Updates from Rosy Greenlees
BRAVE NEW WORLD - JULY 2010
Another busy couple of months, inevitably influenced - but by no means dominated -by post-election announcements. So, before I turn to those, here is the rest of the news…
ASSEMBLE 2010 AND NEW CRAFTS COUNCIL RESEARCH
Over 200 makers and representatives of crafts and arts organisations, galleries, Higher Education Institutes, creative education agencies, funders and retailers gathered at LSO St Luke’s on 22 June for Assemble 2010: the Crafts Council Conference, a full day of talks, panel discussions, workshops and the launch of three new reports:
• “Making Value: craft & the economic and social contribution of makers”, showing the contribution of craft makers to industry, education and the community
• “Crafting Futures: a study of the early careers of craft graduates from UK Higher Education Institutions
• “Consuming Craft: the contemporary craft market in a changing economy, reviewing the current and potential market for contemporary craft and consumer attitudes in a changing economic environment.
Read the executive summaries, Maker profiles and full reports here
Read Michael Eden and Helen Wilkinson on Assemble here
Read Crafts Magazine’s blog here
There are powerful narratives in Making Value – and I thank all the makers who are represented alongside all the other contributors to all three reports. But we know that there are many other stories out there – just as powerful, just as exciting, just as likely to make people stop and think. We will be using these stories to make the case for craft. Please use them too – and use your own. Together, we can all keep making the case that craft matters in so many ways. We are currently gathering content from Assemble 2010, in order to relaunch www.assemble.org.uk as a permanent resource which will continue to inspire and provoke debate through the presentation transcripts, audio podcasts, visuals and photographs alongside delegate comments and links to online blog and media reviews. We will let you know when it’s live and hope that you will add your stories.
Finally on Assemble: some thank yous: it would be invidious to single out personal highlights from the day, but I would like to thank the Chair Professor Mike Press and the panel chairs: Dr Jane Harris, Emily Campbell and Dr Tiffany Jenkins.
The full list of speakers at Assemble is here. I thank them all!
COLLECT 2010
COLLECT 2010 in May enjoyed abundant sales with many galleries reporting they had “exceeded expectations” and 11,000 visitors attending.
The V&A, mima, The National Museums of Scotland and the British Museum all made significant acquisitions; Yufuku Gallery reported their best year ever with over thirty sales including two acquisitions by the British Museum; Galerie Rob Koudijs sold a brooch to the National Museums of Scotland and a necklace to CODA Museum in The Netherlands. Joanna Bird Pottery sold four Steffen Dam pieces, with three further works by the artist commissioned, whilst The Scottish Gallery sold a bracelet by Peter Chang for £22,000.
ArtFund Collect the Crafts Council’s joint initiative with The Art Fund offered museums and galleries a share of £75,000 to buy works for public collections, bringing the total fund across three consecutive years to £200,000. Aberdeen Art Gallery, The Ashmolean, Oxford, The Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, Shipley Art Gallery and Whitworth Art Gallery were all selected after robust, good-humoured discussion by this year’s panel.
FIRING UP
We launched Firing Up, our new national programme to reinvigorate the teaching of ceramics in schools, at New Designers appropriately surrounded by a sea of bright young graduates. We remain tremendously grateful to the Esmée Fairbairn and Paul Hamlyn Foundations for their generous support of this project.
CRAFT CUBES IN BERLIN
And we took three of our new CraftCubes, featuring work by ceramist Michael Eden, furniture-maker Gareth Neal and jewellery by Dr. Jayne Wallace to the DMY International Design Festival 2010 in Berlin. The launch of the CraftCubes coincided with the festival’s focus on advanced technologies, digital media and design, displaying the work of makers who engage with new technologies in their practice. Located in the huge, history-charged hangars of former city airport Berlin Tempelhof, the CraftCubes were placed around the central exhibition amongst showcases by renowned studios and curated exhibitions by international design festivals and institutions and attracted a regular stream of visitors throughout the festival. DMY has established itself as a vibrant trend barometer and design laboratory, providing an ideal setting for the unveiling of the CraftCube programme.
LOOKING AHEAD – CRAFT MATTERS (MORE THAN EVER)
We now know some facts about the future landscape – average cuts of 25% in spending by government departments over the next four years. We won’t know the detail of how these cuts are distributed until the autumn, but we will ensure that information is passed on as we receive it and that the sector’s views are represented back to policy-makers. And for some makers and craft businesses, there may be opportunities. Sign up to our policy briefing here e_uprichard@craftscouncil.org.uk, to ensure that you get timely information. Follow us on twitter for even faster news @CraftsCouncilUK and to share your news and views.
This month’s policy briefing includes updates on the emergency budget and anticipated funding cuts, Skills Minister John Hayes championship of apprentices, the plans to replace Regional Development Agencies and much more including the government’s new Your Freedom website which includes a strand on proposed reforms to business and third sector regulations. There is much that may be of interest to sole traders and micro-businesses so please do add a new comment, make a comment or vote on what’s there. We have proposed dropping the tax on winners of open-entry award schemes. If you agree vote here
Craft’s ever-increasing popularity including its continuing position as the most popular participative activity in England (DCMS Taking Part survey) makes it an important part of the cultural agenda; its position as the fastest growing creative industry by employment ensures its place on the business agenda, and its contribution to creativity and innovation in education, higher education and the creative industries are now all newly and robustly demonstrated by our research. Craft is undoubtedly part of the solution, not the problem. Listen up, policy makers: craft is here to help!
CRAFT CHAMPIONS – JOHN TUSA INTERVIEWS ON CRAFT
Meanwhile, our wonderful Craft Champions are explaining why craft matters to them, including Sir Terence Conran, the Duke of Devonshire, Sir Chris Frayling, Tricia Guild, Jude Kelly and Baroness Young through our Craft Matters website and, in the case of Linda Barker, Siobhan Davies, Rosy Greenlees, Mark Jones, Jon Snow and Sheila Teague, in conversation with Sir John Tusa, craft collector and radio voice of note. We are giving these interviews to regional and local media across the country along with the responses to our Craft Matters sign-up campaign in their areas to date. You can listen to a highlight at the end of this note. And yes, later on Jon Snow does also discuss his ties. And Siobhan Davies describes contemporary craft as “probably the most energetic art form, for me, at the moment.”
We know that local contacts are the most powerful, so if you are a craft organisation or maker with regional media contacts, let us know. We can supply you with excerpts from the interviews – you can offer them to your own media contacts and take the opportunity to suggest additional interviewees or be interviewed yourself. Or, if you prefer, send us the names of your regional and local media contacts and we will follow up.
Anyone wishing to use this media content should contact Jill Read: j_read@craftscouncil.org.uk
OUT AND ABOUT…
Even setting aside Assemble and Collect, it was a very busy couple of months.
I spoke at the RIBA’s Craft and Architecture Seminar, and visited Wales for meetings with Arts Council Wales and the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff, the south-west for meetings with Walford Mill and makers based in the region and Barcelona to speak at the European Conference on craft.
I attended Jeremy Hunt’s inaugural speech at the Roundhouse; the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisation (ACEVO) conference “Charity Funding and the New Government” considering how charities can best respond to new priorities including the Big Society agenda; and a business breakfast at the London College of Communications, where there was much discussion of this and, with our Chair Joanna Foster, met Don Foster MP, Lib-Dem Shadow Spokesman for Culture and John Tusa and Nigel Carrington of University of the Arts London. I also had meetings with Munira Mirza (London Assembly) and with colleagues at Voluntary Arts Network, Cultural Leadership Programme, World Crafts Council UK, Visual Arts UK; Creative & Cultural Skills and the Creative Industries Marketing Board.
Colleagues attended the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning through Design conference focussing on University and Museum collaborations at which Ed Vaizey emphasized the need for collaboration, especially between national and regional institutions, for access through the concept of the engaged “citizen scholar” and the digital agenda, and the continuing need to champion scholarship in higher education institutions. Colleagues also had meetings with the Work Foundation and the Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts.
With colleagues, I also visited events including New Designers, degree shows at the RCA and Central St Martins, The Art Fund Prize – congratulations to Ulster Museum; Jerwood Contemporary Makers, Cockpit Open Studios, London Jewellery Week and the installation of Zandra Rhodes as Chancellor of the University of Creative Arts as well as the Think Tank, Forming Ideas, SOFA and Crafts Magazine talks and events at Collect
AND FINALLY…
… a shame that the BBC has not recommissioned Mastercrafts. In my last newsletter, I congratulated Margo Selby on her involvement and Making Value contributor Guy Mallinson was also a tutor. Given its popularity, we hope that the BBC will continue to find new and exciting ways to profile craft.
Download documents
Jon Snow on Craft
Jon Snow on Craft (265KB mp3 File)
