Craft Club connects communities
Greens Norton Primary, 2010
Through additional Arts Council funding and a generous donation from the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) the Crafts Council and UK Hand Knitting Association’s Craft Club initiative is expanding into a range of community settings including museums, libraries and cinemas.
Following a successful first year of activity the Craft Club scheme now has 350 active clubs in primary schools across the UK teaching children craft skills with the help of local volunteers via lunchtime or after-school clubs.
Craft Club will build on this success by setting up clubs outside of schools. It will work on the same premise with volunteers passing on their skills to others in a fun and lively environment – in this case to parents as well as children. It will strengthen bonds between local communities and between family members by enabling them to learn new skills together.
Eleven volunteer training events will take place across the UK this autumn including events in Cardiff, Margate, London, South Shields, Sheffield and Walsall. The full list of confirmed training venues is listed below. These training events will result in up to 300 new volunteers knowing how to effectively and confidently pass on their knowledge and skills to others. These training host venues will then be supported to set up a regular Craft Club at their venue using the trained volunteers.
They will also be supported by the online resource www.craftclub.org.uk that provides practical tips, project ideas, and an online forum connecting people who are passionate about craft and learning new skills.
People who are interested in attending one of these training events can book online www.craftclub.org.uk/crafty_volunteers . If you are unable to book online please ring the Crafts Council on 020 7806 2500.
ENDS
For further press information and images please contact Jill Read, Press Officer +44 (0) 20 7806 2549 / media@craftscouncil.org.uk
Notes to Editors
• The training events confirmed so far are;
o The Customs House, South Shields – Tuesday 20 September 2011
o Millennium Gallery, Sheffield – Thursday 29 September 2011
o The New Art Gallery Wallsall – Monday 3 October 2011
o National Wool Museum, Carmarthenshire – Friday 14 October 2011
o Turner Contemporary, Margate – Wednesday 19 October 2011
o National Museum Wales, Cardiff – Thursday 3 November 2011
o V&A Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green, London – Wednesday 16 November 2011
• All training events take place from 10am-4pm (apart from the V&A Museum of Childhood event which will take place from 6.30pm-8.30pm). Events are free but booking is advisable. Book online at www.craftclub.org.uk/crafty_volunteers.
• The next phase of Craft Club Connects will be based in cinemas with four cinema based Craft Club events starting in January 2012.
About the Crafts Council
• The Crafts Council’s goal is to make the UK the best place to make, see, collect and learn about contemporary craft.
o 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.
o We believe that craft plays a dynamic and vigorous role in the UK’s social, economic and cultural life.
o We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to make, see, collect and learn about craft.
o We believe that the strength of craft lies in its use of traditional and contemporary techniques, ideas and materials to make extraordinary new work.
• 12% of the UK population visited a craft exhibition in 2009/10, and 18% participated in craft activity in the same year (DCMS/ACE Taking Part data update August 2010). (Taking Part is an ongoing survey being carried out by Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Arts Council England (ACE).
• More than 2.8 million visits were made to the Crafts Council website in 2009. To find out everything you need to know about where to make, see, collect and learn about contemporary craft visit www.craftscouncil.org.uk and follow us on Facebook and Twitter
• Arts Council England works to get great art to everyone by championing, developing and investing in artistic experiences that enrich people’s lives. It supports a range of artistic activities from theatre to music, literature to dance, photography to digital art, and carnival to crafts. Great art inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves, and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2011 and 2015, Arts Council England will invest £1.4 billion of public money from government and a further £0.85 billion from the National Lottery to create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country
About UK Hand Knitting Association
• 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.
