The George Alexander Foundation (GAF) Fellowship Program at the International Specialised Skills Institute (ISS Institute) began in 2006 and has since supported over 65 Fellowships.

ISSI GAF Fellows have travelled to countless countries to examine and research international best practices in a range of areas including environmental sustainability, artisan and conservation, lost trades skills and more.

The Forum began with remarks from GAF's CEO, Paul Conroy. He explained the collaboration between GAF and ISSI can be traced to its respective founders: George Alexander and Sir James Gobbo. The two men believed in supporting access to young people's educational experiences and consistently championed giving back to the community.

Access and community contribution underpin the ISSI GAF Fellowships and coincidentally, this became a consistent theme in the Fellows' presentations that day. Fellows from various parts of Australia came to present their learnings on:

• Conservation (paper conservator Camielle Fitzmaurice, furniture and wooden artifacts conservator Shane Wiechnik)
• Fashion (pleater Avril Buchanan, knitwear manufacturer Kirri-Mae Sampson, fashion designer Vincent Meyrick)
• Landscape Architecture (landscape architects Kiri Bowmer and Oliver Johnson)
• Music and Art (artist Ella Saddington, harpist and music therapist Liana Perillo)
• Museum Practices (museum exhibition planners Claudia von der Borch and Natalie Carfora)

While each Fellow had their own unique learning journey and their own unique practice, many of them returned to Australia with the same things in mind.

Each Fellow saw knowledge and skills gaps in their respective fields, which drove them to go overseas and learn from international practitioners who are at the forefront of their industry. Some Fellows, like Camielle Fitzmaurice, didn't even have to travel at all.

As a paper conservator at the National Gallery of Victoria, Camielle sought to expand her skillset to bookbinding conservation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The GAF Fellowship enabled her to undertake virtual workshops with Chicago-based bookbinder expert Karen Hanmer over the course of one year.

While some short bookbinding workshops are run by international experts visiting Australia, Camielle believes these workshops aren't repeated frequently enough for local conservators to develop the required muscle memory to incorporate these newly learned skills into their everyday conservation practices.

With the knowledge she learned from Karen's course, Camielle began her own series of introductory book conservation workshops for emerging conservators in Melbourne. She hopes this will allow conservators to connect with one another and ultimately create a centralised networking and learning hub for emerging and established conservators.

Our Fellows are bright, driven and young – but usually not as young as Vincent Meyrick. Within a year of graduating high school, Vincent embarked on his Fellowship journey where he worked and trained at Sato Seni, a renowned family-owned Japanese knitwear manufacturing company based in the countryside town of Yamagata.

Working across Sato Seni’s six different factories, Vincent studied and practiced wool processing, yarn spinning, knitting, dyeing, regulation, and management. In his two months in Yamagata, he found that Japanese manufacturers always exchanged employees, knowledge and resources. He believes that for the Australian industry to thrive, similar practices should be adopted here and a network of young industry professionals should be developed.

On Vincent's last night, and in true Japanese fashion, the team went out for karaoke. Amongst the drinks and singing, the company's fourth-generation owner, Masaki Sato, pulled Vincent aside to thank him for his efforts and impart some wise words of advice,

Knowledge sharing and community go hand-in-hand. The transfer of knowledge between industry professionals at various stages of their careers enables communities to form. And it's in these communities that knowledge sharing can truly thrive.

This is why the GAF Community is so important to us. If you're keen on meeting new, passionate and likeminded individuals within the GAF network, we encourage GAF Fellows and Scholars to join our LinkedIn group, follow us on Instagram, and attend one of our GAF Scholar Network Events at your institution or join us for one of our online events held each year.