Contemporary Craft Market Flourishes
Collect 2009 at the Saatchi Gallery; Photo: Sylvain Deleu, 2009
CONTEMPORARY CRAFT MARKET FLOURISHES AT Collect 2009
Collect 2009 at teh Saatchi Gallery; Photo: Sylvain Deleu, 2009
Collect 2009, the Crafts Council’s international art fair for contemporary objects, enjoyed high visitor figures and strong sales. In its sixth year, the fair relaunched at a new venue, exhibiting over three floors of the Saatchi Gallery, from 15 – 17 May 2009. Known as the place to view and buy the very best in contemporary crafts, over 10,000 visitors attended, with international private collectors and public institutions making significant acquisitions.
Clare Beck at Adrian Sassoon reported over forty sales, of diverse objects ranging in height from 2 centimetres to 2 metres. The gallery, who have exhibited at Collect every year since it started in 2004, sold a pair of monumental vases by Felicity Aylieff to a US collector, and a unique and
gigantic ceramic gourd by Kate Malone to the V&A to form part of the new ceramics gallery, opening this September.
Exhibiting for the fourth time at Collect, Alternatives Gallery from Rome sold a brooch by Janna Syvanoja to the National Museums of Scotland, and a ring by Fabrizio Tridenti to the Alice & Louis Koch Collection, Switzerland.
Norwegian Galleria Norsu made some significant sales to European collectors, including two ceramic and glass works by Kim Simonsson, each selling in excess of £10,000 The Scottish Gallery sold across all disciplines making in excess of £100,000.
They sold to five museum collections as well as to private collectors and clients. Art Fund Collect, a joint initiative established by the Crafts Council and the Art Fund offered national museums and galleries a share of a £75,000 pot to buy works for public collections. Five bids took a share of the £75,000 award, three of which were acquired from Clare Beck at Adrian
Sassoon: a steel sculpture by Junko Mori for the Bilston Craft Gallery; a glass sculpture by Rachael Woodman for the National Museum of Wales; a gold and enamel bracelet by Giovanni Corvaja for mima.
Art Fund Collect additionally acquired a glass work Niyoko Ikuta from Yufuku
Gallery for the V&A, and Neckpiece by Jacqueline Ryan from The Scottish Gallery for Aberdeen Art Gallery.
Continued
Rosy Greenlees, Executive Director of the Crafts Council, said: “The Crafts Council is committed to promoting and developing contemporary craft, and Collect 2009 has demonstrated that the contemporary craft market is very much alive and well. This year’s thriving fair has proved that in
spite of the economic downturn, collectors, curators and the public alike recognise the true value of contemporary crafts.”
Press Contact
For further press information about Collect 2009 please contact Catherine Mason at Calum Sutton PR: +44 (0)20 7183 3577 or catherine@suttonpr.com
For further press information about the Crafts Council please contact Jill Read:+44 (0)20 7806 2526 or j_read@craftscouncil.org.uk
Notes to Editors
• The independent selection committee for Collect 2009 comprised: Janice Blackburn (freelance curator and craft specialist), Annabel Freyberg (freelance journalist), Amanda Game (freelance craft specialist), Alun Graves (Curator in the Department of Sculpture, Ceramics and Glass at the V&A)
and Ben Williams (Specialist, Contemporary Ceramics in the Design Department at Phillips de Pury).
• The Crafts Council is the national development agency for contemporary crafts. It aims to position the UK as the best place in the world for making, seeing and collecting contemporary craft.
• The Crafts Council is supported by Arts Council England. Arts Council England works to get great art to everyone by championing, developing and investing in artistic experiences that enrich people’s lives. As the national development agency for the arts, it supports a range of artistic
activities from theatre to music, literature to dance, photography to digital art, and carnival to crafts. Between 2008 and 2011, Arts Council England will invest £1.3 billion of public money from government and a further £0.3 billion from the National Lottery to create these experiences for as
many people as possible across the country.
• The Art Fund is the UK’s leading independent art charity. It offers grants to help UK museums and galleries enrich their collections; campaigns on behalf of museums and their visitors; and promotes the enjoyment of art. It is entirely funded from public donations and has 80,000 members. Since 1903 the charity has helped museums and galleries all over the UK secure 860,000 works of art for their collections. Recent achievements include: helping secure Anthony d’Offay’s collection, ARTIST ROOMS, for Tate and National Galleries of Scotland in February 2008 with a grant of £1million; putting together a unique funding package to ensure Dumfries House in Ayrshire and its contents were secured intact for the nation in July 2007; and running the ‘Buy a Brushstroke’ public appeal which raised over £550,000 to keep Turner’s Blue Rigi watercolour in the UK. For more information contact the Press Office on 020 7225 4888 or visit www.artfund.org
28 May 2009
