The Crafts Council was established in the United Kingdom in 1971 as the national agency for crafts and was granted a Royal Charter

Royal Charter

A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...

 in 1982. The Crafts Council’s vision is to position the UK as the global centre for the making, seeing and collecting of contemporary craft. Central to this vision is increasing the breadth and depth of the sector and its audiences and the Crafts Council will seek to make itself the UK’s first port of call for craft

Craft

A craft is a branch of a profession that requires some particular kind of skilled work. In historical sense, particularly as pertinent to the Medieval history and earlier, the term is usually applied towards people occupied in small-scale production of goods.-Development from the past until...

.

Crafts Council projects

• Two annual major selling events - Origin, the London Craft Fair which shows makers from the UK and abroad. COLLECT, a major annual event to introduce buyers and collectors to selected international galleries of contemporary craft.
• A major collaboration with the V&A including a triennial exhibition promoting contemporary craft.
• A partnership with Ofsted through a series of teacher conferences, and working with the Qualifications Curriculum Authority to promote contemporary craft in the curriculum.
• A partnership with the Creative and Cultural Skills Council to progress career paths and professional development for makers and craft professionals.
• A Esmée Fairbairn Foundation funded three year programme in three regions, North East, West Midlands and South West providing support to new makers through the Next Move programme, professional development for makers, and support to craft retailers.
• Support to makers through ongoing Development Awards, Next Move programme and professional development forum.

Within the Crafts Council resources is Photostore an online gallery including The Index of Makers; selected contemporary makers by a Crafts Council panel across a spectrum of crafts including basket weaving, ceramics, fine metal work, lettering, glassblowing, textiles, furniture and weaving.

• Publishes bi-monthly magazine, Crafts, the magazine for contemporary craft

External links

• Crafts Council website
• Crafts magazine website
• Crafts Council entry on Culture24 Retrieved 9 December 2009.
• Ablestable-Magazines