Craft Expertise - Project Update and Working Paper - February 2021
by Dr Karen Patel
Project update and second working paper - February 2021
On Tuesday February 16th 2021 we held an online event for this project in which I presented further findings from the research, gathered some more ideas for action to address inequalities in craft. You can watch my research presentation portion of the event below.
The presentation highlights the challenges faced by women makers of colour in the UK craft sector, including racism and microaggressions, barriers in craft education and pressure from their families to pursue seemingly more ‘stable’ careers than craft. These findings are detailed in the second working paper from this project, which you can download here. The working paper includes more evidence and findings from the second half of the project, and is aimed at a non-academic audience.
The research presentation was followed by a short ideas generation session using Padlet. I asked attendees at the event to post their ideas for addressing some the issues raised in the research. Many great ideas were submitted which I will review and incorporate into developing policy recommendations, in collaboration with Crafts Council.
In the final part of the event we got to hear from some fantastic craft artists we are commissioning as part of this project. We have asked five craft artists from around the UK to produce a piece of work which relates to the project themes of diversity and inequalities in craft, and we hope to exhibit the work later this year.
I would like to thank everyone who participated in this event, particularly Deirdre Figueiredo from Craftspace for chairing the event, and to the artists Shaheen Ahmed, Lorna Hamilton-Brown, Francisca Onumah, Omeima Mudawi-Rowlings and Onome Otite for presenting their ideas. Finally thanks to Crafts Council for organising.
A final report from this project and policy recommendations will be published this summer, and we hope to share work in progress from the commissioned artists.
To stay updated you can
- visit the project website
- follow the project Instagram account @craftexpertiseresearch
- follow me on Twitter @KarenPatel.
