working in the commercial textile design sector.
Rahni Maclean

Rahni Maclean

Rahni is a Melbourne-based bio-designer and textile artist working at the intersection of art, science, and fashion. Their practice focuses on developing sustainable materials and processes, using bio-based and natural resources to explore new possibilities in textile design.
Mia Stratmann

Mia Stratmann

Mia Stratmann is a new and emerging textile designer who grew up in the Gippsland region of Victoria. Crafting and creating from a young age, she developed a deep connection to nature that continues to shape her creative practice and commitment to sustainability.

Associate Professor Rimi Khan

Associate Professor Rimi Khan

Rimi Khan is Vice Chancellor’s Principal Research Fellow in the School of Fashion and Textiles, investigating regenerative fashion systems in the Asia-Pacific. Rimi’s research investigates the cultural and community impacts of sustainability innovations in global south communities,  particularly low-carbon, resource-efficient materials that supply fashion systems, and new biomaterials which offer the potential to enhance community wellbeing and ecological resilience. 
Becky Lu

Becky Lu

Becky Lu (Lư Ngọc Phụng) is a British-born Vietnamese Chinese multidisciplinary artist, researcher, and educator based in Ho Chi Minh City. Trained in screen printing for printed textiles and with a background in digital media arts, her interdisciplinary practice spans printmaking, illustration, and relational community-based work.
Professor Grace McQuilten

Professor Grace McQuilten

Grace McQuilten is a published art historian, curator and artist with expertise in contemporary art and design, public art, social practice, social enterprise and community development. Grace is Associate Dean of Research and Innovation in the School of Art at RMIT University. Her research champions inclusive models of curatorship and art history.
Nguyễn Ngọc Thảo

Nguyễn Ngọc Thảo

Nguyễn Ngọc Thảo is a Vietnamese-Australian artist, educator, and researcher based in Naarm. Working across participatory and socially engaged forms, her practice frequently involves food as both material and method - a way of thinking through care, labour, memory, and collective gathering.

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

Learn more about our commitment to Indigenous cultures