Tall Poppy, the first Melbourne Design Week exhibition on the Peninsula
Fifteen Australian designers and makers, curated by Tiffany Jade, at Kelli Lundberg Art in Moorooduc. The exhibition the gallery believes is the first time NGV's Melbourne Design Week has programmed on the Mornington Peninsula. 29 April to 7 June, free entry.
If the claim holds, and the official Melbourne Design Week 2026 catalogue does corroborate it, Tall Poppy is the first time NGV's flagship design week has programmed an exhibition on the Mornington Peninsula. That matters, even if quietly. Design Week has run for a decade with its centre of gravity firmly inner-city. A Moorooduc booking is a small redrawing of a regional map normally pegged to wineries and beaches.
The show itself is fifteen Australian designers and makers across furniture, ceramics, textiles and design objects, curated by Tiffany Jade. Jade runs Creative Concierge Consulting from the same Studio & Co. precinct that hosts the show, which is the second story here, the curator working from inside the local creative infrastructure rather than parachuted in from Collingwood. Confirmed names include the Sydney furniture designer Adam Goodrum, ceramicist and textile artist Belinda Wiltshire, multidisciplinary maker Elvis Sabi, painter Emma Davies, and design practice Studio Kaytar. The other ten are not named in any public source we could find, which is unusual for an MDW exhibition of this stated ambition.
The vernissage opens Saturday 9 May, 4pm to 6pm, with cocktails by Jakob Etzold and a jazz set from Miss George. Free admission, no booking. After the opening, the show runs to 7 June at Studio & Co. retail hours: 10am to 4pm most days, 10am to 3pm Sundays, closed Tuesday. The precinct is a working creative complex of around twenty tenants in a converted 1920s grocery, so expect makers in residence rather than white-cube hush. Parking is on crushed rock via Derril Road. Accessibility provisions are unusually thorough for a regional gallery: wheelchair access, accessible bathrooms, low-sensory options, online viewing for those who cannot make it.
We would not drive ninety minutes from Melbourne for the show alone. We would build a Saturday around it, especially during the MDW 14 to 24 May window when the catalogue carries weight and the precinct will likely be busiest. Lunch on the Red Hill ridge before, the show after, dinner back in Sorrento or a cellar door close.