Results from data gathered for our 'Growing the Craft Ecology: 2' project

The NW Craft Network has been spending the year talking to makers, galleries, museums, craft and arts organisations from the region about what would make the most difference in terms of strengthening craft in the North West.

We thought you'd like to know what came out of it all.

One of our priority areas was maker development. This is what you said would make the most difference:

•    Professional development: coaching, mentoring, workshops
•    Incubation studios for emerging makers
•    Exhibitions and Residencies in NW venues

We've been looking at how to develop the market. This is what you said about that:

•    Take a group of NW makers to new audiences 
•    Makers and Museums – how they can work together for mutual economic benefit and to build audiences
•    A big NW (or Northern) Craft Festival

And with regards to advocacy about craft, that is, building confidence, getting the good news out there and promoting the sector within the NW and beyond, you picked out:

•    Reposition craft as part of the creative industries
•    An award of an international residency
•    A public facing website celebrating NW craft (but there were widely ranging opinions on how to deliver this)
•    Advocacy and education in community and schools

And finally, we wanted to see how we could develop our curators and curating of craft in the NW. These things were highlighted:

•    An international project – an exchange or collaboration with international venues and makers
•    Invigorating craft collections – a project across NW venues where makers respond to collections
•    A high profile touring exhibition of contemporary craft
•    Open studio tours to meet NW artists
•    Partnerships between freelance and collections curators to develop exhibition ideas
•    Work with online platforms for more craft presence
•    Digitisation of craft collections in NW museums and galleries

We've had a chance to sift through all of these and think about what to do next, and that's the subject of our next post…click here to view

North West Craft: curator collaboration event

Thurs 28 April 2016
1-5.30pm (with infomal chat and drinks until about 7pm)
The Manchester College, St. John's Centre
Free

We're inviting people who curate contemporary craft in the North West to look at how our practice can strengthen high quality craft in the region. 

If you're a curator of contemporary craft collections, a freelance curator, a gallery who sells, a maker-curator, an emerging curator or if you're at the cutting edge of craft research - we'd love to see you here.

The NW Craft Network is putting together an afternoon of networking and collaboration to address the challenges we face, enhance our strengths and make strategic and practical plans for the future.
 
We'd like to find ways to co-ordinate, build ideas, share expertise and provide encouragement. What we don't want to do is simply make more demands - it's about working cleverly together to get things done in a difficult economic and social climate and building a plan that will make a significant positive impact on the curating of contemporary Craft in the North West.

Participants will be able to share their ideas, explore best practice, identify promising projects and look at next steps. There will be time to meet others and network both formally and informally.
 
The afternoon will start with some case studies to get us thinking. Steven Whittle from the Atkinson, Southport is going to talk about the Creative Tensions project with reference to invigorating craft collections, and Kaylee Jenkinson of Manchester Craft and Design Centre is going to talk about showcasing emerging makers with the Crafts Council in the Hothouse Programme. We're working on one more case study to look at a critically engaged open exhibition and/or international collaborations.
 
From there, we're going to ask participants to look at some of the ideas and projects that have been suggested over the last two years of the NW Craft Networks activity, add more, and to assess them for feasibility, impact and priority.  Then we'll home in on two or three ideas that seem most promising and work them up into proposals that could be taken forward.

After the formal activities are done, we're hoping to head down to Manchester City Gallery for a look at the new Design Gallery, and then for a drink and chat in the café.

There are 30 places on this event, and we're hoping for a good representation from each area of curating. If you curate craft and you'd like to come, or you know someone who you think should come, please contact Victoria Scholes, the co-ordinator of the NW Craft Network at craftnorthwest@gmail.com, and she'll arrange for an invitation.

The NW Craft Network is organising this curator collaboration day in conjunction with another event, 'Shaping the Future' that will bring the craft community together to look at building the NW craft market, maker support and advocacy. Together, the findings from these events will feed into the Network's strategy and plans for the next three years and aim to put NW craft on the map.

Lunch. The event begins at 1pm, but St John's centre has a restaurant where people arriving early can buy their lunch or bring their own.

The Manchester College. St. John's Centre, Quay Street M3 3BE (near Spinningfields and Old Granada Studios. See a map here
 
Parking. There is no on-site parking, but there are plenty of car parks around the centre. See Parkopedia to check nearby car parks. There are good train and tram links from surrounding cities and towns.

Organised by the NW Craft Network in partnership with The Manchester College

OUTLINE - Shaping the Future: Making a Vision for Craft in the North West

Outline of the day

10 March 2016
12.30-7pm
The University of Bolton, Deane Rd, Bolton BL3 5AB
Tickets £15

Join us for an afternoon of talks and activities that will shape the future of craft in the North West. For details of the programme and speakers, click here.
 

To book click here

12.30pm	Registration and coffee. Networking hub open
1.00pm	Introduction Victoria Scholes, co-ordinator of the NW Craft Network and Donna Claypool, Programme Leader for Textile and Surface Design, University of Bolton
1.15pm	Speaker:  Global Futures - Louise Allen, Head of Innovation and Development Programmes, Design and Crafts Council Ireland
1.45pm	Speaker: Liam Hopkins of Manchester Creative Studio Lazerian
2.15pm	Networking Hub and coffee Book a time or turn up and chat
3.00pm	Breakout Strands – making a plan Pick one of these Activities about Maker Development Activities about Market Development Activities about Advocacy – building knowledge, confidence and understanding
3.30pm	Speaker: Crafting Innovation – Geoffrey Mann, Scottish Artist, Designer and Educator and a pioneer of new technologies
4.15pm	Breakout Strands – making a plan Pick one you didn’t do last time Activities about Maker Development Activities about Market Development Activities about Advocacy – building knowledge, confidence and understanding
4.45pm	Pulling it together Feeding into the future & building a plan  Panel Discussion With our speakers and members of the NW Craft Network Development Group
5.30pm	Wine and conversation

To book click here

 

NETWORKING HUB - Shaping the Future: Making a Vision for Craft in the North West

Shaping the Future - Networking Hub

10 March 2016
12.30-7pm
The University of Bolton, Deane Rd, Bolton BL3 5AB.
Click here for more details about the programme for the day. To book a ticket for the day, click here

As part of our day, members of the North West Craft Network's Development Group will form a Networking Hub, offering you the chance to ask specific targeted questions about your work or practice.

We're inviting a host of craft experts including makers, curators, gallery owners and directors, museums policy-makers and audience development people.

You'll be able to ask questions, chat through issues and just get to know people and what their aims and motives are. You'll be able to book a 5 minute slot, or just turn up and say hello.

Stuck for what to ask? Check out the ideas below.

The people listed here have agreed to come and offer their advice and expertise. We'll add to it as they sign up, so keep an eye out: 

Samatha Rhodes, Assistant Director at the Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool
University of Bolton 
Clare Knox-Bentham, Designer and Outreach Manager for Manchester School of Art  
Rebecca Hill, Curator of Art at Gallery Oldham 
Vanessa McDermott, Director at Gawthorpe Textiles Collection  
Kaylee Jenkinson, Exhibitions officer at Manchester Craft and Design Centre 
Stephanie Boydell, Curator at Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections  
Ann Marie Franey, Co-Director of Great Northern Events, who run the The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair and Little Northern  
Jennifer Harris, Deputy Director of Whitworth Art Gallery 
Fiona Moorhead, Head of Marketing, The Crafts Council
Janet Boston, Craft and Design Curator, Manchester City Galleries  
Alice Kettle, textile artist and Professor of Textile Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University

What you might ask

Gallery owners, retail managers and curators might want to look for people who would be willing to collaborate with them on ideas and projects - or just to bounce and idea off a peer.

If you're a maker, just a tiny sample of the questions you could ask includes:

• What do they do
• What are the breadth of projects that they run that might be of interest to you
• How you might approach an organsiation or gallery
• What kind of work they show and if they sell, what sort of price range
• How do they like to be approached (email, images, face to face)
• For a regional or national museum what is their collection strategy - who do they collect and why?
• What kind of craft objects or projects really excite them.

Some people have significant expertise in allied areas such as community engagement (Gallery Oldham, Bluecoat Display Centre, Gawthorpe, The Whitworth), in marketing (the Great Northern Contemporary Craft fair) or networking and working with emerging makers (Manchester Craft and Design Centre). They might be able to offer advice about those things and how they could work for you.

If you have a question and you're not quite sure who to ask - just come and ask the first similing face you see and they'll help point you in the right direction. That's what the NW Craft Network is all about. A question doesn't have to be perfectly formed.

Do bring images of work or a project on a phone or tablet to share. Be ready to shout about your good news and look for answers to your issues.

Shaping the Future: Making a Vision for Craft in the North West

Join us for talks and activities that will shape the future of craft in the North West
Conference
10 March 2016, 12.30-7pm
The University of Bolton, Deane Rd, Bolton, BL3 5AB

Geoffrey Mann, The Secret Life of Shadows @SDeleau

Tickets £15        To book click here

What are the challenges you face as someone who works with contemporary craft in the North West? What can we do to make craft and makers great? What actually is the Northern Powerhouse? What does the future hold?

Liminal Exhibition 2015 - DCCoI

Come and talk about your challenges; hear inspirational speakers on topics such as trends, Northern-ness and new technologies and what they might mean for us; take part in structured sessions that will form a plan of action to strengthen the sector, and build your connections with a vibrant network of makers, galleries, museums, educators and Arts organisations.

If you're anyone who works with craft in a professional capacity in the North West, this day is for you. Together we can make the North West a brilliant place for contemporary craft and the people who make it.

Louise Allen, Innovations and Development DCCoI

Speakers are Louise Allen, Head of Innovation and Development Programmes, Design and Crafts Council Ireland (DCCoI); renowned Scottish Artist, Designer and educator, and pioneer of new technologies, Geoffrey Mann and Manchester dynamo and the brains behind creative studio Lazerian, Liam Hopkins

Special sessions will seek your views on a host of potential activities that could form our future plans – covering maker development, increasing markets and improving knowledge, confidence and understanding about North West craft inside and outside the region.  We’ll look at things like getting more craft exhibitions in the North West’s museums or setting up a major regional craft open of national quality. Could we have a North West Craft festival? What about a yearly celebration of making like the Sheffield Design week, or open studios like C-Art in Cumbria? Or could we encourage more incubation spaces and business support for makers? These ideas and lots more will be on the table.

Making friends and connections: the heart of it all

There will be lots of opportunity for you to ask specific targeted questions about your work or practice. Central to the afternoon will be a networking hub gathering many of the members of the NW Craft Network Development Group. These include makers, galleries, curators, museums and more. They'll be ready to meet you, chat about your practice and answer questions. See information about the Networking Hub here.

For an outline of the day, click here

To book click here

 

Craft in the North West this January

Some serious craft shows going on in the North West of Englan this January; and a few to catch before they close.  Stuff to sooth the soul and inspire creative thinking and doing!

Last Chance
Exploring Wonderland at MCAD To 14 Feb www.craftanddesign.com

Art_Textiles at the Whitworth. To 21 Jan
http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/upcomingexhibitions/

On now

Modern Japanese Design at Manchester Art Gallery. 4 Dec to January 2017.  http://manchesterartgallery.org/

The Pilcrow: The pub that Manchester built (or is building, to be precise) Ongoing workshops - check details here http://www.thepilcrowpub.com/ 

Natural Makers at Touchstones Rochdale To 27 Feb 2016. www.link4life.org/centres/touchstones-rochdale 

Jarred: Ceramics from the Collection is on at Touchstones. To Spring 2016
http://www.link4life.org/whats-on/touchstones-rochdale/exhibitions/2505-jarred-ceramics-from-the-collection

Sculpting Stories at Gallery Oldham, including studio ceramics from their collections.  To Summer 2016. www.galleryoldham.org.uk/


Coming soon
Brilliance at The Bluecoat Display Centre To 5 March 2016 www.bluecoatdisplaycentre.com


New gallery space opens in January 2016 at MMU MarketPlace Studios, Stockport. https://www.facebook.com/Marketplace-Studios-250408291826588/

What is Jewellery? Exhibition opens at Manchester Craft and Design Centre 3 October

Christelle Bileci-Haddow  Mouse fur & silver ring (TMC Alumni 2014)

Expect the unexpected! 

Work made from unorthodox materials, crossing boundaries of fine art/jewellery. A curated selection of pieces made from a diverse array of makers and materials, featuring techniques such as taxidermy, leather, paper, fishing wire, expandable foam, metal, wood, resin and other materials that challenges the notion of wearable jewellery. 

The Manchester College Lecturer Eve Redmond, curates a Jewellery exhibition of international, national, former staff and FdA Jewellery and Applied Arts alumni as part of Manchester’s Free for Arts Festival 

The exhibition runs from 3rd October-12^th October in the Space2 @ Manchester Craft & Design Centre.

Open daily Monday-Saturday 10am-5.30pm  Sunday 11am-5pm

Launch Friday 3^rd October  3.30pm-5.50pm

Check out their Facebook event here

Min-Ji Cho  Rubber glove necklace  

 

Jo Pond  ‘Re-Tin’ & citrine  

Top NW Museums bring stunning craft to Ornament at GNCCF

Propagation Project: Super Jumbo Nigella, Wave, Junk Mori (see below for more details)  

Some of our North West Museums are keen collectors of contemporary craft, and 2014 sees a unique event at Manchester's Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair that tells us something more about the top quality craft that can be found around the region.

Curated by Kelda Savage, ORNAMENT is a selling exhibition of contemporary craft by some of the UK's most eminent makers. It will run alongside the main fair and add something extra special to the mix of craft and design on display.  The show will tell the stories of some the UK's our best artists and makers, and of the North West Museums who have collected their work.


Not only that, there will be the chance to buy additional pieces by these artists - a fantastic opportunity to invest in a unique and remarkable handcrafted object to enrich not only your own life but future generations!

So go along and see mesmerising work by Alice Kettle (collected by the Whitworth); Bob Crooks (MMU Special Collections); Caroline Broadhead (Jo Bloxham); Kate Malone (Blackwell, the Arts and Crafts House); Junko Mori (Touchstones Rochdale), Michael Brennand-Wood (Bluecoat Display Centre) and Walter Keeler (Gallery Oldham)

Great Northern Events is a member of the North West Craft Network

More image details - Propagation Project: Super Jumbo Nigella, Wave.  This is the largest piece of Junko’s work produced to date.  Photo courtesy of Junko Mori and Adrian Sassoon

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

Craft heaven! 9-12 October at the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair

160 makers; 'Ornament' a new selling exhibition by some of the North West's most collectible artists; the Great Northern Graduate showcase of what's new in the craft world, and much, much more. What's not to love about the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair!

Great Northern Events, the brains behind the fair, are part of the North West Craft Network. 

New North West Craft Network member! MMU Special Collections

Cow in a field (After Thomas Bewick's Kyloe Ox). Paul Scott’s Cumbrian Blues, 2007

MMU Special Collections.  Inspiring learning and creativity since 1898.

Top quality craft can be found all over the North West, and our recent North West Craft Network member MMU Special Collections has some real treasures. Here's their invitation to you to go and discover....

Tucked away inside the library of Manchester Metropolitan University, you will find MMU Special Collections. Described by one visitor as “serene and lovely”, our gallery space showcases the breadth of our art and design collections and archives which cover the historic, the modern and the contemporary. Recent exhibitions have featured Art Nouveau objects, children’s book illustrations from the 1960s, and products designed using cutting-edge digital technologies. Our Reading Room provides open access to our book collections, including more than 2,000 Artists’ Books, and our learning space is used to enable hands-on access to material. Our collections and archives continue to grow to reflect current practices and technological developments. The Manchester School of Art Collection includes contemporary craft and product design by makers and designers such as Assa Assuach, Claire Curneen, Patrick Jouin, Junko Mori, Gareth Neal and Jim Partridge. 

Access to MMU Special Collections is free and open to all.    
        

New Generation Gravity Stool, Jólan van der Wiel, 2014

MMU Special Collections, 3^rd Floor, Sir Kenneth Green Library, Manchester Metropolitan University, All Saints Campus, Oxford Road, M15 6BH.

T. 0161 247 6107

E. lib-spec-coll@mmu.ac.uk

www.specialcollections.mmu.ac.uk

@MMUSpecial

Find us on Googlemaps

Full image details:

Cow in a field (After Thomas Bewick's Kyloe Ox). Paul Scott’s Cumbrian Blues, 2007, photograph courtesy of MMU Special Collections, © Paul Scott

New Generation Gravity Stool, Jólan van der Wiel, 2014, Photograph courtesy of Jólan van der Wiel, © Jólan van der Wiel

Craft shines at Asia Triennial Manchester 2014: Swags and Tails at Manchester Craft and Design Centre

Join the lovely people at Manchester Craft and Design Centre to celebrate their new exhibition, Swags and Tails by Kashif Nadim Chaudry, which launches on Saturday 27th September 2-5pm

 

There'll be free refreshments, family friendly activities and acoustic violin with a Bollywood twist.

Chaudry's work is painstakingly crafted, blending his tailoring heritage, personal conflicts with sexuality and faith, and a taste for mischief.  

 

He'll be discussing his work at a special artist's talk during the launch event, and the exhibition is part of Asia Triennial Manchester 2014.

Hope to see you there!

Manchester Craft and Design Centre is part of the North West Craft Network. Click here for more.

After Ford 151 - Blackwell’s Dark Place

10 October - 20 December 2014

It’s Arts & Crafts, but not as we know it. 

As part of The Nuisance of Landscape: Grizedale – The Sequel exhibition, Grizedale Arts have crafted After Ford 151 – Blackwell’s Dark Place upstairs in the beautiful Oliver Thompson Gallery. 

This ambitious installation explores the notion of Arts & Crafts as a resistance movement and its evolution through modernism to become a cornerstone of how we understand the contemporary. 

It presents Grizedale Arts’ own polticised history of design - a brave new world of objects and ideas that serve as a provocative reassessment of the Arts & Crafts legacy.

Blackwell, The Arts & Crafts House 

Lakeland Arts

lakelandarts.org.uk

Lakeland Arts are part of the North West Craft Network. Click here for more.

Two fabulous exhibitions of contemporary craft at Touchstones Rochdale

September sees two exhibitions of unique contemporary craft open at Touchstones Rochdale one of the North West's key galleries showing top craft from international and regional makers. 

Rosa Nguyen - Sanctuary. 

26 September - 22 November 2014

The preview is on Thursday 25 September 6pm-8pm and will be opened by Professor Stephen Dixon, ceramicist and Professorial Research Fellow in Contemporary Crafts at Manchester School of Art.

The exhibition is part of Asia Triennial Manchester 2014

And if that weren't enough, there's also an exhibition of Jilly Edwards’ Wanderlust tapestries opening the same evening. The exhibition runs 26 September - 22 November 2014

Both shows are part of our Contemporary Forward series supported by Arts Council England.

Touchstones Rochdale are part of the North West Craft Network. Click here for more.

Three events to strengthen North West Craft

Louise Gardiner, You Blow Me Away DETAIL for COLLECT 2013

Three fantastic events are coming up that will help to boost contemporary craft in the North West: A symposium, plus two events for emerging makers and curators: 

In October 2014, The North West Craft Network will invite key players in national and regional craft to come to together for a symposium to explore; 'Building the market for collectors in the North West' at the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair in partnership with Great Northern Events.

And that's not all. In February 2015, an event for emerging makers will be hosted by the newly re-furbished Whitworth Art Gallery and in May 2015 the Network will organise an event for curators in conjunction with COLLECT at the Saatchi Gallery.

For more details about these events as they emerge, get in touch at craftnorthwest@gmail.com and we will send you the information when it is ready.

For more about the North West Craft Network, click here.


Image: Based in the North West, maker Louise Gardiner created the 'You Blow Me Away' series of Embroidered and appliqued tumbleweed for COLLECT 2012 at the Saatchi Gallery. Check out her website here, or follow her on Twitter @Loulougardiner
Louise is an opening speaker for the NW Craft Network's symposium 'Building the Market for Collectors of Contemporary Craft in the North West' at the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, above.

 

Introducing the North West Craft Network

Touchstones Rochdale, a NW Craft Network member. Photo Vincent James

In 2012, a group of people met to discuss the state of play with contemporary craft in the North West.

Ranging from top galleries and museums to individual makers, arts agencies and advocates, the group set out to see what could be done to strengthen high quality contemporary craft in the region.

Out of this was born the North West Craft Network, a gathering of curators, galleries, museums, Arts organisations, collectors and makers based in the North West of England, UK.

Aside from their involvement in directing and managing museums, galleries and creative businesses, these people can be identified by their huge passion for craft, their desire to see it thrive in the North West, and a willingness to put their considerable energies to work to build a collective identity and health ecology for the sector as a whole in the North West region.

New Glass, Jan-May 2013 at Blackwell House, Cumbria

Once up and running, the group set out to understand the lay of the land with Craft in the sector, and have identified four key areas to explore. Check these out here. In April, we were successful in gaining funding to take some significant first steps.

For more about the North West Craft Network, who is involved and how you can stay connected with what we do, click here.

A boost for contemporary craft in the North West!

• Developing the market for collectors
• Maker development
• Perception and advocacy of the craft sector
• Curatorial development

Four things the North West Craft Network set out to tackle in a recent funding bid that aims to boost the contemporary craft sector in the North West.

We're delighted to tell you that we were successful! Now we have some work to do....

The award, which comes from Arts Council England's Grants for the Arts scheme, will enable the Network to look at four key goals: market development, including developing the collectors market; maker development in the region - improving access to funding, studios, equipment and support; perception and advocacy of the craft sector within the region and curatorial development including critical writing.

The funding will enable us make significant inroads into addressing these issues. We will be organising three events that support maker and curator development as well as employing a part time coordinator to administer these events, help build the Network and support the next stages of the network's activities.

For more about the North West Craft Network, click here.