Advocating Craft - 4 great tips for a healthy craft practice. Jade Mellor reflects on 'Building the Market for Contemporary Craft'

Four great tips for healthy craft practice from artist and maker Jade Mellor on what she took from the NW Craft Network's symposium and networking event at the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair.

Always thoughtful, Jade had drawn on her own experience as well as the advice from our three great speakers and the other event participants to make some sound points. Nice one Jade.

See Jade's tips here.

Workshop results for the symposium: Building the market for collectors of contemporary craft in the North West

Image by Chris Payne

A bit chilly, maybe, but studio 6 at the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair was a hotbed of ideas and discussion this October.

The North West Craft Network organised the symposium BUILDING THE MARKET FOR COLLECTORS IN THE NORTH WEST in conjunction with Great Northern Events, who are the brains behind the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair.

We had four mini-workshop sessions addressing how we can build the market for collectors of contemporary craft. The results are published here. Lots of interesting stuff to absorb and digest, but it is noticeable that marketing features strongly in the section about what we should do, and building relationships (even, in one case, facilitated by sherry), comes over strongly in the 'what has worked' section.


Great to get together curators, makers, policy makers, agencies, collectors, directors and more to put out heads together and see what we can do.

The workshop results will feed into the future plans for the North West Craft Network so watch this space for the group's next steps.

Workshop 1
WHAT SHALL WE DO (COLLECTIVELY AND INDIVIDUALLY) TO BUILD THE MARKET FOR CONTEMPORARY CRAFT IN THE NORTH WEST
Ideas: practical to aspirational; general to specific

RESEARCH
Do some research is needed into why the non-purchasing attendees of crafts fairs don't purchase.  They're obviously interested in craft, but could we investigate what is holding them back from buying?

BRANDING/ MARKETING
Acknowledge snobbery
Getting craft from local makers on TV shows
Craft needs marketing
Craft Magazine on wrong shelf
Posters in public places
Cinema adverts
Get Art Schools to carry the ‘craft’ brand
We need to talk to brand and advertising and TV
Prada trusted brand – do we need a brand?
Have large brands advocate individual makers like they do with designers!!
Brand confidence
Raise awareness through a popular medium – Television – there’s too much cooking and baking!
More high profile personality to advocate
Use the word ‘Design’. Poor craft connotations are negative
Crafts mag off bottom shelf – should be with designer mags
How do we tap into brand led society
Grayson Perry – clear honest presentation
Sponsorship of craft exhibition by fashion design house

INTRODUCE PEOPLE TO CRAFT
Show people it is not intimidating
Take time to talk to visitors
Talk about what you are wearing and what you buy
Wear what you buy
Communicate quality and craft stories to a wider audience (currently non-buyers)
Exhibit stories of why people craft (ordinary people)
Stress the ‘renaissance of quality’ in handmade items

MAKERS
Respect for makers
Communicate the crafters personality
Create aspirational pieces within my work
Be visible as a maker

PROVIDE EXHIBITIONS OPPORTUNITIES
Too few outlets for the region
Emphasis on degree/MA shows and further this to advocate and promote craft – free space
Taking craft to different levels by curating different shows and kinds of retail shows
Curate exhibition on a range of platforms
Have opportunities to bring related craft alongside Art/Craft exhibitions
New venues for new audience

COLLABORATION
Architects collaboration
Collaboration – bring in other institutions
Support each other and work to create opps!
Can galleries help? USA?
Networks – talk to people

ADVOCACY
Be an advocate for craft
Advocate

PARTICIPATION
Learn a craft yourself?
Direct engagement
Buy, buy, buy!

NEW AUDIENCES
Diversity
Curating exhibitions in a new way to attract new audiences
Promote work that is not only your taste
Seeing craft in different venues
When buying something from GNCCF, seller to give a card, saying something like ‘congratulations, you are now a collector’
Try to bring the fashionista’s market to craft
Mini craft shows with makers in office blocks

EDUCATIONAL TALKS
Stories of why people buy
Talks lectures – interior designers
Gallery: Talks and events for our public about craft
Re: Gallery Sector: Educate the public on the  levels of training and emotional input that makers put in
How to value time
Talk!

Workshop 2
WHAT HAS WORKED FOR YOU
What has brought great engagement, sales or audiences?
What is your experience?

POSITIVE PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES
Positive attitude
Being engaging and likable
Being a good/nice person
Being approachable
Passion about your work
Authentic as a person – authentic work
Creating
Creating good work

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING
Building a relationship with the customer
Building up relationships over time
You tell the story of the piece
Personal connection – hearing it straight from the maker
Sharing your story
Telling a story about my work – NOT sell the work
One on one conversation
Engaging with the audience – creates market
Never questioning my audience’s ability to understand or relate to my work
Want to be a friend of the maker/artist
Being there with your work and information the viewer

MARKETING
Social media
Digital portfolio
Website and marketing
Mailing list
New pieces of work promoted well.

INFORMATION GIVING
Lecturing and demonstrations
Raising awareness of skill and creativity

EXPOSURE
Persistence – trying all avenues – not giving up
Repeating something – perseverance
Being visible and getting out there
Exposing friends to craft who wouldn’t normally buy craft

EXHIBITIONS
Exhibitions that are accessible
Get your work out there
Galleries are a barrier?
Finding the audience
GNCCF
Group exhibitions
Meeting the audience!
Gallery shop: Running events for people on our mailing list to come for private views to buy craft
Finding the right audience for your work

COLLABORATION
Let people help you
Networks for makers for mutual support
Engagement with focused makers to get involved with

ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES
Showing craft in the gallery space, presented as wearable art. Art/Jewellery crossover
Exhibiting art and craft together. This is an important route to getting the considerable audience for "art" to cross-over  into critically engaged "craft".
New events, fresh ideas for events, unusual locations
Immerse yourself in the commercial world
Public collections - allow public PR: open interpretation

MENTORSHIP
Mentoring (both as mentor and mentee) appropriate to your stage of career

ENDORSEMENT
Endorsement by major galleries e.g. exhibitions

QUESTIONS
Do we have to differentiate between buyers and collectors?

MISC
Sherry for customers
Friends groups and patron groups
Showing that they are buying local

Workshop 3
BUILDING THE MARKET FOR CONTEMPORARY CRAFT
WHAT CAN YOU OFFER?

ATTRIBUTES
Generosity
Knowledge
Be a proactive maker

WORK
The value of buying something original
Enrichment of life

EXPERIENCE
Talk to people and share my knowledge and experience
15 years of experience
Time and conversation at shows

SUPPORT
Support
Meet up to set up group
Build confidence of collectors as strong-minded independent thinkers

OPPORTUNITIES
Opportunities for makers to meet potential customers
A platform for artists/makers and public to come together
Exhibitions – the opportunity to bring audiences and buyers together through events
Galleries could obviously offer shows and artists workshops and talks
Space in gallery shops and display cases
Open days where makers are there to speak through work at galleries
Curated and promoted contemporary shows to promote contemporary craft
Exhibition space

PROMOTION
Using social media to promote contemporary craft
Shared mailing list clients
Share mailing lists Northwest

Workshop 4
BUILDING THE MARKET FOR CONTEMPORARY CRAFT
WHAT DO YOU NEED

ATTRIBUTES
Positive energy
Makers to be amazing self publicists (like Louise!)

CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION/ MARKETING
Communication
Radio /TV presence
TV coverage showcasing workshops and makers
Strong digital audience


COLLABORATION
Making connections – more symposiums – more talking encouraging others to meet and discuss – common passion
More association
Match-makers

SUPPORT
Maker support

ACCESS TO COLLECTORS/ BUYERS
Access to collectors (to develop the market need to understand the current market)
Invading the commercial world
An audience that is interested
We need an audience

RESOURCES
More time and resources!
A job that pays – more opps for curators
OWN ART
Arts Fund awareness
Other ways to generate income
Investors

EDUCATION
As a fine art curator I need educating about craft
Talks about how a piece could change their like
Promote long terms benefits for collectors
Potential buyers to be educated
Lectures from makers open to the public

OPPORTUNITIES
Opportunities to connect with makers
More events in the NW
A secondary market
To support and promote for contemporary craft
Collectors group – share work
Open studios/meet the maker/local

Director of Bluecoat Display Centre reviews Symposium: 'Building the Market for Collectors of Contemporary Craft in the North West'

Saturday October 11 6-9pm at the
The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair 2014

Angela Mann, Co-Director of GNCCF opening the evening

Bravely billed to take place from 6-9pm on a Saturday evening, the organisers of the recent symposium accompanying the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair risked the pull of the sofa from the ubiquitous X Factor and Strictly, and instead challenged the brain cells of the invited 50 professional art world attendees to concentrate on the topic of “Building the market for collectors in the North West.”

The setting was the Old Granada studios where over 150 individual contemporary designer makers stands showed over the long weekend. The space itself was huge and cavernous, with a slightly industrial “New York” loft feel -and while it was occasionally just a little chilly, it offered an enviably spacious way to view the incredibly diverse range of exciting individual work by established and emerging makers. The symposium was further complemented by the Ornament exhibition curated by Kelda Savage, who worked with leading North West based galleries to show collectable contemporary craft along with key pieces drawn from the collections or recommended artists.

Stimulating presentations by James Beighton, the former curator of MIMA, Jo Bloxham, a collector and curator and Louise Gardiner, a practicing artist and maker, set the scene and opened the questions and discussions regarding the collectors market. My neighbour remarked how clearly and cleverly Beighton explained the way the context of a craft piece changed once it became part of a public collection in response to a question raised from the floor.
 
The final summary of the night by the Chair of the Crafts Council, Professor Geoffrey Crossick, impressed me personally. In it he referenced the regular euphemisms of “the collectors market” and emphasised instead the importance to individual artists survival rates from the sale of work. Crossick also made the relevant point of the role of the gallery in achieving these, and suggested that a useful addition for future similar events could be the perspective of a contemporary craft gallery with retail 
expertise.

Dr Maureen Bampton
Bluecoat Display Centre

Images: Chris Payne

Networking

The audience

James Beighton, former curator at MIMA

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.