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

Seriously good Craft in the UK's North West this December

Natural Makers, Touchstones Rochdale

A host of seriously good Craft exhibitions and events that span pondering the meaning of art, making, material, process through to brilliant possibilities for Christmas presents. And making stuff. Enjoy...

You can also see and (if you're an organisation) add new events in our publically available Google Calendar here

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


The Pilcrow: launch. More about the pub that Manchester built (or is building, to be precise) here 4 December. http://www.thepilcrowpub.com/

Little Northern Contemporary Craft Fair. Altrincham Town Hall, Market St., 
Altrincham
 WA14 1PG (NEW venue!) 6 December.
http://www.greatnorthernevents.co.uk/1082#.Vl1Te3tv6dE

Natural Makers at Touchstones Rochdale 12 Dec To 27 Feb 2016. Stuart Cairns, Laura Ellen Bacon, Adam Buick, Sharon Adams.
www.link4life.org/centres/touchstones-rochdale

Sculpting Stories at Gallery Oldham, including studio ceramics from their collections. 19 Dec to Summer 2016
www.galleryoldham.org.uk/

On now

Art_Textiles at the Whitworth. To 21 Jan

http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/upcomingexhibitions/

Back to Black. Contemporary jewellery at Manchester Art Gallery - extended to 31 January
http://manchesterartgallery.org/

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

'All Wrapped Up' & 'Esben and Wolfe Screen Prints' The Craft Shop at the Royal Exchange Theatre. To 3 Jan at   www.royalexchange.co.uk/craft-shop

All That Glitters at The Bluecoat Display Centre to 16 Jan 2016 www.bluecoatdisplaycentre.com

Exploring Wonderland at MCAD to 14 Feb
www.craftanddesign.com

Coming soon

New gallery space opens in January 2016 at MMU MarketPlace Studios, Stockport. Keep an eye out here

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.

A creative response to Making It: building your craft future at the Whitworth

My name is Tasmin Williams and I’m currently in my final year of a Three Dimensional Design Degree at Manchester School of Art. I specialise in ceramics, exploring clays tactile qualities through hand built forms created to be held and touched.

Last week I attended the North West Craft Network event, ‘Making it: Building your craft future’ at The Whitworth Art Gallery. I was given the opportunity to respond to the day’s events through the medium of clay.

The talks and 1:1 surgeries delivered by established crafts people covered so much insightful information and facilitated the opportunity to network with these experienced practitioners along with like-minded individuals who all have a passion for crafts. The artist talk that really inspired me was that given by Halima Cassell. It was fascinating to see how her work has progressed from when she was a University graduate and continues to develop throughout her career as a practicing artist.

Being in a room with all of these incredibly creative people was a great opportunity for me to further explore the relationship between the clay material and human touch.

I decided to document the day through a series of objects made by the participants taking part in the day’s activities. Giving each person a ball of clay, I asked them to play with the clay and create anything they wanted to. The series of objects made were fantastic.

There was such a wide variety of shapes and textures and almost every participant that had a go enjoyed the experience with one lady describing it as therapeutic. Most people were tentative in the way they picked up the clay at first but once they had rolled it around in their hands for a while they became more comfortable and familiar with its malleable properties. I feel the area in which each person practices affected the way they interacted with the clay. For example, a lady who purely works in two dimensions spent most of her time adding patterns to her object using the fine metal tools.

I found the event incredibly helpful and it has provided struggling and up and coming craft practitioners with tools they can use to move their practice onto its next stages and I am very privileged to have been part of such a fantastic opportunity.

Check out Tasmin's Blog

Making It : Building your craft future. A day for emerging makers at the Whitworth Art Gallery

The Drayton Egg, James Maskrey

Thursday 5 March 2015
10.30am – 6.30pm followed by Thursday late at the Whitworth 

Join us for a day of talks, workshops, 1:1 enterprise surgeries and networking

Where: The Great Hall, The Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester,  Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6ER. Click here for directions.

Fee: £10

Open to: makers in the first few years of launching or revisiting their contemporary craft practice who are based in the North West of England.


To book your place, click here

Come and hear top speakers addressing what it means to make a living in the craft sector; network with other makers and craft professionals from across the North West; answer questions relating to your creative business and get support to shape your craft future.

Organised by the North West Craft Network in partnership with the Whitworth and Manchester Craft and Design Centre, the day will take place in magnificent setting of the Grand Hall in the newly refurbished Whitworth Art Gallery.

Speakers Halima Cassell, Rachel Kelly and James Maskrey will address what it means to make a living as a creative practitioner, bringing insights from their own creative and business journeys.

Respected maker, educator and thinker in the field of ceramics, CJ O'Neill, will guide you through a reflection on your own practice and create space for relating the information and experiences of the day to your own plans. And Katia Stewart, Talent Development Manager for the Crafts Council Talent Development Team will give her insights from many years supporting and promoting artists in the North.

 For more information about the speakers, click here.

Graffiti-d Installation, CJ O'Neill

Craft professionals from all walks of North West life will be on hand to chat and advise both informally, and also via two 1:1 surgeries.  You'll be able to sign up to put your pressing craft questions to any of these advisors on the day.

1:1 surgery advisors include makers Jane Dzisiewski, Eve Redmond, Nell Smith, Clare Knox-Bentham, Harriet Lawton, Emma Blackburn and Jo Hartley; Beth Hughes, Curator at Lakeland Arts in Cumbria; Sam Rhodes, deputy director at the Bluecoat Display Centre in Liverpool and Ann Marie Franey, co-director and founder of the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair.

To find out more about the 1:1 surgeries and the advisors, click here.

Finish it all off with a glass of wine and conversation at the same time as taking inspiration from the collections as part of the Whitworth's Thursday Late programme.

To book your place, click here 

Questions? Contact Victoria Scholes at craftnorthwest@gmail.com

For an outline of the day, click here.

Organised by the North West Craft Network in partnership with the Whitworth Art Gallery and Manchester Craft and Design Centre

Leading makers and thinkers speak at contemporary craft event at the Whitworth

Rachel Kelly Interactive Wallpaper: Garden Design Humpty

Making It : building your craft future
Thursday 5 March 2015
10.30am – 6.30pm followed by Thursday late at the Whitworth

The Great Hall, The Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester,  Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6ER.


Click here for an overview of the day, speakers, who it's aimed at, and fees

To book your place, click here


Speaker Biographies

Halima Cassell

Halima Cassell

Combining strong geometric elements with recurrent patterns and architectural principles, Halima’s work utilises definite lines and dramatic angles in an attempt to manifest the universal language of number and create an unsettling sense of movement.
Born in 1975 in Pakistan, brought up in Manchester and now living in Blackburn, Lancashire, Halima’s varied, multi-cultural background is tangibly present in her work.
Fusing her Asian roots with a fascination for African pattern work and a passion for architectural geometry, Halima’s work is intense yet playful, structured yet creative; substantial yet dynamic and invariably compelling in its originality.

Rachel Kelly

Rachel Kelly: Interactive Wallpaper

Rachel Kelly is an award-winning textile designer based in the English Lake District. Rachel is renowned for her website Interactive Wallpaper, where she sells innovative wallpaper and wall sticker kits. Rachel’s profile has been established by working to commission with manufacturers, public bodies such as the BBC and NHS, and a range of private clients. 

 


James Maskrey

James Maskrey, Shackleton's Scrimshaw

James Maskrey has a career in hot glass spanning over 20 years. He has exhibited widely internationally and has been recognised for his own work with inclusion in many public and private collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Crafts Council. He has also facilitated glass projects for many other artists who have included Richard Slee, Bruce McLean, Magdalene Odundo and William Tillyer. He currently works for the University of Sunderland at the National Glass Centre.

CJ O Neill

Lumo-floral plate, CJ O'Neill

CJ is a researcher/maker/educator based in Manchester and is a Senior Lecturer at Manchester School of Art teaching on BA(Hons)Three Dimensional Design and MA Design.  She is also a PhD candidate at MIRIAD.  Re*presenting: artistic interventions exploring everyday ceramics is part of her ongoing investigation exploring issues around authorship, value and collaboration through the use of everyday ceramic objects in combination with both hand and industrial processes. 
CJ has undertaken numerous commissions for ceramic lighting and tableware for both domestic and corporate clients as well as exhibiting and lecturing internationally. 

Katia Stewart
Katia Stewart is Talent Development Manager at the Crafts Council and manages the national Hothouse programme for emerging makers. With a background in craft and design Katia has worked in a range of creative and cultural development agencies and continues to explore her own creativity through a variety of other projects.




To book your place, click here

Organised by the North West Craft Network in partnership with the Whitworth Art Gallery and Manchester Craft and Design Centre

Making It : building your craft future - outline of the day

Solas Gold Installation, CJ O'Neill

Thursday 5 March 2015
10.30am – 6.30pm followed by Thursday late at the Whitworth

The Great Hall, The Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester,  Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6ER.

Click here for an overview of the day, speakers, who it's aimed at, and fees

To book your place, click here

10.30        Registration  (plus tea and coffee)

11.00        Introduction and welcome

11.15        Speaker: CJ O'Neill
           
11.55        Workshop with CJ O'Neill

12.15        Speaker: Halima Cassell   
             
12.55        Lunch

14.00        Speaker: Rachel Kelly

14.40        1:1 Surgery (sign up on day)

15.10        Speaker: Katia Stewart

15.50        1:1 Surgery (with tea and coffee)

16.30        Speaker: James Maskrey

17.10        Workshop (lead by CJ O'Neill)

17.50        Wrap up

18.10        Evaluation and networking

18.30        Thursday Late opens (wine will be served)

Halima Cassell

Click here for an overview of the day, speakers, who it's aimed at, and fees

To book your place, click here

Organised by the North West Craft Network in partnership with the Whitworth Art Gallery and Manchester Craft and Design Centre

1:1 Surgeries bring emerging makers together with craft professionals at Whitworth event

Halima Cassell: conference speaker

Making It : building your craft future
Thursday 5 March 2015
10.30am – 6.30pm followed by Thursday late at the Whitworth

The Great Hall, The Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester,  Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6ER.

Click here for an overview of the day, speakers, who it's aimed at, and fees

To book your place, click here

1:1 Surgeries: How they will work
Have you ever wished that you were able to get a load of craft professionals in one place and ask them all those pressing questions that you have about your creative business? Well, the North West Craft Network have engineered just such a situation.

Included in the programme for Making It : building your craft future, there will be two 1:1 Surgeries, offering you the opportunity to sign up on the day to ask a question of one of our advisors - all professionals in the craft world with a host of experience at their fingertips.

You'll have 10 minutes per question, and subject to space, there will be the opportunity to sign up to speak to more than one person. So get thinking about what you need to know. Check out the advisor biographies below to see who is most likely to be able to give you the information you need and come prepared with a few questions that could help to take your business forward.

Jane Dzisiewski
Jane Dzisiewski is a studio jeweller. She originally trained at MMU in printed textile design, then went on to run two businesses importing and supplying promotional clothing and merchandise, returning to college to study applied arts after she sold these on. Alongside her craft practice, Jane also works as a digital media, marketing consultant and is frequently invited to deliver artist talks on developing a brand with no budget.

Eve Redmond
Eve Redmond graduated from Central St Martins College of Art & Design in London in 1993. She is based in Manchester Craft & Design Centre where she sells her handmade collections and creates one off pieces for commissions and exhibitions. She has established a reputation for fresh & innovative jewellery. Contemporary but classic, she creates jewellery that embodies simplicity and strength. She divides her time between her studio and teaching at The Manchester College where she is Course Leader in Jewellery.

Nell Smith
Nell Smith is an award winning surface designer, creating fresh, modern work by hand using a variety of techniques. Specialising in screenprint, her bright, eye catching designs adorn a variety of products from organic cotton children’s clothing to contemporary works on paper.

Since graduating from MMU's MA Textiles course in 2008, she has been running her business from a studio at the Manchester Craft and Design Centre. She also teaches and leads workshops and she is always happy to accept commissions and loves to create designs based on customer's favourite animals.

Jo Hartley
Joe Hartley is a designer.  In 2012 he graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in Three Dimensional Design.  He now work from his workshop in Manchester where he uses his hands to produce objects from wood, cloth and clay. The things he makes are the result of an interest in day-to-day tasks.

Beth Hughes
At Lakeland Arts Beth is a curator at both Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal and Blackwell, The Arts & Crafts House in Bowness-on-Windermere. At Blackwell Beth has curated a number of contemporary craft exhibitions including New Glass – Ancient Skill, Contemporary Artform, a partnership exhibition with the Contemporary Glass Society and a major exhibition of ceramics by Danish artist, Bodil Manz.

Sam Rhodes
Same Rhodes is Assistant director of the Bluecoat Display Centre. Situated in the heart of Liverpool, the Bluecoat Display Centre is a haven for enthusiasts of everything exquisite in the field of contemporary craft and design.
The Bluecoat Display Centre is a nationally and internationally recognised contemporary craft and design gallery that has been established since 1959. They sell, exhibit and promote over 350 selected contemporary craftspeople each year working in a broad variety of media.

Clare Knox-Bentham
Clare Knox Bentham creates illustrative installations in bright-coloured plastic using heat-extruded EVA and lacquer. She also creates jewellery which alludes to precious lacquerwork, moulding to the body and blurring the line between liquid and solid. Clare also manages Marketplace Studios in Stockport, an incubator community for new creative businesses of Manchester School of Art graduates. 

Ann Marie Franey
Ann-Marie Franey is co-founder/director of the award winning Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair and its spin off the Little Northern Contemporary Craft Fair.  She set up Great Northern Events with business partner Angela Mann over 8 yrs ago. Since then they have built up the GNCCF into one of the leading shows in the UK and are key players in the North West craft scene.  Not only can Ann-Marie offer advice on setting up in business but she has a wealth of knowledge to share on making a success of your craft enterprise, giving you advice on how to get your work selected for leading events and galleries, marketing your work, building up your PR and profile and of course selling your work to the public.  

Harriet Lawton
Through the exploration of ceramic and textiles, Harriet Lawton’s practice highlights the beauty of objects, in particular china mementoes.  Contemporary interpretations of traditional patterning, her design pieces and objects feature remediated marks, patterns and motifs taken from various cultures and eras. Harriet graduated from Embroidery at Manchester School of Art in 2013, and has since completed commissions for The Whitworth’s Tactile Too archive and Wakefield Museum’s “Artists in the Atrium”.  

Emma Blackburn

Emma creates contemporary interventions with museum collections and their audiences. Recent projects include 3D textile works responding to Helmshore Mills Textile Museum: ‘The War and The Weft’ exhibition, and ‘The Great Peoples Poppy’ for a Mid Pennine Arts event called 'Truce’. Emma is currently seeking Arts Council Funding to support an exciting residency at the Lancashire Conservation Studios, Preston.

Click here for an overview of the day, speakers, who it's aimed at, and fees

To book your place, click here

Organised by the North West Craft Network in partnership with the Whitworth Art Gallery and Manchester Craft and Design Centre

The Julian Francis Collection of prints and illustrated books at MMU Special Collections

Image and Word

The Julian Francis Collection of Prints and Illustrated Books

19 January – 27 March 2015

This exhibition of 50 prints and 50 illustrated books has been selected from the highly regarded collection of Julian Francis and spans a period of eight decades, starting from the end of the First World War, with an emphasis on the interwar period. The exhibition highlights the use of creative printmaking in both commercial and private presses and explores how artists work differently when creating wall-mounted pieces and book illustrations. Significant, and less well-known, artists are represented including Edward Ardizzone, John Farleigh, Barnett Freedman, Lucian Freud, Eric Gill, Enid Marx, Agnes Miller Parker, John and Paul Nash, John O’Connor, and Eric Ravilious.

Also on display will be a selection of material from the artists’ archives held at MMU Special Collections, giving further and unique insights into the artistic practices of some of these key figures in British art of the last 100 years.           

Image: Cover design and illustration by Barnett Freedman for Memoirs of an Infantry Officer by Siegfried Sassoon, Faber & Faber, 1931. © Estate of Barnett Freedman.

FREE ADMISSION

Opening Times

Monday - Friday  10am-4pm

Thursday  10am - 7pm

Saturday  12noon - 4pm

MMU Special Collections

Manchester Metropolitan University 

Sir Kenneth Green Library

All Saints

Manchester

M15 6BH  

www.specialcollections.mmu.ac.uk

MMU Special Collections are part of the North West Craft Network.

Buy authentic handmade craft gifts this Christmas in the North West!

Ring by Chris Boland at Little Northern Contemporary Craft Fair

Christmas is a wonderful thing, but it can feel a bit, well.....commercial.  Duck out of it all and you risk being branded an Ebernezer. Embrace it wholeheartedly and you feel a bit like a part of your soul is sucked into a black hole with every purchase.

But there are ways to negotiate the line between abstention and submitting totally to the siren call of the beautiful but treacherous consumer monster.

Buying handmade crafts is one way to do that. Crafts offer some of the most gorgeous and original gift ideas at any time, from jewellery to toys to gifts for the home. Plus by buying locally you support an artist, boost your local economy and pump energy into your community.

So circumnavigate the Christmas gift trap by buying local craft. What could be lovelier than buying something unique, handmade and buzzing with authenticity for your nearest and dearest? I think that's what you call a win-win situation.

The North West has many brilliant makers and plenty of places to buy their work. Here are just a few:

Little Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, 7 December 2014 at Altrincham Grammar School for Boys
An off-shoot of the wonderful Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair

Available at the Atkinson, Southport

The Atkinson, Southport
Their shop sells a range of delightful crafts for all ages

Manchester Craft and Design Centre

The Craft Shop at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester

Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool

Blackwell House - Cumbria
Sells lovely crafts in their shop  - all in the setting of a brilliant Arts and Crafts House. Part of Lakeland Arts

Gawthorpe Textiles Collection - Padiham, near Burnley
Closed for winter at the moment, but they sell fabulous knitting patterns inspired by the collections online via their Ravlery shop at any time. Great for the crafters in your life!

Harris Museum and Art Gallery,  Preston
Features a selection of small-scale craft pieces in their shop, usually by Preston-based makers


The NW Craft Network aims to promote and strengthen high quality craft in the North West. For more about the Network, click 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

Christmas Shopping launch at Manchester Craft and Design Centre

What if we all brought authentic, handcrafted gifts by talented North West makers this Christmas? The world - and certainly the North West - may well be a better place!  What's more, it's all laid on for us by wonderful people such as Manchester Craft and Design Centre.

They invite you to join them at Manchester Craft & Design Centre on 22 November, 2-5pm for the start of their Christmas season.

They've got the always-amazing Northern Quarter Boys Choir providing a festive backdrop of carols and feel-good tunes, free mulled wine & mince pies, a craft activity for all ages and seasonal specials at Oak St. Café.

Mmmmmmm. What's not to love?

Manchester Craft and Design Centre is a member of the North West Craft Network

Material Matters at MMU Special Collections Gallery

IMAGE: © Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections

22 September – 12 December 2014

Material Matters is an exhibition that looks at how different materials have been used in art, craft and design over the centuries and across cultures. Historic objects from MMU Special Collections will illustrate how the choice of material changes how we shape and utilise objects; how the use of some materials hasn’t changed over centuries; and how new materials impact on object design and development.

To complement the historic collections, contemporary work by makers from the Manchester School of Art who work in both traditional and new materials is included, showing the ongoing importance of materiality to the artist and designer, and how far materials give expression to their work.

FREE ADMISSION

Opening Times
Monday – Friday  10am-4pm
Thursday  10am-7pm
Saturday  12noon – 4pm


MMU Special Collections Gallery
3rd Floor, Sir Kenneth Green Library
Manchester Metropolitan University
All Saints
Manchester
M15 6BH

Tel: 0161 247 6107
lib-spec-coll@mmu.ac.uk
www.specialcollections.mmu.ac.uk
@MMUSpecial

MMU Special Collections is a member of the North West Craft Network

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

Tim Milne of Artomatic talks at MMU Special Collections

PHYSICALITY is a language…The most powerful communications tool is what you don’t think about

As part of the Design Manchester 14 Festival, Tim Milne, of ARTOMATIC, will be talking objects and materiality in the Material Matters exhibition at MMU Special Collections on October 29th October at 12.00 and 2.00pm 

ARTOMATIC helps companies and agencies talk to their customers through the human language of objects and physicality. We devise, create and/or manufacture physical objects that tell stories.

The talks are free but spaces are limited. To book click here 

Programmed as part of Design Manchester 14

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