Design Forum Tasmania
Sustain, Inspire, Create.
The Design Forum Tasmania is a not-for-profit organisation with a mission to support and sustain design.
DFT holds a specialist museum collection of contemporary wood design and runs on-site and travelling exhibitions Tasmanian design , both nationally and internationally. Our exhibitions provide the community with an exciting way to access and engage with contemporary design.
It's a Contemporary Museum...
The Tasmanian Wood Design Collection, the core collection of the Design Forum Tasmania is a continuously-evolving introduction to contemporary wood design.Housed in its own award-winning building by architects David Travalia and Richard Le Plastrier the museum collection is unique in Australia.
Scope of the Collection
The Collection's scope is deliberately narrow. It represents only those pieces of contemporary wood design made in Tasmania by designers who live and work in Tasmania.
The decision to focus a collection of this type within state boundaries is far from arbitrary. Tasmania has a variety and quality of indigenous timbers unequalled in Australia and the world. Huon pine, king billy pine, celery top pine, sassafras and myrtle are just a few of the special species native to the island and unavailable elsewhere.
As a consequence, Tasmania has become a magnet for designers interested in working with wood. The concentration of craft and design practitioners (as opposed to artists practising in other media) is higher in Tasmania than elsewhere in Australia.