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

Inside the world of curating. A visit to COLLECT 2015

This was my first visit to COLLECT, the International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects. The North West Craft Network awarded bursaries to a number of curators in the North West, and I was one of the recipients.

The excitement built in the couple of weeks before as galleries which were displaying filled my inbox with information about the artists who would be showing at the Saatchi Gallery. An invitation to apply for the Craft Council’s Museum Purchase Fund also arrived, with the opportunity to bid for pieces from the fair which would be purchased by the Crafts Council.

I had three main aims from the fair:

The first was to solidify my ideas as to which artists I will shortlist for our Contemporary Art Society Craft acquisition later this year. I was still in the initial research phase for this and have been visiting as many exhibitions and artists as I can. COLLECT was a great opportunity to see work by some makers I am interested in, and of course, see work which I was previously unaware of.

The second was to meet some of the makers who are represented in our collection, several of whom I’ve had e-mail and phone contact with but have never actually met face-to-face – Natasha Daintry and Ann Sutton in particular.

The third was to meet other colleagues from across the country who are also working alongside makers.

The morning session was the private view, at which speeches were given by Rosy Greenlees, Director of the Crafts Council and Geoffrey Crossick, Chair of the Trustees of the Crafts Council. My highlight of this section was the announcement that Gallery Oldham was one of the three museums across the country awarded work under the Crafts Council Museum Purchase Fund. We were awarded ‘Patience Flower XXIII’, 2014 by Vipoo Srivilasa and ‘Journey Jar’, 2015 by Adam Buick.

The afternoon part of the Curator Day was key note sessions followed by two case studies of recent acquisitions with the Contemporary Art Society. The first key note was a really interesting presentation by Tulga Beyerle, Director of the Dresden Museum of DecorativeArts, in which Beyerle described working in a small overlooked museum in Germany. Beyerle’s museum had little in the way of twentieth century craft so she had decided to start from scratch with a twenty-first century craft collection. While the context in Dresden is really different from the context in which I work, there was lots to take from Beyerle’s presentation, and her pragmatism, commitment and enthusiasm was really infectious.

Next up was Alastair Hudson from MIMA who spoke about the challenges of ensuring that museums remain valued by the communities they serve, rather than merely being tolerated at best. He talked in detail about loads of really exciting initiatives happening in Middlesborough. There’s not space to go into detail about them here – but do go and have a look at their website.

Next came the two case studies from curators who had recently received funding from the Contemporary Art Society – Fiona Slattery Clark from Birmingham Museums and Katherine McClung-Oakes from Bury Art Museum. It was really helpful to me to listen to their experiences as I am at the early stages of my first experience of the process this year. 

So all in all, I had a really great time at COLLECT 2015 and learnt a lot. There was a real buzz around the show. It was exciting to see so many private collectors supporting the sector. I personally really enjoyed bumping into makers who I’ve only met recently like Michael Eden, and catching up with others like Halima Cassell who I’ve known for a while. It was SO brilliant to spend that much time in a space which was brimming with lovely, lovely things.

Rebecca Hill
Exhibitions & Collections Coordinator (Art)
Gallery Oldham