Crafts

A heritage project to explore, celebrate and preserve the heritage crafts of refugee and asylum seeker communities in Rochdale will go ahead after securing funding. 

Cartwheel Arts has been awarded a £92,340 grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) to deliver Crafting Heritage in collaboration with Rochdale Borough Council and a network of local partner organisations.

The project expects to delve into traditional heritage crafts such as Ukrainian folk art, Islamic geometric patterns, Arabic calligraphy and textiles including weaving, sewing and embroidery.

Outcomes will be documented and archived at arts and heritage centre Touchstones Rochdale, with a final celebration event planned at the venue in 2025.

As part of the project, Cartwheel Arts will offer a fully paid eight-week training placement for four emerging craftspeople in the area with experience of forced migration.

The trainees will deliver a programme of crafting sessions within local primary schools.

“We are passionate about preserving and disseminating the diverse heritage crafts of Rochdale’s migrant communities and are keen to provide an opportunity for the development and sharing of heritage crafts within local schools,” Helen Featherstone, NLHF Director, England, North said.

“Crafting Heritage not only represents a ground-breaking means of preserving and sharing these rich traditions within local schools but will also forge dynamic partnerships on both local and national fronts to bring this vision to life. 

“We expect this project will leave an enduring and profound mark on all those who join us on this exciting journey.”

Cathedral York Minster has launched an appeal to raise £4m towards a new centre for ancient craft skills. 

The Centre of Excellence for Heritage Craft Skills will focus on traditional crafts such as stonemasonry and glaziery - skills neeeded to preserve the minster, which was built between 1220 and 1472. 

The original budget for the centre was expected to be £5m, but rising costs mean it is now likely to be closer to £9m.

York Minster is one of 10 English cathedrals to have its own stonemasonry department.

Neil Sanderson, Director of the York Minster Fund, said creating the centre would offer "long-term sustainable benefits both financially, and in the maintenance of heritage skills to York Minster, the heritage community, and the wider city".

Two arts projects focusing on forestry and sustainability in Scotland have received National Lottery support in the recent round of Creative Scotland’s Open Fund awards.

A large-scale public artwork by artist Colin Andrews will involve planting oak trees across Fife to create a ‘future forest’. As part of the project, called Akin, 200 nine-year-old oak trees will be replanted across the region during 2023.

Andrews grew the trees from acorns he originally gathered in Fife in 2013. The trees will be gifted to 200 individuals, families, community groups, institutions and businesses who will plant and take care of them.

Andrews said: “Beyond the environmental and wellbeing implications of creating a forest of the future, the more immediate and direct intention of creating a symbolic, dispersed woodland is to engage communities in individual acts of nurture and stewardship, in a collective act of empowerment, commitment and sustainability.” 

A second project produced in partnership by the Scottish Furniture Makers Association, Scottish Forestry and the Association of Scottish Hardwood Sawmillers aims to highlight and showcase Scottish ash.

In 2024, the ‘Ash Rise!’ touring exhibition and outreach programme will shine a light on ash’s use for furniture making and other crafts, while also educating the public about the devastating impact of ash dieback disease.

Visual artists and craft makers in Scotland can now apply for bursaries to put towards their creative development.

The Visual Artist and Craft Maker Awards (VACMA) offers fixed bursaries of £500 and £750 to artists at all stages of their career to develop their creative practice.

Funded by Creative Scotland, the scheme is managed locally by VACMA partners, and is available in 25 of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas, with £130,000 available in total.

Head of Visual Arts at Creative Scotland Amanda Catto said the funding will enable artists and makers to test new ideas, develop their skills and generate work.

“We are delighted that we have so many partners working with us to deliver the programme which generates such important, long-lasting benefits to the creative people working in their local area.” 

Applications for a first wave of funding will close 25 October, with the deadline for a second round scheduled for 7 February 2023.