Craft Club launched
The Crafts Council and the UK Hand Knitting Association are joining forces with the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) to help teach youngsters to knit.
Craft Club, www.craftclub.org.uk, launched 8 January 2010, is a new national campaign to provide children and young people with the opportunity to learn craft skills from members of their community via free after-school clubs. The teaching of craft is widely variable in the UK with some pupils receiving minimal opportunity to work in 3D due to cost, space and staff expertise. Craft Club has been developed to ensure that craft skills still have a rightful place in the classroom.
Craft Club needs the support of schools and individual teachers and also relies on the enthusiasm and skills of the broader community in order to pass on craft skills and techniques to its participants, or ‘Craft Clubbers’. Volunteers will receive specialist training at workshops across the country and will then become involved in their local Craft Club. Each Craft Club can be run in its own way – either combining efforts to achieve a shared goal or working individually in the company of friends on solo projects.
The first skills that Craft Club will focus on are knitting and yarn crafts, enlisting the help of local knitting groups, WI members and all other enthusiastic knitters. Knitting provides a sense of achievement, helps boost self confidence and improves dexterity, maths and handwriting. Knitting has only recently been seen as a female-only pursuit as knitting originated in the Middle East and was spread by sailors and merchants along trade routes. And men and women alike helped the WWII war effort by knitting garments for soldiers on the front line.
The Craft Club website will provide volunteers with access to teaching tools, practical tips and project ideas and Craft Clubbers with a forum to share patterns, ideas for projects and contact other like-minded Craft Clubbers across the country.
“Craft Club will engage young people with craft in a fun and informal setting and introduce them to members of their own community and provides the opportunity to be creative whilst socialising.” Rosy Greenlees, Executive Director, Crafts Council
The first Craft Clubs are planned to start in spring 2010 but people who are interested can register now on www.craftclub.org.uk
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For further information and electronic images please contact Jill Read, Press Officer, Crafts Council, Tel: 020 7806 2549 or Email: media@craftscouncil.org.uk
Notes to Editors
• The UK Hand Knitting Association (UKHKA) is dedicated to raising the profile of yarn crafts through a variety of campaigns and initiatives including Knit1, Pass It On to encourage all knitters to pass on their skills to other people. For more information on all aspects of knitting and yarn crafts, including latest What’s On news, knitting clubs across the UK, Knitted Textile graduate showcase and awards, knitting artists and celebrities, knitted projects for all to join in, fascinating facts and statistics and links to numerous knitting related organisations and individuals visit the UKHKA site; www.ukhandknitting.com
• The WI is the largest voluntary women’s organisation in the UK with more than 205,000 members in 6,500 WIs. It plays a unique role in enabling women to develop new skills, giving them opportunities to campaign on issues that matter to them and their communities, and provides wide-ranging activities for members to get involved in. For further information please visit www.theWI.org.uk
• The Crafts Council’s goal is to make the UK the best place to make, see, collect and learn about contemporary craft.
11% of the UK population visited a craft exhibition in 20089/09, and 17% participated in craft activity in the same year (DCMS/ACE Taking Part data update August 2009).
We believe that craft plays a dynamic and vigorous role in the UK’s social, economic and cultural life.
We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to make, see, collect and learn about craft.
We believe that the strength of craft lies in its use of traditional and contemporary techniques, ideas and materials to make extraordinary new work.
We believe that the future of craft lies in nurturing talent; children and young people must be able to learn about craft at school and have access to excellent teaching throughout their education.
• For further information about the Crafts Council visit www.craftscouncil.org.uk
• 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.
