Talk: Open House Melbourne Virginia Rigney and Tanja Taglietti
Design Gallery,
Glyn Davis Building (MSD),
The University of Melbourne,
Masson Road,
Parkville, Victoria, 3010, Australia
Share via
More Information
Join us for a guided tour and floor talk of Taglietti: Life in Design exhibition during Open House Melbourne on Friday 24 July from 4-5pm in the Design Gallery of the Melbourne School of Design at the University of Melbourne.
Hear Taglietti’s youngest daughter, Tanja (the custodian and curator of the Taglietti Studio Archive) discuss growing up in the innovative, global, and fascinating household of Franca and Enrico Taglietti, where art, architecture, culture and design amalgamated in Canberra during its post-war expansion. In conversation with Virginia Rigney, co-curator of the Canberra exhbition, Tanja will discuss the role of the Taglietti family’s journey to Australia, Enrico’s international posts, and the unsung role that Franca played in developing and fostering the family’s creativity and place in Canberra’s vogue design set.
Tanja Taglietti is a Canberra-based artist, designer, and the youngest daughter of the eminent Italian-Australian architect Enrico Taglietti. As the custodian and curator of the Taglietti Studio Archive, she plays a vital role in preserving and promoting her family's profound architectural and design legacy. She has been heavily involved in celebrating the centenary of her father's birth, co-curating the major retrospective exhibition Taglietti: Life in Design showcased at the Canberra Museum and Gallery (CMAG).
Beyond preserving her father's architectural archives, Tanja has carved out her own creative path. She is a working artist and designer, and previously served as the co-director of the Bilk gallery, a prominent Canberra-based contemporary art and design space.
Virginia Rigney is a Curator, Writer and Creative Producer who has worked with artists, designers and collections to develop exhibitions, publications, digital platforms, installations, short films, and public programs within museums for over 35 years. Her curatorial practice also embraces the expanded field of temporal and permanent public art.
Virginia joined CMAG in 2018 in the role of Senior Curator Visual Arts. Her most recent curatorial projects there include Taglietti: Life in Design (2025-6), Materiality…But not as we Know it (2024), eX de Medici - Sidney Nolan - Guns and Flowers (2023-4), Mandy Martin: From Queanbeyan to New York 1978-1984 (2021-2) and the co-curation of Canberra/Kamberri Place & People, which was awarded the 2023 AMAGA Award for Best Permanent Collection Exhibition.