On International Women’s Day 2023, we announced the second recipient of the MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission, UK based multidisciplinary designer Bethan Laura Wood.

The Commission builds on MECCA’s treasured 10 year collaboration with the NGV and is all about celebrating 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 art and design graduates, only 17 per cent of creative directors are women, and only 34 per cent of artists represented in state-run galleries and museums are women.

Creativity runs through our veins here at MECCA and so it’s only natural that we’d want to 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 the future generations of female creatives – whether they’re designers, artists, or maybe even makeup artists.

Opening in December 2023, Wood’s installation ingeniously combines a range of elements, including furniture, textiles, and scenography, to delve into the gendered history of education and learning.

Jo Horgan, founder and co-CEO of MECCA and an NGV Foundation board member, said: “Bethan’s multidisciplinary approach also reminds us that creativity, diverse thinking and curiosity can achieve remarkable things, and helps us to see the world in new ways. MECCA M-POWER is all about championing equality and opportunity for women and girls, and we’re so delighted to be able to help bring Bethan’s work to new audiences and inspire women and girls in Australia to dream big.”