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Programs for Children

Incinerator x MADA Talk Series: Art & Play

Friday, 4 July, 4pm to 7pm

Maribyrnong Park Bowls Club (195 Holmes Road, Moonee Ponds 3039, Victoria Australia), located across from Incinerator Gallery

FREE event - bookings required

Duration: 3 hours
Doors open 3.30pm for 4pm start
Light refreshments will be served

Incinerator x MADA Talk Series presents three free public events on 23 May, 4 July and 10 October with local and international artists, designers city planners and other experts, to investigate the role of suburban revitalisation, creative placemaking and community development.

The Playground Project Melbourne, curated by Gabriela Burkhalter, celebrates the history, imagination and possibility of playground design. On view at Incinerator Gallery from 28 June to 12 October 2025. 

Talk 2: Art & Play

The Playground Project Melbourne, curated by Gabriela Burkhalter, presents four types of playground design during the past 100 years: Sculpture, Landscape, Adventure and Activism. This event explores key contributions by local artists, designers, educators and academics. 

Mitsuru Senda, Giant Path Play Structure, Mukoyama Children’s Park Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, 1969. Photo Yoshio Shiratori. Courtesy Environment Design Institute, Tokyo & The Playground Project

Mitsuru Senda, Giant Path Play Structure, Mukoyama Children’s Park Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, 1969. Photo Yoshio Shiratori. Courtesy Environment Design Institute, Tokyo & The Playground Project

Professor Dodd is an architect, urban practitioner and academic leader undertaking practice and research that critically engages with the city. Motivated by an acute awareness of the role of people and place in social, cultural and economic transformation, her practice is underpinned by productive collaborations with industry, government and communities, contributing to inclusive and sustainable urban environments. She has practised as an architect in the UK contributing to inclusive urban environments through constructed urban landscapes and public realm strategies. She sits on the advisory committee for Melbourne’s Living Cities Forum and is an adjunct professor at Central Saint Martins in London.

Emily Floyd, Ripple, 2014 (detail 2). Courtesy the Artist

Emily Floyd, Ripple, 2014 (detail). 110 x 70 cm (each image). Courtesy Artist. 

Mary Featherston AM and Emily Floyd will be presenting their instructional work, Round Table (2017-) in The Playground Project Melbourne. Their presentation will address this work and other collaborations. 

Speakers:  

Mary Featherston AM is an interior designer specialising in the design of learning environments. The focus of Mary’s research and practice is the relationship between young people, contemporary learning theory and the design of supportive physical environments in cultural venues and schools. She has collaborated with leading Australian and international educators, architects, school communities and policy makers to develop highly participatory design processes and innovative physical environments. Her work has been widely awarded and published.

Mary has collaborated with several activist groups to develop new services for families and children: Community Child Care and Community Schools in the 1970s and the Reggio Emilia Australia Information Exchange in 1995. In 1982 Mary successfully campaigned for the establishment of Australia’s first Children’s Museum in the Museum of Victoria and was subsequently commissioned to develop and design several interactive exhibitions.  

Mary is an Adjunct Professor at RMIT University. In 2020 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the arts, particularly to interior and industrial design. In 1965 Mary formed a life and professional partnership with Australian designer Grant Featherston, they were inaugural inductees into the Design Institute of Australia Hall of Fame and they are represented in the collections of several State Galleries and the National Gallery of Australia

Emily Floyd is an artist and educator, working in public art, sculpture and printmaking. She is renowned for her text-based sculptures and pedagogically inspired works that combine a strong focus on visual qualities with an interest in the legacies of Modernism. Emily's family were toy makers in traditional European styles, working with carefully crafted wood. She learned the skills and use of machinery, which are reflected and used in many of her sculptural works. Her practice engages a wide range of disciplines, including social activism, design and typography, literature and cultural studies, community participation and public education. Intersecting public space with a carefully considered aesthetic approach, she creates bold spaces for public engagement and interaction. In addition to the aforementioned work with Featherston, Floyd is exhibiting in The Playground Project Melbourne, as series of prints, titled Ripple, 2015 and a new billboard commission. Floyd is represented by Anna Schwartz Gallery.

Maribyrnong River hero 1

Maribyrnong River. 2024. Photo: Gianna Rizzo.

As part of The Playground Project Melbourne, MVCC is proud to commission a First Nations artist to create a new work that explores themes of childhood, play, togetherness, and renewal. This commission reflects Moonee Valley’s ongoing collaboration with First Nations artists and marks the first public artwork of its kind along the Maribyrnong River. For over 40,000 years, the Maribyrnong has been a site of deep cultural connection for the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung First Peoples—a place of learning, play, and discovery. The new work, selected by an esteemed independent panel, will be temporarily installed at Incinerator Gallery during exhibition and permanently relocated in 2026,to a site along the Maribyrnong River in Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country.

Commissioned by Moonee Valley City Council
Presented by Incinerator Gallery and Agency Projects
Funded by Victoria State Government's Emergency Recovery Hubs Grant and MVCC

Speaker:

Edwina Green, appointed artist, is a Trawlwoolway First Nations multidisciplinary artist based in Naarm/Melbourne. Her practice explores perception, historical re-framing, cultural reclamation, and the post-colonial impact on people and place. Graduating from The University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, she has exhibited extensively across Australia and internationally and also works as an art educator. 

In conversation with:
Leila Gurruwiwi, Cultural Liaison and Public Programs Lead, Agency, project partner & selection panel member

Yvan Passalotti, Lozziwurm Playground, 1972 (original design). Adliswil, Switzerland, 1975. Photo Heidi Gantner. Courtesy The Playground Project

Yvan Passalotti, Lozziwurm Playground, 1972 (original design). Adliswil, Switzerland, 1975. Photo Heidi-Gantner. Courtesy The Playground Project.

Keynote: Gabriela Burkhalter, Curator of The Playground Project

Swiss urban planner, political scientist and The Playground Project Melbourne’s guest curator, Gabriela Burkhalter, presents her ongoing research archive, Architektur für Kinder (Architecture for Children) and highlights key themes and ambitions of her travelling exhibition and associated exhibition catalogue (Park Books, Zurich, 3rd ed., 2023). 

In conversation with:


Daniel Baumann, Project Commissioner and Former Director of Kunsthalle Zurich 

Daniel Baumann is an art historian and curator based in Basel, Switzerland. He is the former director of Kunsthalle Zurich and co-curator of the 2013 Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, where The Playground Project was first ocmmissioned. His writing has appeared in Artforum, Spike and other art publications. 

The Playground Project is curated by Gabriela Burkhalter
Exhibition design by BoardGrove Architects
Produced by Incinerator Gallery
With thanks to the following:
Project partner – Kunsthalle Zürich
Major Partner – Jellis Craig | Jellis Craig Foundation
Education Partner – Monash University | MADA
Produced in partnership with