9th World Congress on Art Deco^®

In April 2007, ADMS (then named the Art Deco Society) hosted the 9th World Congress on Art Deco^® in Melbourne, Australia.

Every two years, lovers of the Art Deco style from around the globe gather at a nominated city for four days of presentations by experts, tours of the Deco highlights around the host city, and social events.

The 2007 Congress welcomed delegates from around the world to sample the art deco delights of Melbourne and surrounds, including a tour to the Dandenongs and Burnham Beeches.

The lecture program opened with Prof. Phillip Goad presenting a paper on Interwar Housing in Melbourne. Roy Lumby followed on A Home for the Traveller - 1930s Pubs in NSW before we headed off to France to hear Art Deco Recommendations in Saint-Quentin from Francois Billard. We covered The Houses of the Griffins with Dr. Jeffrey Turnbull and finished the first morning with a wonderful presentation by Helen Graham, It's a Women's World.

The second day of presentations commenced with Peter Sheridan's amazing collection of Bakelite Radios followed by Jeremy Morrison talking about Sotheby's Art Deco Collections and Elizabeth Milford on Mooranong - Avant-Garde in the Western District. Prof. Mark Ferson spoke on book arts in Australia between the wars with At Home in the Library then Randy Juster shows us some of his great decopix in The Triumph of the Ornament before Robin Grow tested our deco knowledge with a visual quiz, Where in the World Am I?.

Thursday saw us travel around the globe with Linda Tyler, Radio Stations Around the World, Tess Johnston, Art Deco in Shanghai, Ken McGillivray, Tails from the Dark Continent, Marcio Roiter, Aborigene origin of Brazillian Art Deco concluding with an invitation from Sandra Cohen-Rose to attend the next World Congress in Montreal 2009.

The final day focused on preservation and economic development with Peter Kenyon, Life in the Past Lane, Dr. Timothy Hubbard, Art Deco in Regional Victoria, Jennifer Hill, Adaptive Re-use of Art Deco Buildings, David Aber, Revitalizing Moree, Paul Roser, Managing Changes at Heritage Listed Properties - the Centre Ivanhoe finishing with David Gibson spekaing on Economic of Art Deco Redevelopment Rockefeller Centre.

The Congress concluded with two optional events. A bus tour of three of Melbourne's best Art Deco cinemas, the Astor, St Kilda, the Sun, Yarraville and the Westgarth, Northcote. The evening concluded with a dinner-dance at the Centre, Ivanhoe.