The NW Craft Network have a new website!

Katherine Lees, a resident maker at Manchester Craft and Design Centre

We're delighted to announce we've updated our website. We've made changes to reflect our aim to welcome more people and change to reflect current issues and times. This one will no longer be updated. 

We'll see you over there!

www.nwcraftnetwork.org.uk

Not exactly plain sailing...

 

Joseph Sempill ( Irish, active 1867-1874), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In May 2021, the North West Craft Network took some time to explore the opportunities and the difficulties that the pandemic has presented to us, and examined what we thought our priorities should be for the next year or so. We're just wrapping up our work on our priorities, but in a nutshell they will be: Wellbeing and the value of craft; diversity and inclusion and maker support. More on that soon, but in the meantime, here’s a summary of what we felt was pushing us forward, what has potential, and what is holding us back…

Pushing us forward

While the pandemic had brought great turbulence, problems, and hardship, it has also brought an opportunity to think about doing things differently and a push to accelerate change. Makers and organisations have tried new platforms and been forced to find funding – all of which are experiences that can be built upon. Forced to look for stay at home activities that are nourishing, social and accessible, people have rediscovered the value of everyday making and creativity in unprecedented levels.

Within the North West Craft Network, we have a wide range of fantastic organisations working together. Access to a group of people outside of our small teams has expanded the possibility to access other ways of doing and thinking about things by providing a diversity of perspectives. Within that network, not only do we have a wealth of collective skills, knowledge, and expertise, but members are passionate about craft and making and about how their organisations support it along with goodwill and willingness to share.

Areas of potential

The increased public engagement with craft and perceived value of creativity by both public and professional together has been brought into sharp focus by the pandemic. Together with a weariness in throwaway consumerism in the young, this is something that the craft sector can respond to and build upon. The pandemic has given us a unique opportunity to make a new normal.

Holding us back

Despite the things pushing us forward and the potential for growth, there are hard realities such as reduced funding and increased competition for the funding that there is. Everyone is short of time and resources and has to balance their organisation’s priorities with that of the craft sector nationally and regionally. We are not diverse enough either in our network or in the wider sector, and there is sometimes a lack of clarity over what it is we are trying to achieve, leading to a feeling of there being too much talking and not enough doing.

Within the wider context, we are facing a recession and ongoing economic hardship that will impact on us all. And while there are many creative graduates, they are not exploring craft as a career. We need to attract more and work out how to support them. Alongside this there is an emerging tension between hobbyist and professional approaches to craft, between the democracy of making on the one hand and the perceived elitism and exclusivity of professional craft on the other.

 

Covid-19 Craft Sector Support and Information

Many organisations, nationally and locally, are doing what they can to support makers. Here are a few and we'll update this as more information comes through. [Updated August 12 2020]

Crafts Council In order to support our craft community at this time Crafts Council have created a page on the website with the most useful advice and resources as well as regular updates as and when they happen https://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/stories/information-craft-businesses-during-covid-19-pandemic
 
Creative Lancashire Information and links to support the creative sector

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) have temporarily made all of their member-only resources free to everyone -  information covers topics ranging from governance to safeguarding, funding to campaigns.
https://knowhow.ncvo.org.uk/site-homepage#

Arts Council England have resumed their Project Grants and because of the circumstances during this period, are particularly keen to support:

• applications from individual creative practitioners (including time to think and plan)

• research and development activity

• organisational development activity

• live activity that can be safely delivered within this period (rather than activity with a start date far in the future)

• activity that closely aligns with ACE Equality Objectives

A new Economic Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is about to launch (End of August) to Support SME restart and recovery. Delivered via local Growth Hubs https://www.lepnetwork.net/local-growth-hub-contacts/

What the NW Craft Network has achieved - Autumn/Winter 2018

Connections and ideas continue to flow for the North West Craft Network. Ideas, small and large, hatched in the early part of the year are slowly coming to fruit, and we are beginning to revisit more ambitious plans that were seeded in early years and we now have the firmer foundation to start to make these things happen.

Intelligence exchange

• Research, exhibition invitiations and information exchanged widely.
• Awards and opportunities for makers shared with Development Group and wider networks. As a result of connections made through the NW Craft network in 2014 Liam Hopkins was shortlisted for Arts Foundation’s Designer Maker of the year award 2019.

Sharing members’ expertise and good practice

• Jo Kay, an audience development specialist and member of the network has shaped an ‘Audience Targeting for Craft Sales’ session for the next Meeting of the NW Craft Development Group (early 2019). This part of the meeting has been opened more widely to organisations who don’t usually attend the meeting but who sell craft.
• Crafts Council launched UK Craft Network, and we’ve talked with their lead on this to see how we can connect our North West members into this national network, exchange information and ideas, best practice and advocate for North West craft.
• ARC’s (Arts for Recovery in the Community) CPD programme for volunteers on their Pottery Pioneers project is underway and will engage Network members to train volunteers.

Building the case for the value of craft

• A task group will meet in early 2019 to workshop a collective letter about the value of Craft to Education for circulation to educational policy makers.

Building infrastructure for collaborative work and resource sharing (joint projects and exhibitions)

• The Network will revisit its plans for an outstanding NW generated Craft showcase touring exhibition at our next meeting in March. This follows on from initial research in the previous years of the network.
• The Jerwood Makers Open will come to Manchester City Gallery and members are keen to get involved with collaborative projects. This will be developed at the next meeting.

Supporting a healthy craft ecology

• Manchester Craft and Design Centre connected with the lead on the Greater Manchester Cultural Strategy and we will be exploring collaborations.
• Inspired by discussions around nourishing makers of the future, Manchester Art Gallery has decided to put on another Future Creative Event in March 2019. Students will be invited to respond to the gallery's displays to make products for sale in the gallery shop
• Professional coach and maker Victoria Scholes delivered the third of three business review days for residents and networks of Manchester Craft and Design Centre in January 2019.

The North West Craft Network is back in action!

After a between-funding break, the NW Craft Network is back.

We’re delighted to say that the Manchester Craft and Design Centre has been awarded some funding to pay for administrative support for the Network. This will allow us to meet and share information to help support contemporary craft in the North West.

More to follow soon, but for the moment we’re getting our data in order and sending out emails to ask if you want to stay in touch.

You can opt in to receive emails from us here: 

What next for the North West Craft Network

The North West Craft Network is planning an ambitious three-year programme to build an entrepreneurial, resilient and outstanding craft community in the North West that is positioned firmly at the heart of the region’s creative industries.  

We aim to grow the market, build audiences, increase revenue, incubate makers and keep our craft talent working and showing in the region.

To kick-start these plans, we’ll be aiming to run a series of three pilots, funded (we hope) with a £15K bid to Grants for the Arts, matched with funding from Network members. Key elements are:

• Makers and Museums. Developing and testing a model for the sale of high quality craft in NW museum retail spaces that will increase revenue and build the markets and audience for craft to the advantage of both makers and museums.

• Developing a proposal for a touring NW exhibition. A collective approach makes a stronger sector: we'll share expertise and collectively develop an outstanding idea for a touring craft show that will create a big message about craft, invigorate collections, commission new work and develop significant new audiences.
• Incubation. Exploring and testing sustainable options to develop and keep craft talent in the NW in the long term. 

All this comes from the opinions and data we gathered over the last two years from a wide range of craft professionals in the North West. The programme proposes a way to enhance the vitality of the North West craft sector and make it a recognised centre for national activity and excellence.

To decide how to go forward, we asked ourselves a few key questions. What will we do best as this particular group of people? Some things are best done by individuals, partnerships or small groups - what can NW Craft Network do as a group that no other group could naturally do? What is ambitious and far reaching in its scope? And lastly and more practically, what is feasible for us to do?

If we're successful in our bid to ACE, we should be up and running with this in early 2017. Watch this space for more, keep an eye on our Twitter account @nwcraftnetwork, or sign up to our mailing list.

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

Making connections, getting inspired, hatching plans

Shaping the Future: making a vision for craft in the North West
Conference
10 March at the University of Bolton
12.30-7pm

Tickets £15       Book here


Make connections, build your practice, talk about your challenges, and hear talks by people who make, move and shake in the craft world. You'll have a chance to shape future plans, as well as meet and network with some of the UK and Ireland's best makers and craft organisations.

Open to makers, curators, galleries, managers - anyone who works with contemporary craft in the NW. Make connections, be energised & hatch plans to put NW craft on the map.

Speakers are Louise Allen, head of programmes and innovation for Craft and Design Council Ireland; Geoff Mann, Scottish glass artist, innovator and educator and Liam Hopkins of Lazerian, an internationally renowned creative studio based in Manchester.

Organised by the NW Craft Network in partnership with the University of Bolton

More about the day here
Book tickets here

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

 

Coming up on 10 March - a day to shape the future of craft in the North West

Geoff Mann, Crossfire wineglass. Image Sylvain Deleau

Shaping the Future: Making a Vision for Craft in the North West
10 March, 12.30-7pm
University of Bolton

Tickets £15 (to be released 25 Jan)

Coming soon! An afternoon of talks and activities that will shape the future of craft in the North West.

Come and talk about your challenges; hear inspirational speakers on topics such as global trends, the Northern powerhouse 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 more.

Speakers so far announced include Louise Allen, Head of Innovation and Development Programmes, Design and Crafts Council Ireland and renowned Scottish Artist, Designer and educator, Geoffrey Mann.

Put the date in your diary! More to follow soon.....

North West Craft Network wins funding!

Makers & artist James Maskrey at The Whitworth

The North West Craft Network has won funding from Arts Council England for the second year of an already successful project to strengthen craft in the North West.  Together with small but significant funding contributions from leading North West craft venues; Gawthorpe Textiles Collection, Manchester Craft and Design Centre, The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, Bluecoat Display Centre, Gallery Oldham, The Whitworth Art Gallery and Bolton University, the Network is all set to put craft in the region firmly on the map.

At our Networking event at GNCCF

In 2015-16 the Network aims to put together an ambitious three to five year programme of activity that will make a real and lasting impact on the health of the North West’s craft sector.

The programme will build on the already considerable strengths of craft in the region but also address the particular challenges that the people making, curating, selling and buying craft in the North West face.

During the year the Network will create opportunities for the North West’s craft makers, curators and stakeholders to collaborate, share knowledge and shape a plan for the future. A key part of this will be two Network events; a day conference at Bolton University and a curator development day at Manchester College. In addition they will partner up with the likes of Great Northern Events (the people who run The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair) and Manchester Craft and Design Centre to support their existing maker and curator development plans.

The Network will also inject into the programme data gathered from last year’s work, which included maker and curator events at The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, The Whitworth and COLLECT at the Saatchi Gallery. To this, they will add targeted strands of new research into potential partnerships, exchanges, international collaborations and appropriate income streams.

Since it started in 2012 the Network has gone from strength to strength. One of the tasks for this year will be to address the issues of organisation and funding that this success has created so that the Network can become a permanent agent of support and development of craft in the region.

Craft has great potential to grow in the North West. As a region it has some top quality craft venues, as a glance at this list of venues that are concerned with craft attests. From public institutions around the region, including – to name just a few - The Whitworth, Manchester City Galleries, Gallery Oldham, Gawthorpe Textiles Collection and The Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston, to commercial concerns such as the Bluecoat Display Centre, and maker spaces such as Manchester Metropolitan University’s Marketplace Studio in Stockport and the Manchester Craft and Design Centre. There are fantastic collections, vibrant shows and new commissions taking place. Manchester hosts one of the UK’s main craft events in the form of the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair; not to mention a host of talented and respected professional makers; world class education and research in the field and a thriving amateur economy. But even so, the current economic climate presents tough challenges.

Markets for intensively produced, contemporary fine Craft are thin. Many buyers go elsewhere to build their collections, and there are still relatively few regional opportunities for exhibiting and selling. Part time work – often an important contribution to the income of both budding and established makers - is diminishing, creating a pull towards London and the South East. Curators find themselves stretched across a huge range of departments from fine art to science and critical writers who can explore, analyse and share the experience of craft among the community are few and far between.

The North West Craft Network was set up in 2012 to address issues such as these and build on the many good things happening in the region.  It represents publicly funded museum collections, Further and Higher Education Institutions, commercial galleries, crafts agencies and practitioners at all stages of their careers. This year’s project will be another bold step forward for the group, aiming to channel the knowledge, skills and enthusiasm in the sector in to a plan that will make the North West Craft Sector and robust and vibrant player in the creative industries of the Northern Powerhouse.

For more information contact the NW Craft Network Co-ordinator, Victoria Scholes at craftnorthwest@gmail.com or +44 (0) 1625 421768

To read more about the North West Craft Network and to see a list of current members of its development team, click here

To join our mailing list, contact craftnorthwest@gmail.com with 'I want to join the NW Craft Network mailing list' in the subject line and we'll add your name.