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Crafts CouncilAboutResearch and policyPolicy brief

May 2021

All the latest news and research from the craft sector


  • Craft policy
  • Craft research
  • Craft education
  • Craft and wellbeing

We have:

  • Discover and analyse data from 5,300 respondents in the biggest survey on the craft market in over a decade.
  • Join us at a research event with Birmingham City University on tackling inequalities in the craft sector
  • Action to oppose cut in arts higher education funding
  • Crafts at risk – and when will the UK sign the convention to safeguard intangible cultural heritage?
  • New evidence on the benefits of arts participation
  • Lots of new resources and findings on how we tackle the effects of the pandemic
  • Taking action on Brexit woes
  • Arts Council England’s Equality, Diversity and the Creative Case report
  • Successes in Wales’ creative learning programme

Handcrafted brushes, Slow Made Goods

Know your customers!

We launched the Market for Craft data tool – a free open-access dashboard which can provide detailed insight into your customer's demographics, behaviours, motivations, and barriers.

Join us in tackling inequalities

Join us for the Making Changes in Craft event to hear findings from the Craft Expertise project, a Birmingham City University and Crafts Council research project which aims to support greater diversity in craft. The project, led by Dr Karen Patel, has highlighted the various challenges faced by women of colour in the sector including racism and microaggressions in craft spaces, the challenges presented by social media, and issues with gaining recognition as expert makers. The work is informing Crafts Council’s approach to tackling racism and inequality in the craft sector.

Higher education cuts proposals

A Government proposal to cut arts higher education funding by £17m has attracted widespread opposition. Rosy Greenlees, Crafts Council Executive Director has written opposing the proposals to cut funding for art and design courses in the strongest possible terms. Sharon Hodgson MP, Chair of the All-Party Group for Art, Craft and Design, said the proposals to reduce funding by £121.40 per head will equate to a funding cut of 50 percent in the subsidy to these specialist subjects.

Crafts at risk – and when will the UK sign the convention to safeguard intangible cultural heritage?

More than 20 extra crafts have been added to the updated red list of endangered crafts drawn up by the Heritage Crafts Association (HCA). It also highlights how the UK is one of the few members of Unesco that has not ratified the 2003 convention on the safeguarding of intangible heritage.

Evidence from Lancaster University and Manchester Metropolitan University (CC’s Julia Bennett was a co-author) shows the benefits to China of being signatories to the UN convention where a range of top-down mechanisms by the Chinese government aim to safeguard heritage making practices. (Inheritors of the Yellow River: the relationship of heritage making practices to cultural self-confidence in China, International Journal of Anthropology and Ethnology (2021) 5:4, p18)

The benefits of arts participation

The MARCH mental health network (CC is a partner) has new evidence on the benefits of arts participation:

  • Active engagement in artistic and creative activities is associated with reduced odds of depression in older adults
  • Art boxes can support parents and infants to share creative interactions at home during the pandemic, improving parental confidence and wellbeing.
  • Instagram artists can engage online communities and promote mental health awareness using mental health art hashtags.

Tackling the effects of the pandemic

Public Services International, a federation of 700+ trade unions 154 countries, has released a draft Manifesto for Cultural Workers addressing topics such as working conditions, funding, access and decolonisation.

A new toolkit for creatives addresses how to combat stress and boost your creativity, positivity and productivity. It also sets out how to work out what good growth looks like for you, reach new customers and make financials work.

The Craft Council’ Craft Club Annual Report explores volunteer led and community making activity and the impact of the pandemic on craft club leaders and members. The programme will continue to work in partnership with community-focused organisations and has launched a new Everyday Making Facebook group.

The Policy and Evidence Centre hosted a freelancer fortnight. The Freelancer Policy Briefing recommends that the Government should consider calls for a Freelance Commissioner to build more resilience in the UK's self-employed workforce. Evidence shows how policy makers need to recognise and acknowledge the diversity and different working models and consider how these impact on where resources are directed for recovery. (CC sees the word ‘freelancers’ as including many of the issues affecting maker sole traders.)

A New Direction commissioned five Listening Projects to shed light on the impact of COVID-19 on young Londoners. Findings focus on the need to listen and respond meaningfully to young voices, developing local-level approaches over regional ones and using all our powers for advocacy.

Case studies from the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance feature work with people who are resident in hospitals, care homes, hospices, prisons and other institutions during the pandemic. Recommendations include the need to support creative freelancers through the pandemic and its aftermath, to invest in culture, health and wellbeing programmes and the partnerships that underpin them and to support training and research that will help the cultural sector to address health inequalities.

The Audience Agency's latest Cultural Participation Monitor suggests that existing audience inequalities have been reinforced and the result is likely to be increases in inequality in cultural engagement into the future.

Taking action to tackle Brexit woes

An independent trade and business commission is inviting evidence about how businesses and individuals in the UK are affected by changes to the UK’s trading relationships with European and other countries since the UK left the EU. Chaired by Hilary Benn MP and Peter Norris, Chairman of Virgin, it will try and find fixes for Brexit challenges. Crafts Council submitted evidence, raising concerns about craft businesses’ need to increase prices, their ability to sell abroad and their viability. We also highlighted uncertainty about border controls and tariffs on work for sale or exhibition and about potential transport delays, both for UK makers and those in the EU wanting to supply work to the UK.

Uncertainty over trade policy between the UK and the EU – which started in the wake of the 2016 referendum – has affected a significant number of textile and apparel manufacturers, fashion designers and retailers, according to research from the Policy and Evidence Centre.

The Government has launched Touring Europe, a series of checklists for the arts, cultural, creative, and heritage sectors on touring.

Arts Council England’s Equality, Diversity and the Creative Case report

Arts Council England’s Equality, Diversity and the Creative Case report for 2019/20 shares data from funded organisations and applicants, audiences, and the ACE workforce and leadership. The proportion of audiences who described their ethnicity as Mixed, Asian/Asian British, Black/Black British or Other is highest for visual arts at 18%.

Successes in Wales’ creative learning programme

Arts Council of Wales reports on how its Creative learning through the arts programme gives a voice to pupils, teachers, and artists, and explores the differences that this programme continues to make across Wales' education and arts landscape


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