The DESIGN Canberra festival, slated to run this November, has been postponed until next year.

Head of Craft ACT Jodie Cunningham said this was another example of the devastating impact of COVID on Canberra's creative community, and that deciding to cancel this year's festival had been difficult.

"We are committed to keeping Canberrans safe in this challenging time and with so much continued uncertainty we have made the difficult decision to cancel the DESIGN Canberra Festival in 2021," she said.

"The essence of DESIGN Canberra is about connection, community, exploration and activation of our city and given the extended lockdown and the ongoing uncertainty in the coming months we believe moving the 2021 Transformation programming to next year will ensure that the festival will run to its full potential in 2022.

"We are pleased to be able to present the 'Nurture' program and encourage audiences to keep engaging with our artists and supporting them by buying their work during this time."

The design festival joins the many events and programs in Canberra's usually packed spring calendar to be postponed, including Floriade and the Canberra Writers Festival.

The National Gallery of Australia looks set to announce a new date for its summer show, a Jeffrey Smart retrospective, and the National Museum of Australia was, at the time of writing, still planning to open its blockbuster show of ancient Greek artefacts from the British Museum in December.