Academic Partnerships

The Crafts Council partners with academic institutions to bring specialist knowledge and depth of understanding to research projects.

We are currently engaged in two projects:
• CinBa – led by Dr Jo Sofaer of Southampton University
• Connecting Craft and Communities

CinBA
Creativity and Craft Production in the Middle and Late Bronze Age (CinBA) is a major international project funded by HERA (Humanities in the European research Area). It is led by Dr Jo Sofaer at the University of Southampton and involves partners from the Universities of Cambridge and Trondheim, the National Museum of Denmark, the Natural History Museum of Vienna, Zagreb Archaeological Museum, Lejre Archaeological Park (Sagnlandet) and the Crafts Council.

The Crafts Council is supporting the CinBA Project as a non-academic partner to bring innovative, international and interdisciplinary opportunities to the contemporary crafts sector. This project presents new and exciting ways to articulate the nature and value of contemporary crafts practice, primarily by exploring the role that the contemporary craft maker can play in archaeological enquiry, both as practice-based researcher-investigator and as interpreter of meanings within handmade objects.

The CinBA Project offers important insights into the fundamental nature of creativity by exploring a part of European history not influenced by contemporary concepts of art – the Bronze Age – looking at developments in crafts that we take for granted today that have their origins in prehistory: pottery, textiles and metalwork. It also explores the potential impact these objects may have today as a source of inspiration and means of creative engagement for different groups, including contemporary makers. Within heritage and museum studies, much attention has been given to visitor experience but this has not included explicit investigation of how people today may find inspiration from engaging with prehistoric objects (the inherently valuable). This is important since it provides the basis for new types of heritage experiences in which creative potentials of objects are more imaginatively explored, as well as offering inspiration and new roles for the contemporary craft sector.

Find out more on the CinBA website

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Crafting communities of practice and interest: connecting ‘online’ and ‘offline’ making practices
This research will undertake a systematic review of practices of online/offline participation within craft related communities of practice and communities of interest. It will address the development of new cultures of communication within online/offline communities linked to craft, and the role of creativity in shaping those cultures. This project will also review the new cultural, social and economic practices in the crafting movement, in relation to online/offline practices of community building. It will analyse how the adoption of ICT tools has shaped the connections, practices and processes that constitute craft communities. These tools include the Internet, social media, Web 2.0 applications, and using digital technologies in the production of craft objects themselves.

The Research is sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and is a partnership between the University of Birmingham, King’s College London, the AHRC REACT Knowledge Exchange Hub and the University of Exeter. The Crafts Council is amongst the supporters of the project. For more information see the research project website www.craftcommunities.com

Your Craft, Your Connections: A survey for 21st century makers
Using a survey, the researchers are trying to get a better understanding of how makers create meaningful connections with other people in their lives and their practices. This is particularly important to understand as new social media technologies are constantly being invented and changing the way we all live.

To participate in the survey please go to http://www.craftcommunities.com/survey.html Your answers will remain confidential and, unless you would like to identify yourself at the end as a maker we can interview further, your answers will also remain anonymous.