Talk: Nanette Carter - Emigre Design Culture of the 1950s

Join us for an informal floor talk during the Taglietti: Life in Design exhibition on Tuesday 4 August from 1-2pm in the Design Gallery of the Melbourne School of Design at the University of Melbourne.

Hear Nanette Carter discuss emigre design culture, Taglietti’s work with artists and designers in his practice, and how that related to the everyday - particularly the burgeoning interest in Italian design which was most obviously evident in Melbourne’s 1950s cafe culture. Taking influence from papers given on Carter’s research into artists like Clement Meadmore and his work on The Tea House and The Legend, hear how these collaborations, such as in projects like the Town House Motel in Canberra brought design and artistry into the everyday.

Nanette Carter completed a master’s degree in art history focusing on the development of modern design in Melbourne in the 1930s. She subsequently researched and wrote on postwar interiors by designer and artist Clement Meadmore. Her 2015 PhD on the emergence of DIY culture in the postwar period in Australia was jointly supervised by the School of Historical Studies and the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne. In addition to researching and writing about Australia’s design history, Nanette has curated exhibitions for Swinburne University of Technology - ‘Pen to Pixel’ - and for Heide Museum of Modern Art - ‘Savage Luxury: Modernist Design in Melbourne 1930-1939’. Her latest publication Frances Burke: Designer of Modern Textiles with Robyn Oswald-Jacobs launched in 2021. Nanette is an adjunct scholar connected to the School of Design, Swinburne University