“We all have an artist within us. And through our collective creativity, passion and ingenuity, we have the power to design a new future.”
– Jo Horgan  


A MECCA M-POWER initiative, the MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission launched last year and will run annually over five years, inviting a leading female designer or architect to produce a work for the NGV Collection. The Commission is designed to celebrate creative women who are changing the design world and helping to improve gender equality in creative industries. Why? Because despite women accounting for 70 per cent of design graduates, only 17 per cent of creative directors are women.   

Creativity runs through our veins here at MECCA M-POWER – we believe we all have an artist within us – which is why we passionately support women in arts and design. By doing this, we’re not just helping put fabulous creative women up on a pedestal, we’re also helping to inspire future generations of female creatives.   

Today, we are thrilled to reveal the second recipient of the MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission, Bethan Laura Wood.

Since establishing her eponymous design studio in 2009, the British multidisciplinary designer and artist’s radical approach to materiality, colour, and pattern has garnered a cult following. Fascinated with the cultural and historical significance of surface design and colour in domestic space and the interior, she explores unlikely combinations of colour and shape, developing unique timber veneers, material composites and textiles for furniture, lighting, objects, installations, and accessories. 

Wood has presented work at Design Miami, Victoria and Albert Museum and Sketch, London; and has works held in permanent collections including The Art Institute of Chicago, SFMOMA and Victoria and Albert Museum. 

Opening in December 2023, Bethan’s installation for the MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission ingeniously combines a range of elements, including furniture, textiles and scenography, to delve into the gendered history of education and the transmission of knowledge.  

To learn more about Bethan Laura Wood, go to bethanlaurawood.com