The state’s only centre for craft and design will close its doors next June after failing to secure $350,000 from state and federal governments, becoming the highest-profile casualty of NSW’s arts funding squeeze.

Only a white knight philanthropist will be able to save the Australian Design Centre that has nurtured the skills of thousands of artisans and designers, many of them women, since 1964.

The Darlinghurst centre’s volunteer board notified its six staff members on Wednesday that it would be financially unviable for the 60-year-old organisation to trade beyond June 30, 2026.

Unless alternative funding is found before that time, exhibition programming will wind up at the end of February, and its sales outlet for NSW’s craft practitioners and makers, the Object Shop, will shut late

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