How can we build the market for high quality contemporary craft in the North West?

Louise Gardiner (Speaker at the NW Craft Network Symposium) -

You Blow Me Away for COLLECT 2012 at The Saatchi Gallery

Key players within the national and North West craft community will come together on October 11 in Manchester for a vibrant symposium.

The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair will be the host for this important event, and the symposium will be nestled right at the heart of this wonderful craft event in Old Granada Studios.

The participants will be around 50 invited curators, gallery owners, makers, collectors, museums (including many of the North West's most signficant craft venues), policy makers and educators – all people with a major part to play in building the market and their own unique perspective on how it can be done.

Three highly regarded speakers will set the scene

James Beighton, the former curator at MIMA 

Louise Gardiner, internationally renowned textile artist 

Jo Bloxham, Trustee of the Craft Council and an important collector and curator of contemporary Jewellery.
And then the group will go on to collectively and individually explore how we can all help to build the market for collecting of high quality craft.

The event is organised by the North West Craft Network in partnership with the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair