Incinerator x MADA Talk Series, 2025

Overview

The Incinerator x MADA Talk Series presents three free public events at MVCC’s Maribyrnong Bowls Club with local and international artists, designers, city planners and other experts to investigate the role of suburban revitalisation, creative placemaking and community development.

Curated as the official Public Program to The Playground Project Melbourne, Incinerator Gallery’s 2025 blockbuster exhibition celebrating the history, imagination and possibility of playground design (curated by Gabriela Burkhalter), the talks welcome knowledge exchange for students, faculty, staff, industry peers and general art and design enthusiasts.

Talk #1: Grounds for Risky Play

Friday, 23 May 2025, 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Grounds for Risky Play showcases leading local examples of imaginative play pedagogy and playground designs. As the first of three think sessions in lead up to the launch of The Playground Project Melbourne, which examines four types of playground design over the past 150 years – Sculpture, Landscape, Adventure and Activist Playgrounds – this event establishes the context and discourse of Melbourne’s modernist and contemporary playground designs.

Welcome and Introduction

Jade Niklai, Head of Visual and Public Art and MJ Flamiano, Public Art Officer, MVCC

Panel 1: Adventure Playgrounds

A figurehead of the local Adventure Playground movement presents two leading examples from Melbourne, both of which feature in The Playground Project Melbourne and associated activation program.

Panel 2: Nature Play

Case Study 1: Nature Play at Royal Park is a collaborative project between the City of Melbourne and the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, and aims to restore parkland on the former Royal Children’s Hospital site.

Case Study 2: The Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden, designed over three years and opened in 2004, was created to help children connect with nature through play and imagination. The garden features a variety of plant spaces, an education area, and a kitchen garden with edible plants, all designed to engage children from their perspective.

Case Study 3: The Ringtales Playground is a site-specific playground commissioned by MVCC for The Playground Project Melbourne and located at Incinerator Gallery.

Panel 3: Play and Mobility

Case study 1: The Intergenerational Learning and Activity Playground  in Frankston Victoria, is part of the National Centre for Healthy Ageing and promotes health and engagement across generations. Featuring a Seniors Exercise Park, an Indigenous yarning circle, and interactive elements, it supports both structured and unstructured play to improve outcomes for all ages.

Case study 2: Barking Spider Creative (est. 2006) creates visual stories with the young and the elderly, from installation works to immersive theatre, puppetry, poetry, and performance.

Keynote: Risky Playground

Rocks On Wheels (‘Risky Playground’), 2022 is Mike Hewson’s critically acclaimed, large-scale public art playground. Located on Wurrundjeri Woi-wurrung land, it is part of the City of Melbourne’s largest open-space conversion in recent years. The project serves as an inclusive playground that challenges traditional play design, showcasing world-class excellence in play value, conceptual depth, and material durability.

Event #2: Art and Play

Friday, 07 July 2025, 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM

As the feature public event of The Playground Project Melbourne, Art and Play invites exhibiting artists, designers and academics to present their practices and contributions to the exhibition. Suitable for all art and design enthusiasts.

Panel 1: Play and Creative Practices

This panel presents forms of socially engaged, spatial practices which engage audiences in place-making – exploring and prototyping alternative imaginaries in the here and now. Three practitioners will present their diverse work in the public realm followed by a three-way conversation to explore the valuable intersection of art and play in creating better places.

Panel 2: Play & Pedagogy

Mary Featherston AM, interior designer and Emily Floyd, artist, discus their creative practices and the latest iteration of their collaboration, Round Table (2017/2025) which features in The Playground Project Melbourne.

Panel 3: First Nations Playable Public Art Commission

For The Playground Project Melbourne, a First Nations artist is commissioned to create a new work that explores themes of childhood, play, togetherness, and renewal. It will be the first public artwork of its kind along the Maribyrnong River, which for over 40,000 years, has been a site of deep cultural connection for the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung First Peoples as a place of learning, play and  learning.

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

Keynote: The Playground Project

Jade Niklai, Head of Visual and Public Art & MJ Flamiano, Public Art Officer, MVCC (Introduction)
Gabriela Burkhalter, Exhibition Curator
Daniel Baumann, Exhibition Commissioner (Respondent)

Talk #3: Regenerating and Reconnecting Spaces

Friday, 10 October 2025, 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM

This event explores regenerative approaches to revitalising ageing and often unviable recreational facilities. Held on site at the former Maribyrnong Bowls Club, the session includes presentations of case studies that showcase renewed community infrastructure. These are followed by short presentations around strategic approaches to the regeneration of community facilities that support community cultural and social needs, local ecologies and respond to the realities of contemporary urban life. The event concludes with a keynote lecture and Q&A.

Panel 1: Built Projects – Renewed Community Buildings

This panel showcases innovative architectural projects that reimagine and revitalise community buildings, exploring the potential of design to support civic life.

Panel 2: Strategic Approaches – Connecting Facilities, People and Ecologies

This panel explores larger-scale urban strategies that support sustainable, inclusive and ecologically responsive public spaces.

Catherine Murphy, Associate Professor, Monash Urban Lab; Course Leader, Master of Urban Planning and Design (Chair)
Professor Nicole Kalms, Associate Dean (Research), MADA and Founding Director, XYX Lab
Dr Michaela Prescott, Landscape Architect and Research Fellow, Monash Informal Cities Lab
Valentina Tansley, Head of Festival and Events, MVCC
Dr Liz Taylor, Senior Lecturer, Urban Planning and Design, Monash University

Keynote: These Are The Projects We Do Together

The art and design collective, These Are The Projects We Do Together, is renowned for transforming underutilised and contested spaces into inclusive, socially vibrant places. Their most recent work, Balam Balam Place, is a purpose-built  creative precinct in Brunswick on Wurundjeri Country and demonstrates their unique approach to architecture, education and long-term community engagement.