Welcome to Common Goods

Common Goods is a Craft Victoria exhibition that will be on display at the Melbourne Museum for the Commonwealth Games. It will include eight visiting artists from Commonwealth countries, who will work collaboratively with local artists in residencies throughout Victoria, including Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat, Morwell, Artplay, Moonee Valley and Craft Victoria. The guest countries include South Africa, Mauritius, Malta, Maldives, Sri Lanka, India, Samoa and New Zealand. The resulting exhibition will contain works by the sixteen artists individually plus eight collaborative works. As well as creatively engaging with the craft skills of visiting cultures, Common Goods is designed to develop dialogue around concepts of humanness, particularly the South African value of 'ubuntu' ('a person is a person through other persons'). The accompanying book will include essays by writers (from the countries featured in the exhibition) around concepts and rituals that represent 'common good'.