RMIT is proud to again collaborate with Melbourne Fringe in 2025, building on a long-standing relationship that supports students, artists, and the wider creative community.
This year spotlights two work-integrated learning projects supporting the festival's Opening Night Gala at The Capitol, and the Festival Hub's dedicated Quiet Space.
Students from RMIT's School of Fashion designed costumes, inspired by the theme Childhood Heroes, which will be worn by Fringe artists as they walk the Purple Carpet on Opening Night.
"The opportunity to work with Alf Alpha has been a truly positive and insightful experience," said Fashion students Alisa Rudkin, Dominique Natoli, and Jhamerra Domingo.
"It has pushed us out of our comfort zones and provided us with an outlet to improve ourselves as designers through gaining insight into the costume design industry.
"We're incredibly appreciative of the experience, and can't wait to see Alf Alpha wear the finished look on the purple carpet!"
Students from the School of Art have created a tactile blanket which will feature in Melbourne Fringe's Festival Hub's dedicated Quiet Space for Neurodivergent attendees to take a break from the festival's hustle and bustle.
Drawing on the festival's theme of 'heroes', the students have created a work celebrating an everyday hero - the humble umbrella.
"The blanket we are making symbolises warmth, shelter, and protection, which we think naturally echoes the theme of 'hero'," said School of Art students Sherilyn Tan, Uvini Yahampath, and Amory Li.
"We have decided to make a patchwork blanket that will take the shape of a large umbrella. We will use different textures to convey character traits, different colours to convey different feelings."
RMIT Fashion students: Devorah Ruskin, Vassi Mihalopoulos and Kiera Lloyd with Fringe artist Abbey Paige Williams.
Melbourne Fringe is a proudly inclusive and diverse multi-arts annual festival showcasing the new, the weird, the wild and wonderful.
With an abiding open-access policy and an invitation to new, emerging, mid-career and established artists to perform, the festival is a robust and vital organisation which acts as both incubator and activator of artistic expression and arts careers.
"RMIT is proud to continue our wonderful relationship with Melbourne Fringe," said Helen Withycombe, Interim Manager, Cultural Partnerships & Engagement, RMIT Culture.
"The Fringe Gala is always a highlight, and we're excited that this year students have the chance to bring fresh creativity to the event.
"Seeing their work come to life on the Purple Carpet at the iconic Capitol is an extraordinary professional experience, and a unique opportunity that RMIT offers to students."
In addition to the gala event, the Designed by Nature: Creative Lab residency, delivered in partnership with Design Fringe, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria and RMIT, offers artists the chance to work onsite at the Gardens and respond to provocations around sustainability and design.
"Residencies like this are vital in providing the time, space and inspiration for artists to develop meaningful creative responses," said Professor Naomi Stead, Interim Associate Deputy Vice Chancellor - Engagement in the College of Design and Social Context.
"Working in the Gardens created a powerful connection between practice, place and sustainability."
RMIT will also co-present Messy and Meaningful, a panel discussion on 7 October at Trades Hall, which will explore the evolving identity of Design Fringe.
The event brings together past participants, sector leaders and emerging voices to collectively imagine the future of the program.
Additionally, RMIT academic research supports a number of works across the festival, including:
Kummargii Yulendj Barring Gadhaba // Projections of a Current Future, a free public art intervention that reimagines Melbourne's CBD through the lens of Boon Wurrung knowledge and the enduring presence of water Country, supported by Praxis Lab RMIT and RMIT's Centre for Urban Research.
Bare, a contemporary dance work made and performed by a mixed cast of disabled and non-disabled artists and produced by Dancekin - an integrated dance company that was formed out of a 2024 research project by Belinda Johnson (GUSS/SERC), Tamara Borovica (GUSS/SERC) and Industry partner Tristan Sinclair.
Melbourne Fringe begins on September 30, the full program is available here.
