Updates from Rosy Greenlees
A Happy New Year to you all – and what an “interesting” year it looks likely to be.
After the turmoil of 2009, we all know that we are entering a new decade with a national financial situation that threatens to squeeze both public and private investment in the arts, culture and the creative industries. But just as disturbingly, perhaps even more so, is another contraction – a potential narrowing of the UK’s capacity for creativity and innovation that we increasingly noted throughout last year.
The diversity and breadth of our creativity is one of this country’s great strengths. We are admired throughout the rest of the world for our capacity to nurture talent in every field from visual arts to computer gaming – including an international reputation for the creativity found in UK craft. But there are potential threats to all of these from three sources – and these seemed to become increasingly pronounced with each passing month of 2009:
COURSE CLOSURES
Actual and threatened course closures continue to send shockwaves through the craft sector. With an overall reduction of £400million in the government’s allocation to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) announced at the end of December, and HEFCE’s subsequent funding decisions due in Spring, we know that universities are waiting with barely bated breath for the new funding landscape in 2010.
We have responded to HEFCE’s consultations on the proposed Research Assessment Framework (which will guide future decisions but not the current round), alongside the response from the Council for Higher Education in Art and Design (CHEAD). In the case of craft we have stressed the particular importance of fractional (part-time) staff to facilitate the vital transfer of knowledge between academic and professional craft practice. This is a key strength of the sector where potential benefits should be maximised, not written off.
FUTURE PRIORITIES FOR POST-GRADUATE FUNDING
We are also concerned by some of the assumptions in the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills’ current review of post-graduate provision. First, that the assumption that post-graduate study’s main value to students is in providing a gateway to a specific career, and second that it should be overwhelmingly guided by the need to underpin business needs as they are currently understood. Whilst we support the principle that education needs to prepare students, including makers, for a professional career, the pathways they take are diverse including self-employment and portfolio working and we argue for the need to assess the requirements of the whole creative industries sector, especially the entrepreneurs who will form the businesses of the future – rather than one particular constituency within it.
The response that we submitted to BIS in December expresses our concerns on each of these issues.
Here you can read the response that we submitted to BIS
Here you can read the Crafts Council response to the Research Excellence Framework
NARROWING OF CREATIVE FOCUS
Finally, the push towards a narrow focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics – the ‘STEM’ subjects – and a shift towards defining the Creative Industries almost exclusively in terms of digital and media industries risk constraining the very qualities of diversity and expressive value that have helped to make the UK internationally respected for the range of its creativity and innovation. In this respect, we were in full agreement with most of Dr Elaine Thomas’s arguments about the value of design while not concurring with the view that the answer would be to reclassify other disciplines as STEM subjects. We are confident that we can demonstrate our value on our own terms. Read the full article and the Crafts Council’s response here
There are many examples of the value of craft throughout the creative mix and of the increasing social interest in craft – from the Turner prize shortlist to Louis Vuitton’s promotion of the craftsmanship of its products, and from James May’s communal making projects to yarn-bombing and guerrilla knitting. There are also increasingly beneficial interfaces between making and the digital industries – as evidenced by some makers increasing use of digital technology in their practice as can be seen in the following link from Crafts Magazine and, for example, animators’ use of craft techniques in film, also recently highlighted in Crafts magazine (Issue 221).
And there are significant opportunities to reach new and diverse audiences online whether it is through the proliferation of craft blogs and discussion groups or the ability to draw new audiences to virtual exhibitions like this.
For more information on the Crafts Council Online Exhibitions use the following link
All these examples depend on the continuation of innovative work with real materials and real physical processes to enable them to continue to develop the creative and knowledge economy of the future. We passionately believe that these issues are crucial to the creative and cultural industries as much as to the craft sector.
In a timely intervention, our new research project to investigate the full range of the economic and social value of craft, and to highlight its role in sectors ranging from fashion to health and social care, will enable us to bring increased evidence to these arguments about the contribution of craft to the UK’s economic and social needs. We are currently looking for makers to take part in this research, so if you work with makers or are a maker yourself, click here to find out more about this opportunity to profile your work nationally and internationally.
There is more detail on the above issues in our January policy briefing, which also summarises the political parties’ recent comments on their proposed cultural policies and includes information on a new report from NESTA, Creative & Cultural Skills funding from the Future Jobs Fund and surveys from the AHRC and the Heritage Craft association. The full report can be found here
CRAFT MATTERS
Craft is nothing if not resilient. And while we need to shine a steady light on the above issues, there is good news as well. Over 3,000 people to date have told us that Craft Matters to them and we will be using this great response to show the UK’s passion and commitment to ensuring craft’s continued contribution in the coming months. There’s still time to sign up
NEW YEARS’ HONOURS
And several important figures in craft received public recognition in the New Year’s Honour’s List including Deirdre Figueiredo who has been a fantastic champion for contemporary craft, bringing new thinking to social issues and critical debate in the sector and makers Alexander Orr and Janet Stoyel, who have all received MBEs. Indeed Janet Stoyel was a participant in one of the pilot projects that contributed to the shaping of the new Crafts Council Collective cpd scheme through the Creative Fellowships programme delivered in the South-West in partnership with cpd organisation, ArtsMatrix, Arts Council England, South-West and the Devon Guild of Craftsmen. This is particularly resonant in view of the announcement in December that ArtsMatrix had ceased to trade. Its particular combination of knowledge and experience will be missed.
Congratulations also go to two individuals who have been great supporters and friends of the Crafts Council and the crafts. Mark Jones, Director of the V&A has been knighted. His continuing commitment and drive has given us fantastic new opportunities to see craft in a major museum – from the new jewellery and ceramics galleries to our partnership projects including the craft residencies in the Sackler centre for arts education and our triennial exhibitions. And David Barrie has been made a CBE. It was a conversation with David, whilst he was Director of The Art Fund, which led to our highly successful partnership on Art Fund Collect which we have just launched for the third year when it will have provided £200,000 towards the acquisition of craft for public collections in the UK.
We also congratulate Felix Flury on the opening of Gallery S O and the British Ceramics Biennial on its first presentation in Stoke-on-Trent.
OUT AND ABOUT
In addition to the above, I visited Hereford Craft Fair, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Craftspace and the Taking Time exhibition, the British Jewellers’ Association and the Birmingham School of Jewellery, Galerie Besson, the Royal Academy and the RCA. I also attended the opening of the European Applied Arts Prize Exhibition in Mons and visited Design Flanders as part of the same visit. Colleagues attended launches of The Shape of Things and Craftivism – the latter, of course, is one of the first projects to come directly from our Spark Plug initiative to provide research and development grants to curators.
I attended the National Creative Industries Conference, NCI09, and regular meetings of, the Visual Arts UK group, Creative & Cultural Skills and the World Crafts Council-UK and had meetings with representatives of LOCOG and the National Federation of Artists’ Studio Providers.
To return to where I began. It will be an “interesting” year. We will continue to make the case for craft, ensuring that we represent the sector to all major stake-holders including government, funders and opintio-formers – and we look forward to it.
