Design conference will explore how Kilkenny is poised to design for Ireland

As part of Design Week Ireland 2022, Kilkenny County Council is staging a unique conference event showcasing the past, present and future of how Kilkenny is positioned to drive design excellence.

Design Week Ireland 2022 is a week-long national programme of events taking place from November 14-18, convened by the Design and Craft Council Ireland. Throughout the week, DCCI will curate and host a series of hybrid events focussing on why design matters and highlighting issues around sustainability, diversity and inclusion. 

This Kilkenny event takes place on Friday November 18, at the Parade Tower, Kilkenny Castle and will celebrate the strong history of design in Kilkenny and explore how this rich legacy could contribute to the future of design in the region.

Decade of Centenaries Lecture series in Kilkenny Library

Learn about life in Kilkenny one hundred years ago

Speakers at the event will include Elisa Luoto, Mark Duncan, Dr Mary Ann Bolger, Aoife Murphy, Carol Gibbins, Dr Fiona Chambers, Tom Watts, and the MC is Richard Curran. 

Kilkenny has a rich and vibrant design legacy encompassing the ground-breaking Kilkenny Design Workshop founded in the late 1960s through to the Design and Craft Council Ireland today. The Kilkenny Design Workshops (KDW) were a government-funded research and development centre of excellence for design (and design advocacy, research and promotion) which was established in Ireland in 1963.

It was created to inspire, support and demonstrate to industry how design could be the key factor in change, opening new markets and lead to economic success. KDW operated from the converted Ormonde Stables in Kilkenny City from its official opening in 1965 until its closure in 1988.

New film set during Irish Civil War of 1922 features tragic executions in Kilkenny

Film, Dear Mother by Kevin Hughes, will run at the Butler Gallery Kilkenny in November

The early workshops in Kilkenny were ceramics, candle making, precious metals and metalwork, woodturning and textiles; which comprised weaving and printed textile departments. Graphic design was added to in 1969 and 3D work included furniture design. Designers also contributed to packaging production and exhibition design.

Workshops were staffed with teams of creatives: artists, designers, craftspeople, apprentices, graduates and students, including technicians and chemists to assist with research and development. 

Design advocacy included seminars and exhibitions, the education of the designers in the workshops led to the potential for good design to spread out of the Kilkenny Graduate Programmes which refined the skills of young designers. Many of those who partook in programmes ran by KDW went on to establish their own creative enterprises or teach in design departments at second and third level in Ireland.

Although Kilkenny Design Workshops ceased operation in 1988 their output had transformed the visual culture of Ireland.

Today the DCCI (also based in Kilkenny) continues their work promoting the commercial development of Irish designers and makers, stimulating innovation, championing design thinking and informing Government policy. 

For more information https://loom.ly/TOaIBAU

Design Week Ireland 2022 is funded by the Department of Enterprise Trade & Employment through Enterprise Ireland.