Due to COVID-19 restrictions, this talk was presented via Zoom; please scroll down to watch!

Frances Burke was Australia’s most influential and celebrated textile designer of the 20th century. Distinctly evocative of Australia’s natural beauty, her designs featured native flora, marine objects, Indigenous artefacts and designs of pure abstraction. From the late 1930s to 1970, her designs achieved a prominence unparalleled in Australia before or since. Progressive for the era, she was also acclaimed as a business woman and design activist, collaborating with leading architects and interior designers.

Co-authors of a richly illustrated book published in August 2021, ‘Frances Burke, Designer of Modern Textiles’, Nanette Carter and Robyn Oswald-Jacobs will share the story of their deep-dive into Burke’s life, her influence on modern design and reveal the work which contributed so much to the felt experience of Australian life in the middle decades of the twentieth century.