Keynote SpeakerProfessor Daniel Charny
Director, Forth Together CIC
Professor Daniel Charny is an educator, consultant and curator with an enquiring mind and an entrepreneurial streak.
He is founder-director at Forth – a community interest company that believe in the power of creativity as a tool for social change. It is also the home for the international Fixperts learning programme. Charny is best known as curator of the popular exhibition Power of Making at the V&A Museum. Other projects include the Maker Library Network with the British Council. Charny is a member of The Design Museum curatorial committee and is Professor of Design at Kingston School of Art.
In Opening Keynote: Community vs. Network, Professor Daniel Charny will discuss what he has learnt and unlearnt about communities and making over the last 20 years.
Thursday 23 September 2021, book via Eventbrite (Sliding Scale available).
Image: Photography by Andy Dunn
Keynote SpeakerNamita Gupta Wiggers
Director, MA in Critical Craft Studies, Warren Wilson College
Namita Gupta Wiggers is a curator, educator, and writer based in Portland, Oregon. She is the founding Director of the Master of Arts in Critical Craft Studies at Warren Wilson College, North Carolina, a low-residency program focused on craft histories and theory.
Wiggers leads Critical Craft Forum, an online and onsite platform for dialogue and exchange about craft, including an active Facebook Group. From 2004-14, Wiggers served as the curator and Director (2012-14) at the Museum of Contemporary Craft. Wiggers serves on the Creative Time Think Tank, the Board of Directors of Haystack Mountain School of Craft, Maine, and is an editor-at-large, Crafts (UK).
Namita Gupta Wiggers will be our Final Keynote Speaker, and will discuss communities in craft from her perspective as a curator and educator.
Thursday 28 October 2021, book via Eventbrite (Sliding Scale available).
SpeakerDr Karen Patel
Research Fellow, Birmingham City University
Dr Karen Patel is a research fellow at Birmingham City University. Her work focuses on issues around diversity, inequalities and the politics of expertise in cultural work. She is also interested in the use of social media in cultural work.
Karen currently leads the Craft Expertise project, a 4-year AHRC Innovation Fellowship with Crafts Council UK looking at inequalities in craft. She is the author of Politics of Expertise: Culture, Work and Inequalities (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020) and co-editor of Craft Entrepreneurship (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020).
In Researching Craft & Communities, Dr Karen Patel will join Dr Stephen Knott and Dr Justin Marshall as they share their insights into craft communities in the UK, China and India in a panel discussion hosted by Lauren Baker.
Thursday 7 October, book via Eventbrite (Sliding Scale available).
SpeakerDr Stephen Knott
Senior Lecturer, Critical and Historical Studies, Kingston University
Dr Stephen Knott is a writer, researcher and lecturer in craft theory and history, with a particular focus on everyday making, amateur craft and contemporary craft practice.
He lectures at Kingston University and is one of the editors of The Journal of Modern Craft. He is the author of Amateur Craft: History and Theory (Bloomsbury, 2015), and has written articles and reviews for Design and Culture, Performance Research, West 86th, Crafts and Ceramic Review. In 2018 Stephen curated Tendenser at Galleri F15 in Moss, Norway, a showcase of contemporary craft, and edited the accompanying catalogue, and he is co-curator for Presence and Absence at the Crafts Study Centre (2021-22), an exhibition that responds to the lack of diversity within its collections.
In Researching Craft & Communities, Dr Stephen Knott, will join Dr Karen Patel and Dr Justin Marshall, as they share their insights into craft communities in the UK, China and India in a panel discussion hosted by Lauren Baker.
Thursday 7 October, book via Eventbrite (Sliding Scale available).
Dr Stephen Knott will also be in conversation with Edmund Le Brun and Deirdre Nelson for Empowering Communities, to discuss different approaches to working with and empowering communities, in the UK and beyond, that are facing challenges.
Thursday 28 October 2021, book via Eventbrite (Sliding Scale available).
SpeakerDr Justin Marshall
Associate Professor of Design, Northumbria University
Dr Justin Marshall is an Associate Professor of Design at Northumbria University. His work is concerned with the role of digital tools within craft practice, in terms of aesthetic opportunities and in its implications for how we frame our understanding and use of technology.
More broadly, he is interested in how craft, as a materially sensitive and human-centred practice can have value in multidisciplinary research projects that investigate areas beyond the normal scope of craft practitioners. He is currently Principal Investigator on a 33-month RCUK funded project entitled: HiCraft-Crafting a Healthier Internet: People, Things and our Digital Society.
In Researching Craft & Communities, Dr Justin Marshall will join Dr Karen Patel and Dr Stephen Knott as they share their insights into craft communities in the UK, China and India in a panel discussion hosted by Lauren Baker.
Thursday 7 October, book via Eventbrite (Sliding Scale available).
Dr Justin Marshall will also host Engaging Communities through Craft, a conversation between Deirdre Figueiredo MBE and Professor Fiona Hackney, with an audience Q&A.
Thursday 21 October 2021, book via Eventbrite (Sliding Scale available).
Lauren Baker
Researcher, Craft Business & Creative Economy, DJCAD
Lauren Baker recently submitted her doctoral thesis at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD), University of Dundee. As a part of the Scottish Graduate School of Arts & Humanities (SGSAH) creative economy knowledge hub, Lauren’s research explored the role of organisational programmes in the development of the entrepreneurial craft profiles of makers in Scotland.
Originally trained as a textile designer, Lauren has worked in both public and private arts organisations, with an interest in reimagining the relationship between grassroots creative action and public infrastructure. Lauren lives in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where she spends as much time as she can visiting beaches, woodlands, and tending to a yard full of strawberry plants.
Lauren Baker will host the panel discussion Researching Craft & Communities, in which Dr Stephen Knott, Dr Karen Patel and Dr Justin Marshall will share their insights into craft communities in the UK, China and India.
Thursday 7 October, book via Eventbrite (Sliding Scale available).
SpeakerDeirdre Figueiredo, MBE
Director, Craftspace
Deirdre Figueiredo, MBE, is Director of Craftspace, a leading craft development organisation and creative producer creating opportunities to see, make and be curious about exceptional contemporary craft.
Craftspace positions makers to take an active role in civil society. It connects creative practice with diverse communities of interest and place through a range of activities and partnerships. These include touring exhibitions, cross art form productions, participatory projects and research. The programme is underpinned by socially engaged, collaborative and co-created approaches to engaging communities through the arts. Building community (through cultural, social and human capital) is the key driver of the work.
Engaging Communities through Craft will be a conversation between Deirdre Figueiredo MBE and Professor Fiona Hackney, hosted by Dr Justin Marshall, and followed by an audience Q&A.
Thursday 21 October 2021, book via Eventbrite (Sliding Scale available).
SpeakerProfessor Fiona Hackney
Professor, Fashion Cultures, Manchester Metropolitan University
Fiona Hackney, Professor of Fashion Cultures, Manchester Metropolitan University, is a design historian and practice-based researcher who examines the agencies of crafting and co-production (creation) as social design.
Partnership and community working are central to her approach and she has worked with third sector partners, in particular Craftspace, and community groups on many Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded projects examining the value and challenges of creative making. Recent publications include Stitching a Sensibility for Sustainable Clothing: Quiet activism, affect and community agency (2020) and Changing the World Not Just our Wardrobes: A Sensibility for Sustainable Clothing, Care and Quiet Activism (2021).
Engaging Communities through Craft will be a conversation between Deirdre Figueiredo MBE and Professor Fiona Hackney, hosted by Dr Justin Marshall, and followed by an audience Q&A.
Thursday 21 October 2021, book via Eventbrite (Sliding Scale available).
SpeakerEdmund Le Brun
Co-founder, ISHKAR
Edmund Le Brun and Flore de Taisne set up ISHKAR after living in Afghanistan for three years. In 2018 they were listed on Forbes 30 under 30 list for their achievements in social enterprise.
ISHKAR is a social enterprise and travel company that partner with communities across the world including Afghanistan, Yemen, Mali and Iraq. Real and imagined barriers have isolated countries like these countries from international trade and tourism. The result is that pathways to some of the world's most extraordinary places, people and cultures have narrowed, or in some cases, disappeared altogether. They seek to restore these pathways once again through a unique blend of travel, craftsmanship and storytelling. By doing so they hope to change one-sided narratives, while creating economic opportunities where they are desperately needed.
Edmund Le Brun and Deirdre Nelson will be in conversation with Dr Stephen Knott for Empowering Communities, to discuss different approaches to working with and empowering communities, in the UK and beyond, that are facing challenges.
Thursday 28 October 2021, book via Eventbrite (Sliding Scale available).
Image courtesy of ISHKAR
SpeakerDeirdre Nelson
Artist
Deirdre Nelson is a maker creating textiles which explore humour, place and social history. She partners traditional techniques with contemporary processes such as digital print in creating work not only to be exhibited but on artist residencies, within education and community projects. Resulting works cross over art, design and craft. She enables the communities she works with to explore social and environmental issues through making. Collaborating with creatives such as architects, musicians and writers allows me to create and produce diverse projects.
Edmund Le Brun and Deirdre Nelson will be in conversation with Dr Stephen Knott for Empowering Communities, to discuss different approaches to working with and empowering communities, in the UK and beyond, that are facing challenges.
Thursday 28 October 2021, book via Eventbrite (Sliding Scale available).
