Left: Other Places, Sophie Gannon Gallery 2024, Tall Place Photograph by Sean Fennessy. Right: James B. Young - Works

Elliat Rich and James B. Young offer a rare insight into design and making, deeply rooted in the social, cultural, and ecological fabric of Mparntwe. Rich works across disciplines—from public art to cross-cultural resources—exploring the ethical and imaginative possibilities of design across Australia. Young brings a generational lineage of shoemaking to his bespoke leatherwork, where precision and tradition meet the raw materiality of the desert. Together, their practices speak to a form of creative practice that is thoughtful, place-based, and alive to the responsibilities of working within complex histories. As long-term locals and makers, they invite us to consider how design can hold knowledge, tell stories, and build lasting connections.

ELLIAT RICH
Multi-Disciplinary Designer

Elliat Rich is a multi-disciplinary designer based within the complex socio-bio-historical ecology Mparntwe Alice Springs. For Rich the design process is a creative translation between materials and culture, alive to a broader context of power and social value. Her practice includes limited-run and experimental objects, cross-cultural resources, exhibition design, public art and furniture. She is known for the intellectually rigorous conceptual foundations of her work. Through her limited-edition objects Rich responds to the sentience of the planet through mythology as a way to nest and communicate knowledges, experience and otherness. Lead by curiosity, enriched through wonder and always calling on the possibilities of the imagination.

JAMES B. YOUNG
Shoemaker (2012-2025) & Outfitter

James. B. Young is a shoemaker and outfitter crafting bespoke shoes and made to order handbags and fine leather goods. Based in Mparntwe Alice Springs,

James pairs his uniquely Australian sensibility with a European tradition of bespoke shoemaking and fine leatherwork, employing the finest materials to produce limited numbers of pieces that will last you a lifetime.

Descended from a long line of shoemakers, he employs the methodical processes and hand skills traditionally associated with cordwainers and saddlemakers to a suite of contemporary products and services.

His work responds to the landscape of his desert home and is given form by the materials and traditions of the central desert in outback Australia.

EVENT INFO

MPARNTWE (Alice Springs)

DATES September 11-13 2025

LOCATION Mparntwe (Alice Springs) & Tjoritja (West MacDonnell National park)

CPD 10 formal points available across the event

EVENT OVERVIEW & BOOKING INFO