Collaboration, mutuality and community: producing and consuming contemporary craft

This project is designed to explore insights from four intersecting AHRC projects that addressed twentieth and contemporary cultures of craft practice and policy. Craft practice is currently part of the contemporary zeitgeist. Practices of DIY, knitting, up-cycling, sewing, hacking have become responses to austerity, environmental crisis and anti-capitalist actions. Government figures document that 102,000 people work within the craft sector, who together contributed £248 million Gross Value Added to the UK economy in 2012 (DCSM 2014). Trade and industry sees the celebration of 'Best of British' with small scale, bespoke or handcrafted batch production growing in market share, for an audience who eschew mass production and values the 'heritage' of British skilled labour. Practitioners producing hand crafted objects have unprecedented outlets to sell their work at festivals, studio tours or online, in addition to the traditional gallery or commission opportunities. Craft is again 'of the moment', but these moments carry with them the politics of past generations of practitioners and enthusiasts, who share skills, values and experience. Within the research undertaken, 'craft' has gathered as a complex assemblage of relations.

The research undertaken sees craft within a circuit of production and consumption, where people, policy, materials, political ethos, skill, time, place, money, makers and buyers combine. The proposed activities within this follow-on-fund aim to bring into relief this nexus of mutuality that underscores the creative economy. The Crafts Council, the Devon Guild of Craftsmen and the Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen are working in partnership with Dr Thomas, University of Exeter to co-design three activities that illuminate different elements of the assemblage of the contemporary craft economy.

Activity 1: 'Celebrate: 60 Years of Connecting Makers and Consumers through Craft', delivered in partnership with the Devon Guild of Craftsmen
A nine-month exhibition, retail and online campaign that uses the Guild's diamond anniversary to explore the history of the Guild through the 'social lives' of crafted objects made by members of the Guild, past and present. The concept draws attention to the intersection between the Guild's function of connecting designer-makers to audiences through the outputs of skilled labour. The activities follow the stories of the objects as they pass through layers of ownership and develop attachments and stories that transcend the 'hand' of the original maker.

Activity 2: 'Making collaborations: Making Connections', delivered in partnership with the Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen
An online and touring exhibition that focuses on the Guild as an expanded community of practice and interest to reveal the everyday relations of mutuality that underpin creative endeavors. Dr Thomas' research explored the hidden histories of the Guild, for example the role of peer, family or customer support in supporting designer maker's enterprise. The research will be used to present an alternative history of the Guild, and trigger a community orientated history that explores the organisation's cooperative ethos. The history will be given a forward orientation as ten pairs of Guild member collaborate and produce new work for an associated touring exhibition that illuminates the ongoing politics and practices of cooperation.

Activity 3: 'Making policy: Researcher in Residence', delivered in partnership with the Crafts Council
Dr Thomas will be seconded to the Crafts Council to work with the Research and Policy team. She will contribute to the Crafts Council's strategic objectives by contributing evidence based research and knowledge to support the Crafts Council's mission to chart and anticipate economic, social, cultural and political trends in craft. Multi-media resources and briefings will be created to disseminate the research findings to audiences within the creative industries.

1. Stakeholders of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen and Gloucestershire Guilds of Craftsmen: crafts practitioners, public audiences, customers and employees
The proposed activities enhance the ability of the organisations to offer cultural enrichment to their audiences in their mission to promote contemporary craft. Activities offer innovative ways to showcase the heritage of the Guilds and to communicate the ethos of craft practice. Activities 1 and 2 are designed to promote the work of Guild members (past and present) and to encourage deeper engagements between a practitioner and audience. It is anticipated that the strategies of engagement may provide a commercial outcome of increased retail sales (UK and international). The opportunities within Activity 2 will open opportunities for new collaboration, innovation and the development of new work.

2. Crafts Council, enhancing staff & policy work, and their creative sector audiences
Throughout her research, Dr Thomas has developed a new relationship with the Crafts Council. This has led to an enhanced understanding about the cultural geography/creative policy dimensions of the research and how this connects to the Crafts Council's mission. The Crafts Council routinely works with BIS and DCMS. Rosy Greenlees, Executive Director of the Crafts Council is President of World Crafts Council - Europe and leads debates at in international level. The secondment opportunity (Activity 3) allows Dr Thomas to contribute towards evidence based policy making and influencing public policies and legislation at a national and international level. The secondment aims to enhance the research capacity, knowledge and skills of Crafts Council staff. The Crafts Council's communication channels will be used to feed out to the sector specific audiences.

3. Guild-like organisations; arts sector professionals; creative industry policy audiences; advocacy bodies supporting the sector
Existing engagement activities with an international body of organisations demonstrate there is a wide interest in learning from the detail of the existing research. The resilience and organisational history of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen and the Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen has been recognized as valuable learning for the sector. A need to develop industry specific publications that allow greater contemplation of the research has been requested by, for example, SW Arts Council; UK Crafts Council; American Crafts Council; Heritage Crafts Association. The development of new, sector specific outputs, through a web based reporting platform that incorporates written, film and podcasts allows for broader international exchange of ideas. These will be developed with the Crafts Council.

4. Public audiences with interests in arts and crafts
There continues to be a strong niche international public interest in contemporary arts and crafts practice and associated history (e.g. 2014 Art Fund runner-up Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft; 2014 Tate British Folk Art and Channel 4 'Monty Dons Real Craft'). Optimizing search engine capabilities to enable audiences looking for histories of the arts and crafts movement in the South West to explore the hidden history of the Guilds will be pursued. Connecting makers and consumers as part of the future looking heritage of the Guild is a priority. Activities 1 and 2 allow for audiences to explore the current and historical work of designer-makers in the South West.

5. Bow Software and Duck on Water are the proposed digital output technology providers. Activity 1 and 2 both use technological solution developed in partnership with these specialist software designers. The development of the software solution enables staff within Bow Software and Duck on Water to gain new skills and expertise in working within the craft and heritage sector; applying their specialist knowledge to a new project and will be able to use the products as a portfolio to attract new business.