News from Rosy Greenlees
April 24 2009
Welcome to Spring – and it is good to be able to start this update on a much more upbeat note than the previous two.
Rosy Greenlees, Executive Director, Crafts Council: Photo: Helena Smith, 2009.
COLLECT 2009
We are greatly looking forward to the relaunch of Collect which takes place from Friday 15 to Sunday 17 May over all three floors of the Saatchi Gallery’s beautiful new space on the King’s Road.
Collect is a truly international show, through which we give galleries the opportunity to showcase the best of British craft in an international context and to introduce British audiences to international work.
Over 300 artists are exhibiting at Collect 2009, represented by 37 galleries from the UK and Ireland, Europe and Scandinavia, the United States, Japan and Australia, and we look forward to welcoming them all to our exciting new venue.
Alongside the main Fair, the Collect 2009 event programme includes:
• Select at Collect, a special selection of objects from the Crafts Council Collection, chosen by Alasdhair Willis; Mary Portas, Ralph Rugoff and Annie Carlano
• At Collect, a programme of talks presented by Crafts Magazine with guests scheduled to include Ted Noten, Glenn Adamson, Martin Raymond, Simon Hasan, and Libby Sellers in conversation with editor Grant Gibson
• Two site-specific showcases in the local area, featuring sculptural forms by Mikael Jackson at David Mellor Design and light sculptures by Crafts Council Development Award recipient Richard Wheater at the new TASCHEN store.
Collect 2009 also sees the return of our partnership with The Art Fund, and we are delighted that Art Fund Collect is increased by 50% to £75,000 in 2009. Curators from the shortlisted museums are the first through the doors on the Collect VIP day on 14 May and we look forward to announcing the award recipients at the Private View that evening.
Above all, Collect exists to develop the market for craft. In the current recession, it is more important than ever that we continue to develop our work in this area.
Read more about Collect 2009 and about makers’ experiences of successfully coming through previous recessions here
NEW CRAFTS COUNCIL RETAIL INITIATIVES…
In a related area of our work, we recently launched our new programme of Retailers’ Development Days, holding the first day at Ruthin Craft Centre on 26 March, with the second due to take place at the New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham on 2 June. The Ruthin event was over-subscribed, with a range of retailers and gallery owners attending from all over the UK and positive and helpful feedback from all those who attended.
These days are designed to give support, advice and networking opportunities to specialist craft retailers and to build on the Retailers’ Networking Days presented at Origin by expanding the programme to four events per year, presented at venues across the UK.
Over the coming months, the Networking Days will be joined by Take Stock, a new series of development awards for retailers and a new area for retailers on our website.
…AND A NEW GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE
Meanwhile, we will watch with interest a new government initiative that has potential to support craft retail during the current economic conditions by promoting the opening of pop-up shops in empty high street premises. It is too soon to know how successful this will be, but we think there is clear potential for makers and craft retailers and we hope that the scheme bears fruit. Read more
SECOND CRAFTS COUNCIL/V&A RESIDENCY ANNOUNCED
I am delighted that basketmaker Mary Butcher will be the next maker to take up a six-month craft residency at the V&A’s Sackler Centre for arts education. Selected by the Crafts Council and the V&A for her expertise and tremendous influence in the field of basketry, Mary will create new work throughout her residency, in response to the collections of both organisations, alongside a programme of open studio sessions and workshops for adults and children.
Mary works in a variety of materials including willow, holly, palm leaves, strings of seeds, plastic tubing, linen and silver wire. She is the second maker supported through our programme to promote professional development for mid-career and established makers, and we wish her every success for her residency.
Read more about her residency
WELCOME TO THE NEW HERITAGE CRAFTS ASSOCIATION
This focus on basketry is a good example of the Crafts Council’s commitment to promoting contemporary craft that brings new and innovative thinking to traditional craft practice. It is vital that heritage skills are retained, not purely for their own sake, but because they continue to have influence and resonance, and we welcome the formation of the new Heritage Craft Association which will act as a focal point for heritage craft in future. I look forward to meeting the new Chair, Robin Wood, shortly and to discussing how we can work together on matters of mutual interest. You can read more about the HCA here www.heritagecrafts.org.uk
CRAFT SKILLS: BLUEPRINT LAUNCH…
Whether in contemporary or heritage craft, the continued development of makers’ skills, knowledge and experience is paramount in supporting their practice. In partnership with Creative & Cultural Skills, we are launching the Craft Blueprint at the House of Commons on 10 June following an extensive period of research and consultation to determine the actions required to support both contemporary and heritage craft skills in the future. We look forward to supporting the recommendations of the Blueprint through our learning, professional development and research programmes, and we join with Creative & Cultural Skills to call on other organisations to join us in this important work.
OUT AND ABOUT…
Over the past two months, I have visited the East Coast of the USA, meeting exhibitors, collectors and journalists to promote British craft. It is good to be able to report that there is a great recognition and appreciation of the aesthetic value of British craft in the US and a real sense of the UK as an international leader in the field.
Closer to home, I attended the private view of Re-route, an exhibition celebrating the culmination of the pilot Contemporary Craft Fellowship Scheme in the south-west delivered in partnership with Arts Council England, ArtsMatrix and the Devon Guild of Craftsmen. With the Crafts Council/V&A residency and the flameworking residencies recently undertaken in partnership with the University of Sunderland, this has formed a portfolio of pilot projects to study different models of professional development for mid-career makers. All three schemes will be evaluated and will inform our future activity in this area.
I have attended meetings of various bodies on which I represent the Crafts Council including the DCMS’s Creative Industries team, the Visual Arts Steering Group for London 2012 and Creative & Cultural Skills; and held meetings with representatives of Creativity, Culture and Education, the Contemporary Art Society, The Prince’s Children and the Arts Foundation and Arts Council England. I also attended the Cultural Leadership Programme’s Women Leaders and Governance seminars.
Following our previous meeting with Andy Burnham, leaders of membership organisations across the arts were invited to meet the Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Jeremy Hunt, to discuss future, opportunities and challenges. Again, this provided a good opportunity to make the case for the continuing importance of craft in society today.
Over the next few months, in addition to Collect, I look forward to the opening of our new exhibition in partnership with mima, Possibilities and Losses, on 21 May, the opening of our touring exhibitions Collecting a Kaleidoscope at artsdepot in London on 8 May and Deviants at Hove Museum and Art Gallery on 6 June, and the launch of the publication accompanying our current exhibition partnership with the Craft Study Centre, Three by One, also in May.
Finally, our Chair, Joanna Foster and I are delighted to announce that we have appointed four new Trustees including two Maker Trustees to join the board: Stephen Dixon, Dorothy Hogg MBE, Peter Ting and Andrea Nixon. Each of them brings an enormous range of knowledge and experience to the Board and we welcome their commitment to the craft sector. Read more about the trustee appointments.
And my congratulations to Linda Florence and Ismini Samanidou, both recipients of the Crafts Council Development Award, who have been selected to be part of the Jerwood Contemporary Makers exhibition opening on 10 June at the Jerwood Space in London.
Sadly, however, the crafts lost a brilliant, dynamic and exciting ceramicist in Simon Carroll who died on 31 March. The Crafts Council showed some of Simon’s work as part of a project at the Intercontinental Hotel on Park Lane last year. Simon came and gave a demonstration at an event we held there and it was fantastic to see the way he handled the clay and approached the act of making. He will be a great loss to the sector. You can read Emmanuel Cooper’s obituary to Simon in the Guardian Wednesday 8 April 2009
All good wishes,
Rosy Greenlees
Executive Director
