Maker’s Eye: Stories of Craft

This exhibition has now ended.

Maker’s Eye: Stories of Craft was the first exhibition in the new Crafts Council Gallery. It celebrated the breadth, diversity and qualities of craft with a showcase of more than 150 craft objects made in the UK over the last 50 years.

This exhibition was curated by 13 makers, putting their diverse views on craft and making at its centre. Together, they represented a cross-section of craft interests, disciplines, career stages and models of practice. We asked them to select up to 15 objects in response to the brief: “What does craft look like and mean to you?”.

In Summer 2020 we invited curator Dr Christine Checinska to consider what was missing. Her selection of works by contemporary makers played tribute to the founding ethos of the collection – to document innovative practices by emerging makers. Her additions helped animate conversations about the value of collections, what history is documented, what stories are told, who they are for, and who decides what is in them.

After a year during which craft became ever more present in our lives and more of us turned to craft as a source of solace and activity during the pandemic, this dazzling array of more than 150 craft objects and the multiple viewpoints on craft and its meaning, could not have been more timely.

Maker's Eye was kindly supported by Art Fund and TM Lighting.

Selectors

Assemble (Amica Dall & Giles Smith)
Michael Brennand-Wood
Caroline Broadhead
Neil Brownsword
Dr Christine Checinska
John Grayson
Ineke Hans
Angela James
Michael Marriott
James Maskrey
Freddie Robins
Matt Smith
Esna Su
Simone ten Hompel

Works by each of the maker-selectors can also be found in the Crafts Council Collection.