The Crafts Council is submitting evidence in response to the following questions:
Our evidence includes two case studies which demonstrate the value of craft experiences to animate the spaces of a global commercial brand and a local tourist venue.
As the national charity for craft, the Crafts Council has inspired making, empowered learning and nurtured businesses over five decades. As a development organisation, we’ve supported the success of leading British makers, incubating international brands such as Thomas Heatherwick and Tom Dixon; helped craft businesses to grow, including targeting support for those especially affected by the pandemic to navigate digital more effectively; worked with schools across the country to promote craft education, including a new national schools craft challenge in collaboration with Yinka Ilori; and presented exhibitions, events and activities for audiences totalling over 3 million each year.
Craft generates economic wealth, enhances and connects communities, and is a vital part of cultural expression. Our 2020 Market for Craft report demonstrates that the appetite for craft has never been bigger, with 73% of UK adults buying craft in 2019.
Craft remains the most popular form of creative activity in the home. Many people rediscovered a love of making during lockdown which, alongside increased media coverage of craft activities and the benefits of making, creates new opportunities for the sector.
The COVID-19 pandemic has seen millions of people turn to making things with their hands as a source of comfort in turbulent times. Live experiences and connecting with others have become even more significant. As the public looks afresh at craft and what it can offer them, the role of makers and the experiences they offer are more in demand. Craft makers are unlocking the power of craft experiences to engage local people in craft activities, using craft skills to animate high streets, heritage and tourist venues and to increase visitor footfall.
Creative High Streets, Arts Council England’s 2021 report, speaks directly to this potential. It sets out the important role that creativity has to play in regenerating our high streets and helping attract local communities back to them, in the context of the vision of the Levelling Up White Paper. Crafts Council is committed to supporting this ambition by increasing craft experiences on offer and by strengthening our links with the High Streets Task force and with the Creative People and Places Programme.
What is a craft experience? It’s an opportunity for a participant or consumer to engage in a craft activity or session. Having a go at making can include:
The craft experience market offers everything from soap-making to stone-carving, creative collage to cartographic embroidery. It also includes exposure to craft; for example, through studio visits or retail promotions. Experiences can be enjoyed face-to-face or online, in large groups or individually, as a one-off or in a series.
Often an experience has economic value (people or organisations pay to be part of it, and the cost of the experience suggests its worth) and it is has tie-ins to other merchandise that is sold alongside. It can help craft businesses to diversify their business and to generate income through encouraging others’ participation in craft.
We all know about this in the context of cultural tourism, where the focus is often on visiting built heritage, museums, and monuments. Creative tourism focuses instead on experiencing image, identity, lifestyles, atmosphere, narratives, and media.
Why is this relevant now? Our research (see ‘The Market for Craft’) shows that 73% of adults in the UK are in the market for craft, snapping up almost 25 million handcrafted objects in 2019, and driving craft sales over £3 billion. The population survey underpinning our research identifies an ongoing appetite for paid-for craft experiences, with 20% of the overall market for craft (7% definitely and 13% probably) indicating that they would pay to attend a craft workshop in the future. One in five (21%) has paid to take part in a craft class, workshop, or course, with 5% (2.5 million) having done so in the past 12 months and a further 16% (7.1 million) at some point in the past. The report defines a set of market sub-groups and how likely they are to have attended a paid-for class or workshop.
Craft has now become a mainstay of entertainment television, pushing it firmly into the public’s radar. Viewing figures for craft-based programmes such as ‘The Great British Sewing Bee’ and ‘The Great Pottery Throw Down’ are continually increasing.
The craft sector is able to offer products and experiences that create lasting and meaningful memories. As well as offering active craft experiences, some makers who may be constrained by a lack of time or workshop space to offer courses have diversified into offering behind-the-scenes tours that provide insight into the making process without being hands-on.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, people will expect brands to adapt to meeting their new needs, providing experiences that have a lasting and positive impact on their lives. The pandemic has reminded us that there is more to life than material possessions. It has also shown us what is possible when we act collectively.
We would highlight the need to challenge the involvement of ‘the usual suspects’ in local decision making and conversations about planning of place.
Craft professionals who currently host or may be interested in offering craft experiences are always networked into their local community, either through artists groups or community organisations. As retailers of creative objects, makers rely for their livelihood on the successful promotion of their craft through local and national networks to potential purchasers. Makers emphasise the providence of the craft objects they create and sell, often based in a personal narrative linked to where they live and work.
It is often the case that creatives and artists are forced to seek studios in areas where rents are lower and more affordable. By definition these are often in localities where there is often little or no established artistic infrastructure to rely on. Consequently, creatives and artists are frequently the people who themselves are establishing such infrastructure informally. And it’s often in the nature of business endeavour that professionals network with others working in the same arena to provide both informal and formal support.
Craft makers, whether professional or everyday, domestic makers, are often supported by umbrella organisations that provide business advice, education and training or signposting to local activities. The Crafts Council supports Craft UK a network of organisations across the UK that are engaged in craft. As a national development agency, the Crafts Council would welcome the opportunity to facilitate such connections at the local level.
Where existing brands, commercial organisations or cultural venues are hosting craft experiences, they will always be linked for their survival into existing local authority networks or local business/commercial infrastructure, such as Chambers of Commerce and small business associations based on commercial or industrial estates.
It therefore follows that national or local government support will be able to involve creatives in decision making and planning of place through existing networks. In many cases the creatives will have strong local knowledge and have contributed to shaping the character of a local community or neighbourhood. This association with place and the impact that a creative community can have on the identity of place makes them central to the potential for and capacity to drive the levelling up agenda.
Crafts Council
February 2022
The following case studies illustrate the role of an international property developer and an individual local maker in contributing to the shaping of their locality and community, illustrating the potential for creative experiences to help drive the levelling up agenda.
https://brookfieldpropertiesactivated.com
https://www.instagram.com/activatedbrookfieldproperties/
One of the world’s leading real estate management companies, Brookfield Properties has a global reputation for using experiences to creatively activate their buildings in ways that support the wellbeing of their tenants.
With a thirty-year history of supporting arts and crafts practitioners to breathe life into their extensive portfolio of commercial real estate, Brookfield Properties is a leading figure in the experience economy. By designing environments that prioritise the wellbeing of their tenants, their sought-after office spaces culturally enrich the lives of the those who work in the buildings they manage.
‘Craft “works” for our strategy, because it has a human connection. People like to read about the material, how it was made, and the artist’s intention.’
Samantha Williams, Curator & Marketing Manager, UK
The types of craft practices that Brookfield Properties seeks out are often sculptural in nature. Although colour, light, and levity are qualities needed for a work to hold presence in the expansive architectural spaces that the company manages, this doesn’t mean the work can’t be challenging. Brookfield Properties supported artist Matt Smith in curating a museum-quality exhibition in the foyer of 99 Bishopsgate, the company’s iconic high-rise block in central London, UK. Freed from the conceptual and architectural limitations of the traditional white cube, Matt Smith’s work re-appropriates objects from their original uses to rethink museum culture from a LGBTQIA+ perspective.
Brookfield Activated is the company’s public-facing program of cultural activities. This initiative provides networking opportunities for tenants by inviting them to participate in exhibition openings, events, craft workshops and wellness activities. Providing opportunities for tenants to have new experiences and grow their creative knowledge demonstrates Brookfield Properties’ commitment to enlivening the spaces in-and-around their buildings.
Arts and crafts experiences always have been, and always will be, central to Brookfield Properties’ business model. Collaborations with artists and makers are important because they enliven public spaces. These creative interventions encourage people to pause and reflect on how the craft makes them think and feel.
http://karent.co.uk
https://www.instagram.com/karent.co.uk/
Transfixed by the therapeutic potential of craft, Karen Thompson is a maker and ceramicist whose thriving business provides her with the financial stability needed to work on functional porcelain pieces and create bold political statements with clay.
Beginning her career as a maker in 2011, Karen’s business model has evolved to include craft experiences. This strand of her practice was developed during her residency at Crescent Arts in Scarborough, UK. This community organisation supports studio holders to develop and advertise workshops for local audiences. Karen’s outstanding people skills created a buzz around her offering, enabling her to establish successful relationships with regional galleries and museums. Invitations to host experiences with different councils and heritage organisations provided Karen with the space, audiences, and income needed to develop new learning formats and ideas.
When she moved into her waterfront studio on the pier in Scarborough, UK, in 2016, Karen turned her hand to designing site-specific activities that provided tourists with a unique experience of the surrounding environment. With the goal of appealing to day visitors, Karen delivers short, hour-long workshops that invite participants to breathe in the area’s scenic views as they experience new forms of creative learning.
‘It’s nice to come to a different location, especially being able to look at the scenes outside while you're drawing. It’s actually really calming.’
Workshop participant
Running hour-long experiences on a rotational basis enables Karen to offer numerous daily sessions during busy holiday periods. Because there isn’t a lot of travelling to do, this set-up is particularly cost-efficient.
Karen’s craft experiences are advertised locally and online through Airbnb. When people book accommodation, they have the opportunity to book an experience as well. The thriving tourism industry in Scarborough, UK, makes Airbnb the ideal platform to service Karen’s target market. Realising the value of cost- and time-effective marketing for business growth, Karen now intends to post flyers around the local area to spark the interest of tourists who might not have booked their holiday via Airbnb.
Karen believes that craft experiences are becoming increasingly important, because of the rising costs of education. The lifelong creative learning experienced through craft is invaluable; creative activities encourage new conversations and ways of thinking. From a financial perspective, craft experiences make a significant contribution to Karen’s annual revenue. They give her freedom to focus on the more conceptual and political aspects of her practice, without having to worry about sales. Inspired by the creative energy generated in her studio in Scarborough, UK, Karen is currently renovating a transit van so that she can expand her offering to customers at festivals and different outdoor venues.