The Araluen Arts Centre will this week present a new exhibition that showcases some of Australia’s finest examples of craft and design from the Alice Craft Acquisition Collection.

Araluen Arts Centre director Tim Rollason said Elements: The Alice Craft Acquisition Collection will provide visitors the opportunity to view a large scale exhibition with a significant number of works from the Alice Craft Acquisition Collection.

“The Alice Craft Acquisition Collection, owned by local craft organisation Central Craft, is one of national significance, charting the resurgence and prominence of the contemporary craft and design movement in Australia,” Mr Rollason said.

“On what would be the 40th Anniversary of the Alice Craft Acquisition, Elements reintroduces audiences to a series of beautiful, precious and revered works from diverse craft and design disciplines, and reaffirms the Collection’s ongoing significance.”

The national standing of the Alice Craft Acquisition is evident in the many renowned and esteemed Australian craftspeople represented in the Collection, including ceramicists Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, Greg Daly, Les Blakeborough, Janet De Boos, Janet Mansfield, Jeff Mincham, Alan Watt and Stephen Bowers, jeweller Robin Gordon, textile artists Liz Williamson and Solvig Baas Becking, Furniture and Design for Wood Professor Helmut Lueckenhausen, and fibre artists Virginia Kaiser and Adrienne Kneebone.

“The exhibition is a strong testament to the quality of Craft practice in the NT, with many works in the Collection by Territory based artists and craftspeople,” Mr Rollason said.

The exhibition will be opened by local artists Faye Alexander, a sculptor and ceramicist, and Philomena Hali, an internationally recognised textile and fibre artist with works in the Alice Craft Acquisition Collection.

Both are long-time members of Central Craft and intimately associated with the Alice Craft Acquisition.

Elements: The Alice Craft Acquisition Collection opens at 6pm Friday, 24 April and concludes on Monday 8 June 2015. For more information, log onto www.araluenartscentre.nt.gov.au or ‘like’ the Araluen Arts Centre on Facebook.

The Araluen Cultural Precinct is the central arts and cultural hub in Alice Springs, boasting an Art House Cinema, Theatre, Art Gallery and Museum, the Cultural Precinct is a great place to visit whether you’re a local or just passing through.

Media note – artist Faye Alexander can be contacted on 0417667353 to talk about the Collection and the Alice Craft Acquisition’s history.

Image: Wayne Baker-Smith, Untitled (detail), Blackbean chair with woven leather seat. Acquired 1989 (left).

Brett Robertson, Bowl – Sawdust Fired (detail), stoneware clay, stencilled design, sprayed oxides and glaze, sawdust fired. Acquired 1987 (right).