The Crafts Council is currently working with engage, to raise the profile of craft within museums and galleries across the UK. Jo Saunders reports.
As part of a major three-year regional programme, supported by the largest single grant awarded to an arts organisation by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Crafts Council is launching several projects to support craft development in three regions: the North East, West Midlands and South West of England. One of the initiatives programmed for 2006 is enabling engage, the National Association for Gallery Education, to expand its highly successful Making Connections seminar series to encompass the particular requirements and benefits of working with craft in museum and gallery education. Now in its fourth year, Making Connections provides continuing professional development for early-career museum and gallery education professionals, teachers, artists, makers and educators.
The development of craft within museum and gallery education is a vital part of the Crafts Councils aim to ignite a lifelong passion for craft among people of all backgrounds, ages and abilities and to develop the makers, curators, customers and educators of the future. Museums and galleries are central to this work, not only in presenting and selling contemporary craft objects, but through interpretation and education programmes that offer first-hand experience of the makers, materials and processes of 21st century craft. Through the projects and programmes offered by museum and gallery education programmes, audiences become more confident in their understanding and enjoyment of the visual arts. By integrating contemporary craft in these programmes, with its themes of materials, process, design and function, audiences can be assisted in relating objects in galleries to objects in their daily lives. Equally, familiarity with the materials of everyday objects provides audiences with a natural vocabulary with which to explore contemporary craft.
An understanding of craft materials and processes also offers a route to interpreting objects from historic and ethnographic collections. Knowledge of how an object has been made and how the materials might feel to use, enables audiences to discover more about the original environment, context and use of that object. Not only can contemporary makers offer understanding and experience of the way things are made, they can also offer their own 21st-century interpretation by producing new work in response to objects in museum and gallery collections. Interpretation and information can also be produced in the form of handling objects, or technique-demonstration videos can be commissioned from makers.
Making museum and gallery collections accessible offers many opportunities to work with contemporary craft. Craft has traditions in every culture of the world with processes, materials, tools and even designs being recognisable across barriers of language, culture or religion. Understanding of craft is not solely reliant on theorising or knowledge of one particular history but comes from a range of learning experiences that combine physical activity with intellectual investigation. Working with contemporary makers as educators can offer audiences the opportunity to learn a wide range of practical making skills that are popular with young and old. Learning practical skills from a person who lives by making and selling their own products can re-engage audiences by bringing to life the world of the maker. For museums and galleries committed to access and inclusion there is evidence that the learning experience offered by craft of physically working through a practical problem and producing a finished object enables the widest range of learners to realise their creative potential.
Museums and galleries are natural partners for the Crafts Council and its aim to embed contemporary craft in formal and informal education. engages 2006 Making Connections programme is intended to generate enthusiasm and confidence in museum and gallery educators and freelance artist educators to work in an innovative way with contemporary craft and makers. Open to educators, makers, artists and teachers in the early stages of their careers, the Making Connections seminar series offers the opportunity to build knowledge, discuss ideas, learn from established professionals, make contacts and discover a range of gallery locations.
Jo Saunders is Education Manager at the Crafts Council.
t: 020 7806 2528;
e: education@craftscouncil.org.uk;
w: http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk.
For information on the Making Connections series,
t: 020 7244 0110;
e: emma.boyd@engage.org;
w: http://www.engage.org