Creative Futures
Design Education Program
Museum collections and design thinking cycles enrich teacher practice through interaction and immersion with design professionals, educators, and leading teachers.
With a unique focus on the Australian Design & Technologies Curriculum, the Creative Futures program provides opportunities for teachers to expand their skills, knowledge, and confidence regarding contemporary Design Thinking practice. Delivered on-site at Melbourne Museum in the Learning Lab Studio, teachers will be led through a series of talks and activities by industry experts, alongside opportunities for collaboration and resource sharing utilising the Museum collection and digital spaces.
Design thinking is a dynamic, iterative process that emphasises collaboration between designers and users. It transforms innovative concepts into reality by aligning with the thoughts, emotions, and behaviours of real users. This human-centered design approach comprises five fundamental stages: Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test.
In the 2024 Winter School Holidays, Museums Victoria will present the Creative Futures Annual Design Education workshop, which will be offered free to teachers.
Creative Futures Annual Design Workshop
This workshop uses museum collections and design thinking practices to enrich school-based design education. The main aim is to provide a short-term solution to the critical shortage of qualified design & technologies (D&T) teachers. Research carried out in 2019 by DATTA Victoria revealed that 90% of their member schools are forced to use out-of-field teachers from other learning areas to deliver the D&T curriculum, which is having a major impact on the way the subject is taught. Until there are more opportunities established in Initial Teacher Education, this masterclass supports these teachers to deliver the curriculum in a progressive, dynamic, and safe way – and an online version provides help to schools in rural areas, as the recruitment challenge is even greater for them.
In late December 2020, Museums Victoria received a gift of $1 million from Creative Futures Ltd, for a perpetual trust focused on design education professional learning programs and related opportunities. This gift recognises the Museum’s longstanding commitment to design education within the secondary education sector and will support programs and initiatives for secondary school teachers.
Design education partners
Top Designs
For over 20 years, Museums Victoria has partnered with the Victoria Curriculum Assessment Authority (VCAA) to present Top Designs at Melbourne Museum. Part of the VCE Season of Excellence, the exhibition displays some of the brightest VCE and VCE VET students from across Victoria. With over 1000 submissions, the final selection of works offers a glimpse into the future of Australian design and presents works created by students who completed:
VCE
- Media Product
- Design and Technology
- Systems Engineering
- Theatre Studies
- Visual Communication Design
VCE VET - Creative and Digital
- Media Engineering Furnishing
- Integrated Technologies
- Sound Production
Held every year between March to July, the exhibition attracts over 10,000 education group bookings to the exhibition. Top Designs also delights other visitors, providing insight into the impressive works of Victoria’s future designers. The exhibition is complemented by the Top Design Education Forums – A program featuring the talks of over 200 leaders of Creative Industry. In 2024, we are seeing over 1500 students and teachers attending these forums. On average, a third of Top Design Education Forum attendees are from regional and rural schools.
About Creative Futures Ltd
Creative Futures Ltd was established with the following principal objectives and purposes:
- to support the advancement of design education and culture
- to promote the integration of design and innovation within and for the benefit of the broader community
- to foster a supportive environment and culture for future creative thinkers.
Creative Future’s four core values are Enterprise, Innovation, Creative Education, and Support.
As part of its mission, Creative Futures supports design education institutions and organisations. It distributed major gifts in December 2020 to:
- Museums Victoria to develop programs and exhibitions for design students and teachers
- University of Melbourne, Melbourne School of Design to develop award programs for design teachers in conjunction with the Melbourne Graduate School of Education
- Geelong Art Gallery to develop design support programs and exhibitions for students in the Bellarine and Surf Coast region.
CFL also provided Teacher Development Grants to the Design and Technology Teachers Association (DATTA) Victoria.
Robert Treseder, Founder, and Chair, Creative Futures Foundation is a passionate entrepreneurial leader within the Australian creative industries, having established the Australian Centre for Design and Innovation (ACID), Geelong, and the Academy of Design Australia (Melbourne).
About DATTA VIC
DATTA VIC is the professional association for teachers of Design and Technologies in Victoria. Their members come from the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors and teach STEAM, Product Design, Textiles Design, Electronics, Systems Engineering, Food & Fibre, Sustainability, and Emerging Technologies. DATTA VIC delivers teacher professional learning programs throughout the year, including conferences, workshops, regional networking groups, and webinars. DATTA Vic also advocates on behalf of our learning area to state and federal government and industry and develops partnerships that benefit teachers and students.
More information and DATTA VIC membership
Museums Victoria partners with DATTA Victoria to run Creative Futures workshops to address the shortage of design and tech teachers
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