You can find out about:

• Our new findings and graphics on innovation through craft
• The latest political appointments
• How to influence Crafts Council priorities following the EU referendum
• Education and skills – new strategies, debates, plans and books, plus a Plymouth University  survey on the journey some choose from craft hobbyist to small craft business owner
• And new research on the geography of creativity, the arts ‘dividend’ and Dorcas societies and clubs.

Innovation through craft!

Our latest report points to evidence that the UK is at risk of failing to take advantage of its expertise in craft. Innovation through Craft: Opportunities for Growth, describes the way in which collaboration drives innovation and how we can make the most of its economic potential. Working with partners the Knowledge Transfer Network and the University of Brighton, we commissioned KPMG to investigate the processes and economic impact of innovation through craft. 

The process of innovation through craft is also summed up in a neat graphic and a great little film! And on the same theme, remember to get tickets for our Make:Shift innovation conference,10-11  November in Manchester.

Political appointments

Congratulations to new appointees:

• Karen Bradley MP - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
• Matt Hancock MP - Minister of State for Digital and Culture
• Justine Greening MP, Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities
• Greg Clarke MP, Secretary of State at the newly styled Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Note also that Jesse Norman MP is now Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the same department, so will probably stand down soon as chair of the backbench Culture, Media and Sport select committee
• Kelvin Hopkins MP is now Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
• And the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has appointed Justine Simons as his new Deputy Mayor for Culture.

EU referendum

Following a high number of responses to a Crafts Council email about the EU referendum, we launched a survey of your views on Crafts Council priorities, open till 15 August. The Creative Industries Federation have also set out key targets and priorities for the new administration:

1. Brexit negotiations to ensure the sector is at the heart of all policy-making
2. An integrated industrial strategy
3. A rounded education, including creative subjects, for individual development and social cohesion.

Education and skills

• Create Together is the new blueprint to cement the UK’s status as a global hub for commercial creativity. The Creative Industries Council strategy outlines plans to grow exports and encourage creative businesses to scale up and for the role of the creative industries in the UK regions.
• The 4 July parliamentary debate on the EBacc and expressive arts subjects generated powerful arguments about the impact of the Ebacc school performance regime and the role of arts in society. Nicky Dewar, our Head of Learning and Talent, reports on the challenges for creative education, particularly in the light of contested GCSE entry statistics. (The Cultural Learning Alliance explains those figures here.) Our forthcoming report, Studying Craft 16, will set out clear evidence of declining participation and provision. 
• The government has launched a new post-16 skills plan, introducing a common framework of 15 routes across all technical education, including both college-based and employment-based learning. Students can swap between ‘academic’ and ‘technical’ routes after A levels, an apprenticeship or college course through ‘bridging provision’. The route relevant to craft is called ‘Creative and Design’.
• The Careers and Enterprise Company has published its first Annual Review that explains the Enterprise Adviser network and identifyies those areas of the country needing more support. 
• Plymouth University is surveying craft participants to understand the journey some people make from craft hobbyist to small craft business owner.  The researchers would be grateful for completed surveys by 1 September from people involved in craft either as a hobby or as an occupation.
• Aimed at teachers and teaching artists, Arts Integration in Education is a new book exploring the theory of art through and in education.

New research

• Nesta’s The Geography of Creativity in the UK provides a systematic mapping of the UK’s creative clusters. The authors acknowledge that the characteristics of craft businesses do not lend themselves easily to the approach used in the report (craft is spatially and sectorally widely distributed, yet not at the level of density of other sectors featured). But the key recommendation – to support the development of clusters outside London and the South East – is very relevant to how craft clusters mainly outside this region (see slide 4 of the graphic). 
• The Arts Dividend: Why Investment In Culture Pays, from Arts Council England Chief Executive, Darren Henley, identifies seven ‘dividends’ that flow from sustained investment in art and culture. 
• And we only just came across this interesting PhD research by Rose Sinclair at Goldsmiths, University of London, on the role of Dorcas societies and clubs - 19th century women’s philanthropic, socially progressive, Bible-inspired textile-making clubs that are still flourishing today. 

We’ll be back in September!