September Conferences
Crafts Council research features at two major conferences in the coming weeks with presentations at the Design History Society Conference from 7 to 10 September and at Making Futures II presented by Plymouth College of Art on 15 and 16 September.
Crafts Council Research Associate Dr Karen Yair will present papers at both conferences drawing on the Crafts Council report Making Value: craft & the economic and social contribution of makers published in 2010 and co-authored by Mary Schwarz and Yair.
The paper for the Design History Society’s annual conference, ‘Activism at work – crafting an alternative business’, will focus on makers’ changing roles as activists and social innovators, exploring the dynamic between making and politics, how this influences creative practice; and informs business development, and how it has evolved in response to economic, social and political trends.
‘Craft and the creative life-cycle’, to be presented at Making Futures II, explores how makers are shaping more environmentally and socially conscious forms of production and consumption through making, examining new roles for craft knowledge and skills in a changing world and looking at key roles for makers as social innovators and educators as well as producers of a more sustainable physical world.
Making Futures II will also see the presentation of early findings from the UK-wide survey of the contemporary craft sector conducted by BOP Consulting over recent months and due to be published later in the year. This survey, commissioned by the Crafts Council, Creative Scotland, Arts Council of Wales and Craft Northern Ireland represents the first ever UK-wide profile of the contemporary craft sector, incorporating results from all four nations. At Making Futures II, BOP Consulting will present initial findings of their analysis of the 2000+ interviews conducted during the course of the research, focusing on the conference theme of sustainability and giving an early insight into the overall size, impact and demographic profile of the craft sector in 2011
Full conference programmes and details:
‘Design Activism and Social Change,’ the Design History Society Conference
7 – 10 September
Universitat de Barcelona and Foment de les Arts Decoratives, Barcelona
‘Making Futures II’
15 & 16th September
Dartington Hall, Devon.
The Mapping and Impact Study is a partnership project by the Crafts
Council, Creative Scotland, Arts Council Wales and Craft NI.
