Updates from Rosy Greenlees
July 2011
Following a focus on our own Crafts Council programmes in my last update, recent weeks have seen several opportunities to engage with policy issues and to make the case for craft. Of course, all our work is interconnected, and the exhibitions highlighted below serve the same purpose with audiences and with policy-makers…
MORE FROM WESTMINSTER
In my last update, I mentioned our event in May at the House of Commons and John Hayes’s passionate peroration (to quote him directly) on behalf of craft and craft skills. It is inspiring to have a senior member of government so engaged on behalf of craft, even if his definition might not be immediately recognised by some contemporary craft makers.
John Hayes may, at times, seem to view “craft” as a proxy for a range of manual skills, some of which are more recognisable to contemporary craft practitioners than others, but having met with him, I can attest that his interest and engagement is long-standing and genuine. We continue to explore how to bring our agendas together through new thinking on routes into the sector and the continuing discussion on craft in formal education.
Read more about our recent policy work here.
MADE BY BRITAIN
A subsequent event at Westminster saw Tim Farron MP select Michael Eden’s Wedgwoodn’t Tureen as his chosen product for Made by Britain, launched at the House of Commons on 5 July. Made by Britain is organised by the Associate Parliamentary Manufacturing Group (APMG), co-chaired by Conservative and Labour MPs, to encourage the exchange of knowledge and understanding between Parliament and the manufacturing industries, helping to raise the profile of manufacturing both inside and outside of Parliament. Initially, forty MPs have been invited to select a product made in their constituency to feature in an online showcase as a precursor to inviting all 650 MPs to do the same, creating a 21st century version of the Great Exhibition or, as Vince Cable eloquently phrased it in his speech, “a virtual crystal palace”.
We were very pleased to work with the APMG to ensure that craft would be considered alongside other sectors and delighted that Michael Eden’s work has been selected along with the Aga Rangemaster, Swann Morton surgical blades – and the inimitable fish finger.
MADE IN BRITAIN
Alongside Made by Britain, the television series Made in Britain on BBC2 in July features Economics Editor Evan Davis reflecting on the British economy and asking what our country is good at and how it can pay its way in the world. The programmes highlight the fact, well-known in some circles but less so more widely, that the UK is still a leader in manufacturing innovation. UK pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline is the fourth biggest in the world. GSK’s director states “the discoveries all occur in the interface of disciplines”, echoing our argument that it is the sum total of the UK’s creativity that will enable the economy to grow and that makers’ knowledge and skills, utilised across a number of industries, are an integral part of this.
Our 2010 report, Making Value, presented examples of makers using their materials and haptic knowledge to develop important innovations in the medical and therapeutic fields, including Professor Paul Chamberlain’s drug delivery device designed to reduce the risk of fatality associated with the mis-connection of traditional Luer connectors. Crafts magazine has recently profiled glass-maker Matt Durran’s contribution to the world’s first tissue-engineered organ transplant, making glass moulds that can withstand the heat of the bio-reactor used in the process.
These are just two notable examples of makers contributing to manufacturing processes and working alongside science and technology to create products of value. We presented others in Making Value and we plan to continue to research the value that craft and science, technology and engineering can add to each other and to make the case for these collaborative engagements.
THE POWER OF EVIDENCE
Engaging government on the subject of money and gaining purchase on policy requires evidence – the qualitative kind described above, but crucially, quantitative as well. It is hard data and numerical facts that influence how money is spent. This concept seems overly “dry” to some and is actively rejected by others but, like it or not, it is the case now and, arguably, under any administration in the future. If it is too easy to reject arguments unsupported by data as lacking substance, then substance we must – and will – have.
This is the reason why the Crafts Council, alongside partners in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, have invested substantially in a new national survey of the contemporary craft sector, and I am pleased to report that it is proceeding apace. My sincere and grateful thanks to all those who have given their time so far and those who continue to do so. The results will be invaluable in giving us a snapshot of the contemporary craft sector now while setting out its potential to contribute to the creative, social and economic future of the nation and what will help it to achieve this.
SEEING IS BELIEVING
Turning to the equally important subject of bringing audiences together with the best of contemporary craft, I was delighted to attend the opening of Compulsive, Obsessive, Repetitive at the Towner in Eastbourne, presenting six large-scale works, including five new commissions, all focussed on the use of small-scale elements and repetitive making to produce extraordinary large-scale results. Curated by Sanna Moore – one of our first Sparkplug awardees – it was great to see the results of her research when I visited for the opening. Sanna received her award in 2007 and this fine outcome also demonstrates the “slow burn” of good ideas and the importance of time and space to develop them into a high quality exhibition such as this.
In the digital world, we have just launched our latest online exhibition, The Yellow Wallpaper curated by Tom Gallant. The exhibition centres on Dress 09 – a dress made by Gallant in collaboration with fashion designer Marios Schwab, recently acquired for the Crafts Council Collection. Gallant uses the 1892 novella The Yellow Wallpaper as a framework for revealing the range of influences and inspirations that led to the making of Dress 09.
Meanwhile, our recent online exhibitions Out of Print: Bookbinding & Letterpress, selected by graphic designer Malcolm Garratt, and A White, A Blue, A Yellow, Red selected by poet Jeremy Reed, are taking physical form to bring these works from the Crafts Council Collection to audiences at museums and galleries across the UK. Alongside these, we are launching two more touring exhibitions, one celebrating forty years of the Crafts Council Collection and the other, Block Party, curated by Lucy Orta, exploring contemporary pattern cutting through works by artists including Yinka Shonibare and Shelley Fox and emerging artists such as Hormazd Narielwalla.
Museums and galleries interested in hiring these exhibitions can find further details on our website. Meanwhile, our current touring exhibitions, Lab Craft and Breath Taking continue, with Breath Taking newly opened at Durham Art Gallery and Lab Craft due to open at Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum in September. And progress on Power of Making, in partnership with the V&A and Lost in Lace, in partnership with Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery continues apace.
RUBIES ARE PRECIOUS
All of which serves to underscore our “40th focus” on the Collection and its potential to engage audiences, and our decision to launch the Ruby Circle as a new tier of our patrons’ scheme with income dedicated to this vital area of our activity.
Donations to the Ruby Circle will be spent entirely on enhancing the future of the Collection, ensuring that we can continue to acquire new work, keeping alive the spirit of the Collection as a snapshot of the most innovative contemporary craft in any given year, and increasing opportunities for people to see the objects in exhibitions and learn about them online. During our 40th birthday celebrations, Ruby Circle members will have unprecedented opportunities to see and learn more about the Collection in the company of makers and curators, studying objects outside the confines of exhibition cases while learning directly from experts.
Ruby Circle members receive all the benefits enjoyed by Gold Tier members of our Patrons Scheme, including private visits to studios and galleries, opportunities to meet makers and curators and invitations to Crafts Council events. In recognition of the close relationship between the Collection and the Ruby Circle, members gifts will be recorded on the Crafts Council’s online Collection donation acknowledged alongside an object of their choice.
THANKS AND WELCOME
Meanwhile, and separately from the Ruby Circle, I record my thanks to two of our patrons, Victoria, Lady de Rothschild and Sir Nicholas Goodison, whose gifts for acquisitions have enabled us to acquire two important objects currently touring in our Lab Craft exhibition, Geoffrey Mann’s Shine candelabra and Drummond Masterton’s Terrain Cup, both representing the cutting-edge of British contemporary craft taking its rightful place in a public collection.
I would also like to welcome new patrons who have recently joined the scheme – you have requested that you join anonymously and we welcome you while adhering to your request.
Our next patrons’ visit will be to the renowned ceramicist Kate Malone in October. My thanks to Kate and to the other makers who help us to secure funds for the sector – all donations from our patrons go directly to our work with makers, audiences, children and young people and play an increasingly important role in enabling the wide range of our activities to continue.
OUT AND ABOUT
It was very useful to attend the NESTA round-table on the Labour Party’s Creative Industries Review which debated the challenge of gathering hard evidence to demonstrate the benefits of culture. From this seminar in the heart of London, I went on to Broadway in Gloucestershire to attend the annual gathering of furniture-makers organised by the Edward Barnsley Educational Trust to present the work of the Crafts Council and hear the issues currently concerning furniture makers.
Then it was over to the General Assembly of WCC Europe in Dublin which was timed to coincide with the Crafts Council of Ireland’s Year of Craft Public Conference, Craft Conscious: Re-shaping Global Futures in the Innovation Age. It was good to hear the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese speaking so eloquently about her love of craft and to hear Edmund de Waal in two guises – as the author of his bestseller The Hare with the Amber Eyes followed the next day by his key note presentation about the cultural relevance, meaning and value of crafted objects today.
I was also very pleased to be asked to speak at the conference Supporting Creative Industries, New routes into arts and culture seminar where I presented the case for craft in education. Throughout the conference, there was a strong sense that the prioritisation of academic over practical skills may be waning, and that whilst the changes taking place in higher education are challenging there may be positive outcomes, not least the possibility of new courses focussing on a demand for intelligent making – an agenda with which I know John Hayes strongly agrees.
And, at this time of year, it is always fascinating to attend the annual degree shows and see the vibrancy of work coming out of the RCA, Camberwell, Goldsmiths and Birmingham School of Jewellery amongst others while taking in the full range of work on display at New Designers. These students are emerging into a tough market but – demonstrating my point earlier about the value of research – Crafting Futures, our research into craft graduates published last year showed that they are the second most likely group to be undertaking some creative work after leaving college and the least likely of all art and design graduates to be looking for work five to seven years after graduation. So I have great faith that many of this year’s graduates too will become successful makers and we will do all we can at the Crafts Council to ensure they are supported.
My best wishes for the summer.
