Collaboration, mutuality and community: producing and consuming contemporary craft

该项目旨在探索AHRC四个交叉项目的见解，这些项目涉及20世纪和当代的手工艺、实践和政策文化。手艺实践目前是当代时代精神的一部分。DIY、编织、升级、缝纫、砍头的做法已经成为对紧缩、环境危机和反资本主义行动的回应。政府数据显示，有102,000人在手工艺行业工作，他们在2012年为英国经济贡献了2.48亿GB的总附加值(DCSM 2014)。工商界认为，小规模、定制或手工批量生产的市场份额越来越大，对那些回避大规模生产并珍视英国熟练工人的“传统”的观众来说，庆祝“英国最好的产品”的活动越来越多。除了传统的画廊或委托机会外，生产手工制品的从业者拥有前所未有的渠道，可以在节日、工作室之旅或在线上销售他们的作品。手工艺再次成为当下的潮流，但这些时刻承载着过去几代从业者和爱好者的政治，他们分享着技能、价值观和经验。在所进行的研究中，“手艺”被聚集为一个复杂的关系集合。所进行的研究认为，手工艺存在于生产和消费的循环中，人、政策、材料、政治风气、技能、时间、地点、金钱、制造商和买家都结合在一起。在这一后续行动基金内拟议的活动旨在揭示这种强调创意经济的相互联系。手工艺理事会、德文郡工匠行会和格洛斯特郡工匠行会正在与埃克塞特大学的托马斯博士合作，共同设计三项活动，阐明当代手工艺经济的不同元素。活动1：与德文工匠行会合作举办的活动1：庆祝：通过手工艺将制造商和消费者联系在一起的60周年活动为期九个月的展览、零售和在线活动，通过行会成员制作的手工艺品的社会生活，过去和现在来探索行会的历史。这一概念提请注意行业协会通过熟练劳动力的产出将设计师与观众联系起来的职能之间的交集。活动2：与格洛斯特郡工匠协会合作举办的活动2：与格洛斯特郡工匠协会合作举办的在线和巡回展览，重点关注该协会作为一个扩大的实践和兴趣社区的活动，揭示支撑创造性努力的相互关系的日常关系。托马斯博士的研究探索了工会隐藏的历史，例如，同行、家庭或客户支持在支持设计师制造商企业方面的作用。这项研究将被用来呈现公会的另一种历史，并引发一种以社区为导向的历史，探索该组织的合作精神。随着十对行会成员合作并为相关的巡回展览制作新作品，历史将被赋予前瞻性的方向，该展览将阐明正在进行的政治和合作实践。活动3：“制定政策：常驻研究员”，与手工艺理事会合作完成，Thomas博士将被借调到手工艺理事会，与研究和政策小组合作。她将通过提供基于证据的研究和知识来为手工艺理事会的战略目标做出贡献，以支持手工艺理事会绘制和预测手工艺领域的经济、社会、文化和政治趋势的使命。我们会利用多媒体资源和简报会，向创意产业的观众宣传研究结果。

This project is designed to explore insights from four intersecting AHRC projects that addressed twentieth and contemporary cultures of craft practice and policy. Craft practice is currently part of the contemporary zeitgeist. Practices of DIY, knitting, up-cycling, sewing, hacking have become responses to austerity, environmental crisis and anti-capitalist actions. Government figures document that 102,000 people work within the craft sector, who together contributed £248 million Gross Value Added to the UK economy in 2012 (DCSM 2014). Trade and industry sees the celebration of 'Best of British' with small scale, bespoke or handcrafted batch production growing in market share, for an audience who eschew mass production and values the 'heritage' of British skilled labour. Practitioners producing hand crafted objects have unprecedented outlets to sell their work at festivals, studio tours or online, in addition to the traditional gallery or commission opportunities. Craft is again 'of the moment', but these moments carry with them the politics of past generations of practitioners and enthusiasts, who share skills, values and experience. Within the research undertaken, 'craft' has gathered as a complex assemblage of relations.The research undertaken sees craft within a circuit of production and consumption, where people, policy, materials, political ethos, skill, time, place, money, makers and buyers combine. The proposed activities within this follow-on-fund aim to bring into relief this nexus of mutuality that underscores the creative economy. The Crafts Council, the Devon Guild of Craftsmen and the Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen are working in partnership with Dr Thomas, University of Exeter to co-design three activities that illuminate different elements of the assemblage of the contemporary craft economy.Activity 1: 'Celebrate: 60 Years of Connecting Makers and Consumers through Craft', delivered in partnership with the Devon Guild of CraftsmenA nine-month exhibition, retail and online campaign that uses the Guild's diamond anniversary to explore the history of the Guild through the 'social lives' of crafted objects made by members of the Guild, past and present. The concept draws attention to the intersection between the Guild's function of connecting designer-makers to audiences through the outputs of skilled labour. The activities follow the stories of the objects as they pass through layers of ownership and develop attachments and stories that transcend the 'hand' of the original maker.Activity 2: 'Making collaborations: Making Connections', delivered in partnership with the Gloucestershire Guild of CraftsmenAn online and touring exhibition that focuses on the Guild as an expanded community of practice and interest to reveal the everyday relations of mutuality that underpin creative endeavors. Dr Thomas' research explored the hidden histories of the Guild, for example the role of peer, family or customer support in supporting designer maker's enterprise. The research will be used to present an alternative history of the Guild, and trigger a community orientated history that explores the organisation's cooperative ethos. The history will be given a forward orientation as ten pairs of Guild member collaborate and produce new work for an associated touring exhibition that illuminates the ongoing politics and practices of cooperation. Activity 3: 'Making policy: Researcher in Residence', delivered in partnership with the Crafts Council Dr Thomas will be seconded to the Crafts Council to work with the Research and Policy team. She will contribute to the Crafts Council's strategic objectives by contributing evidence based research and knowledge to support the Crafts Council's mission to chart and anticipate economic, social, cultural and political trends in craft. Multi-media resources and briefings will be created to disseminate the research findings to audiences within the creative industries.