News from Rosy Greenlees
The past two months have included Collect at the Saatchi Gallery and exhibitions in partnership with venues across the UK; new web-based initiatives and the publication of the Craft Blueprint developed by Creative & Cultural Skills in partnership with the Crafts Council.
And Chief Executive Rosy Greenlees has continued the Crafts Council’s dialogue with Government about the importance of craft to its broader agendas for culture and the creative industries.
Collect
Months of hard work by exhibitors and Crafts Council staff culminated in an event that was widely acclaimed, with visitors and exhibitors unanimous that the Saatchi Gallery was a wonderful location for the work. There were over 10,000 visitors and, while we are still completing the full evaluation, we know that most exhibitors sold well, and that overall sales held up despite the recession. Read more
Five museums shared the £75,000 Art Fund Collect Awards for curators to acquire contemporary craft and we congratulate Aberdeen Art Gallery, National Museum Wales, Bilston Craft Gallery, mima and the V&A on their success. We are delighted that The Art Fund renewed this important partnership with us and marked their enthusiasm with a 50% increase in funding for the Awards.
We were very pleased that organisations ranging from the World Crafts Council to the Nordic Embassies to Museumaker used Collect as a focus for events and that the British Ceramics Biennial held its launch with us. Amongst the many exhibitions and events co-inciding with Collect, it was good to make the short journey to Contemporary Applied Arts for the launch of Graham Hughes’ publication on Wendy Ramshaw and David Watkins whose long and distinguished careers and partnership deserved recognition in this way.
Collect also provided me with a useful opportunity to promote British craft in interviews with the Wall Street Journal, the US edition of The Art Newspaper and the BBC’s World Service as part of the range of regional, national, and international coverage that the show attracted.
Amongst the events at Collect, we introduced a new strand of talks hosted by Crafts Magazine which attracted full houses and enthusiastic responses – my thanks to Ted Noten, Glenn Adamson, Martin Raymond, Simon Hasan and Libby Sellars for participating – and to Crafts’ Editor, Grant Gibson, for chairing them.
Thanks also to the selectors of Select@Collect – Alasdhair Willis, Mary Portas, Ralph Rugoff and Annie Carlano; to Mikael Jackson and Richard Wheater for creating new works to highlight Collect and to David Mellor Design and Taschen for hosting the showcases; to the makers, curators and exhibitors who gave talks and tours throughout the show; and to Classic FM, Laurent Perrier and Glaceau Vitaminwater for their contributions to Collect’s success.
And it seems appropriate here to say farewell to former Art Fund Director David Barrie who had the foresight and enthusiasm to see the potential of Art Fund Collect and to launch the scheme with us. His work with us has been much appreciated.
EXHIBITIONS NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST…
Moving on from Collect, there were many other highlights in May and June:
With the Craft Study Centre, we launched the associated publication to our partnership exhibition Three by One featuring works from the collections of the CSC, Crafts Council and British Council. A highlight of the launch was a thought-provoking and inspiring speech by Sir Christopher Frayling, former Chair of the Craft Study Centre.
Edited by the exhibition curator Alison Britton, the publication includes contributions from Tanya Harrod, Helen Rees Leahy. Muriel Wilson, Simon Olding and Annabelle Campbell and is published as the exhibition is mid-way through its year-long display at the University of the Creative Arts’ Farnham campus.
At the other end of the country, we opened our latest exhibition, Possibilities and Losses, in partnership with mima in Middlesbrough. The private view on 21st May brought 250 guests together to view curator Clare Twomey’s focus on artists who challenge perceptions about work in clay and its relationship to the historic model of craft. Continuing until 16 August, Possibilities and Losses features new commissions from Keith Harrison, Linda Sormin and Clare Twomey, alongside Neil Brownsword’s 2005 installation Salvage Series shown in full for the first time.
Meanwhile, our portfolio of touring exhibitions continues with Collecting a Kaleidoscope and Object as Muse completing their respective shows at artsdepot in London and Fife Contemporary Art & Craft in June, Deviants showing at Hove Museum and Art Gallery until September to be followed by Wood at Oriel Myrddin in Carmarthen.
More of the Crafts Council Collection is currently on display at the City Gallery in Leicester where we have loaned seven pieces by Bernard Leach, Lucie Rie and David Watkins for their new exhibition Pattern Recognition.
Finally I attended the opening of Out of the Ordinary: Spectacular Craft the Crafts Council V&A exhibition opening at Museums Sheffield. The show looked stunning in the Millennium Galleries and was complemented by specially commissioned works by Catherine Bertola and Linda Florence responding both to the themes of the exhibition and to Sheffield Museums’ collections.
… AND ON-LINE
And, moving into the virtual world, we have launched two important new initiatives: an online exhibition programme to give a world-wide audience the chance to see contemporary craft from a range of different perspectives wherever they are, and a new guide to the craft objects that visitors can see in public collections throughout the UK. Ultimately, we aim to include information on every publicly accessible collection of contemporary craft in the country.
Public Craft Collection
Online exhibitions
Our new magazine section is another exciting virtual development for us – continually updated and enabling Crafts Magazine to share news and views between its bi-monthly print editions.
CRAFTS BLUEPRINT
We launched the Craft Blueprint in partnership with Creative & Cultural Skills at a well-attended event at the House of Lords on 10 June.
The Blueprint has been developed by Creative & Cultural Skills in partnership with the Crafts Council to identify the skills and support that makers need to thrive and grow in the future. It is the culmination of a period of research, consultation and dialogue with makers and agencies across the UK, and across the full spectrum of the contemporary and traditional crafts.
Working on the Blueprint in partnership with Creative & Cultural Skills has already allowed us to benefit from its findings in developing our own work. Now, with Creative & Cultural Skills, we are calling on organisations and individuals, from makers – the “micro-businesses” at the heart of craft – to museums, galleries and retailers – to ensure the future of craft by taking its recommendations forward. Craft Blueprint response
OUT AND ABOUT
And, through all this, other meetings have continued…
It was good of new Secretary of State, Ben Bradshaw, to retain his predecessor’s scheduled meeting with representatives of organisations across the arts. Clearly, we could not hold detailed discussions so early in his tenure, but it was helpful to have the opportunity to meet him and discuss priorities and funding directly.
Our Chair, Joanna Foster, and I also met recently with Culture Minister, Barbara Follett, to update her on developments in craft, its context and the opportunities that it presents across government agendas. Download our briefing paper Sector Profile and Analysis.
Amongst other events, I attended the Art Fund Prize; Contemporary Arts Society’s event at 11 Downing Street; the launch of Get It – The Power of Cultural Learning; and Central St Martins’ seminar on The Importance of Art and Education in the UK and the Rector’s breakfast at the Royal College of Art, and I have just returned from Mons where I was a selector for the European Applied Arts Prize. It was a truly international selection panel with representatives from France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and the UK and our task was to select a shortlist of sixty from 600 submissions from across the whole of the European Union. The exhibition of the shortlist will be shown at a fantastic space – Site des anciens abattoirs – in Mons commencing 28 November 2009 when the final prize-winners will be announced.
Colleagues attended the Milan Furniture Fair; Cockpit’s Maker Difference launch and Open Studios; the launch of Creative & Cultural Skills Creative Choices website www.creative-choices.co.uk – and the National Campaign for the Arts Manifesto Launch and Conference – www.artscampaign.org.uk
Now, we are in the midst of attending the degree shows, including, of course, New Designers.
Sadly we have lost two highly significant figures in the craft and design world in the past few months. David Mellor had huge importance and influence in the craft and design sector. His passion and contribution as a craftsman, businessman and advocate for high-quality well designed products was pivotal in improving the industry in this country. I recently visited the Round Building at Hathersage and was reminded of his enduring influence on some of our most familiar household objects.
And Dan Klein – collector, curator, dealer and writer – who was an authority on international contemporary glass and passionate in his support of the British glass world. He was a founding director of the summer school North Lands Creative Glass in Lybster, a key figure in the establishment of the Northern Glass Centre in Sunderland and recently advised the Crafts Council on acquisitions for the Crafts Council Collection. With his partner Alan J Poole, Dan created a number of key exhibitions and auctions including Bonhams’ first British glass auction in May.
CONGRATULATIONS…
Our hearty congratulations to the Wedgwood Museum on winning The Art Fund Prize. In his speech David Puttnam, Chair of the Panel said how important it was to recognise and appreciate the significance of Wedgwood as one of the most significant examples of how Britain’s creative industries are rooted in its heritage.
‘The Wedgwood Museum brilliantly highlights the marriage of art, design, manufacturing and commerce; a marriage that resonates more today than at possibly any time in the intervening years. In every respect it fully meets our criteria of what a 21st century museum should aspire to be.’
Given the concerns I have voiced in past editions of this bulletin about the threat to craft practice, and, equally, our argument that critical enquiry into materials and processes has great importance for the UK’s creative industries, this is a very welcome statement.
In many ways, all the short-listed organisations for The Art Fund prize are winners – such are the opportunities for public profile that it brings. I very much hope that Ruthin Craft Centre, which was amongst the final four, will benefit from having been selected.
And finally, congratulations to Stephen Deuchar on his move to The Art Fund and Kate Brindley on her move to mima. We look forward to working with them both.
All good wishes,
Rosy Greenlees
Executive Director
08 July 2009
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Craft Sector Profile and Analysis
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