Australian Wearable Art Festival is thrilled to welcome Natasha Smith, Director Curatorial at Urban Art Projects (UAP), to the 2025 judging panel.
With a curatorial career spanning public and commercial art sectors across Australia, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas, Natasha brings a truly global perspective to this year’s festival.
She leads UAP’s curatorial teams in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Shanghai and New York, and has collaborated with some of the world’s most exciting artists and curators to transform public spaces through art.
Natasha also serves as Board Chair of Outer Space, a not-for-profit contemporary arts organisation supporting emerging creatives and communities.
We sat down with Natasha to find out what she’ll be looking for on the Australian Wearable Art Festival runway in 2025.
How do you feel about being a judge at AWAF next year?
I am thrilled to be a judge for this year’s Australian Wearable Art Festival. Having spent much of my youth in New Zealand, I always followed the World of Wearable Art Show in Wellington with great interest. There is something intriguing about the fusion of art, movement, fashion and design that the wearable arts platform ignites and I am fascinated by the innovation and flair of it all!
As a public art curator, I am really interested in the intersection of art and design and the successful balance between medium, functionality, aesthetics and engagement of the viewer. I think the
wearable arts explores these qualities also.
What will you be looking for on the AWAF runway in 2025? Are there any trends or innovations you hope to see?
I hope to be wowed! I see this as a space for true design innovation and the unexpected. I am not looking for trends per say but rather for the unique. This is a medium that offers incredible scope to the creative and so for me I am looking to be able to see the artist’s distinctive point of view front and centre.
What advice would you give to artists who are new to wearable art and considering entering for the first time?
Don’t feel overwhelmed. Stand firmly in your creative practice.
As a public art curator I often work alongside artists who have not created work for the public realm before. I commonly see artists who take on an outdoor, large scale brief for the first time, feeling really nervous about how to translate their artistic practice (which is often small scale and gallery based), to the design requirements and logistical limitations that outdoor art can require. The reality is that there are always ways to translate your creative practice into new materials and new formats, the key is not to lose sight of your practice and what inspires and nourishes you as a creative. Hold on to your point of view and let that guide you as you embark on upon a more challenging opportunity like this.
In your view, how can a festival like AWAF contribute to an artist’s career growth or open up new opportunities?
I think the opportunity to work at the scale and complexity that AWAF demands is an incredible experience for any artist. The exposure online and through the event itself is fabulous and the learnings from the experience of making and being immersed in the creativity of so many amazing peers, will no doubt be invaluable. AWAF is such a multifaceted creative platform that fuses so many creative mediums, so it is a chance for any creative to spread their wings in many directions simultaneously.
What elements of design or storytelling do you find particularly compelling in wearable art?
I love the intimacy of anything that interacts with the body. The connection between the materiality and aesthetics of the work to the wearer that inhabits it is fascinating to me. Ultimately this medium is about being ‘wearable’ and I think there are so many ways a creative may explore that concept. Is it about design functionality or cultural identity, or physical or emotional protection, or personal transformation, or even a form of camouflage? There are so many ways to unpack the idea of wearability, and to tell stories that inspire viewers through design, materiality, aesthetics and staging. It is always great to learn about the artist’s ideas through their own words but as a curator, I am looking for the artwork to be able to tell its own story and to inspire readings from its viewers directly – this is a sign of great art.
Tickets are selling fast for Australian Wearable Art Festival in August 2025. To secure your spot, go to Buy tickets.
