Canberra Modern 2019: bus shelters, martinis and a modernist dinner

Posted on 10 April, 2019

Canberra Modern is an annual festival packed with events for lovers of food, fashion and architecture.

But it’s also a way for our city to celebrate its unique design personality. With the popularity of Mad Men and the rise of events such as Modernism Week in California’s Palm Springs, Canberra has found its natural place as one of the southern hemisphere’s meccas of modernism.

Taking place from 12 April to 5 May as part of the Canberra and Region Heritage Festival, Canberra Modern pulls back the curtain on the city’s most fascinating modernist highlights.

“Works by Harry Seidler, Robin Boyd, Roy Grounds, Enrico Taglietti, Ken Woolley, Dirk Bolt, Michael Dysart and many more can be found throughout the public areas and neighbourhoods of our city, providing a distinctly modern aesthetic against our bush capital backdrop,” explains Canberra Modern’s Rachel Jackson.

University House

It’s these works that Canberra Modern will showcase over the three weeks of their 2019 program with the support of an ACT Heritage Grant. But if you think a design festival focused on the past will be static and stale, think again. In keeping with the spirit of modernism’s mid-century heyday, Canberra Modern has created a schedule of events which celebrate Canberra’s past in a contemporary way.

With 14 events presented as part of this year’s festival, highlights include a tour with Canberra’s favourite bus shelter enthusiast, artist Trevor Dickinson, a Modernist Market at University House where visitors will step back in time with stalls of mid-century clothing, homewares and furniture, supporting the 1950s Vintage Ball at the National Film and Sound Archive to complement their upcoming The Dressmaker exhibition, and even a chance to sip a frosty martini at the iconic Robin Boyd-designed Manning Clarke House.

However, if you’re a modernism-loving foodie in search of the perfect night out, you can’t miss this Saturday’s Modernist Dinner. Taking place under the soaring beams of University House (1954), guests will be treated to a cocktail welcome reception followed by a three-course sharing-style menu of ‘50s and ‘60s-inspired favourites (think moulded Jell-O and mousse with a thoroughly modern flavour) with wines from Lerida Estate.

Modernist Dinner 2018

With guests encouraged to don their favourite 50’s or 60’s style outfits, entertainment will be provided by big band In Full Swing, with guest MC Ms Modernism and a keynote speech by Mister Trevor Dickinson himself, the man who has captured so many of Canberra’s modernist icons in his quirky illustrations.

“I’m going to talk about what I do – I draw cities. I’m not strictly looking for modernist architecture, but I find in Canberra it does cross over into modernism,” Trevor says, adding that while our iconic rounded bus shelters were constructed in 1975 and therefore perhaps aren’t strictly ‘mid-century’, their futuristic look lends them to Canberra’s modernist themes.

Trevor Dickinson

He explains that the rise in popularity of the bus shelters also signals a shift in Canberra’s iconography away from the lofty and national (Black Mountain Tower, Parliament House) and toward things Canberrans can relate to on a daily basis.

“Such a lowly, utilitarian structure is now an important icon of Canberra, which I’m really pleased about,” he says. “As I started drawing them, I became aware that I was tapping into something almost hard-wired for Canberrans. Even if they haven’t caught a bus in the last 20 years, you know what it’s like to sit in one of those shelters.”

He adds that his bus shelter mugs are sent all over the world and act as a sort of secret signal to other Canberrans abroad.

“I like the fact that only Canberrans know what that is. I haven’t written Canberra on them or anything like that, but if that’s sitting on a desktop in New York, a Canberran will walk in and know exactly what that is but no one else will. It’s almost like a secret language.”

To make your night even sweeter, HerCanberra is giving readers a 25% discount on tickets, just use the code HC25 when booking through Eventbrite.

the essentials

What: Canberra Modern’s Modernist Dinner
When: Saturday 13 April from 6 – 10 pm
Where: University House, 1 Balmain Crescent, Acton
Tickets: $120 per person or $90 per person with the discount code HC25 via Eventbrite. Includes cocktail reception, three-course dinner with wine from Lerida Estate and entertainment
More information: Eventbrite

This is a sponsored editorial. For more information on sponsored editorials, click here.