Part of Farnham Craft Month 2024

For nearly three decades Brownsword has explored marginalised histories associated with ceramic manufacture in North Staffordshire, focusing primarily on the impact of globalisation in recent decades upon people, place and traditional skills. His reactivation of endangered industrial crafts has achieved impact internationally via curated projects and cross-cultural exchange. Brownsword's work raises questions surrounding the value and contemporary relevance of intergenerational skills and obscure regional histories, and how these can be re-imagined into new narratives and modes of expression that reinforce place identity.

The lecture celebrates the life and work of the potter and teacher Henry Hammond (1914-1989) who was Head of Ceramics at the West Surrey College of Art and Design 1946-1980. The Crafts Study Centre is grateful to the Trustees of the Henry Hammond Trust for their support of the annual lectures.

Free, booking required

Part of Farnham Craft Month 2024

As part of the Open event series, Director of Craftspace, Deirdre Figueiredo will talk about the pottery demonstrations given by Gwari potter Ladi Kwali during a tour of US universities in 1972. Drawing from material from the Michael Cardew archive that will be displayed as part of Open in the ground floor Tanner Gallery, Figueiredo will touch on the impact of the demonstrations and how Kwali’s performance sought to unite African American communities through craft.

Free but booking essential.

Part of Farnham Craft Month 2024

Part of the Open event series, this discussion focuses on Sudanese-born potter Siddig el Nigoumi (1931-1996), who settled in Farnham and taught at the West Surrey College of Art of Design. Crafts Study Centre Director Stephen Knott will be in conversation with Vicki Nigoumi and James Fordham of the Oxford Ceramics Gallery to explore Siddig el Nigoumi’s, life, work, and impact on studio pottery.

Part of Farnham Craft Town 2024

Free, but booking via Eventbrite is essential.

Part of Farnham Craft Month 2024

The Crafts Study Centre is a specialist university museum and research centre, home to internationally renowned collections of modern British craft. Free guided tours led by the Director of the current exhibitions (Open and Obsolescence and Renewal) will include a behind the scenes viewing of selected objects drawn from the collections.

Free event but advance booking essential.

The Crafts Study Centre is a specialist university museum and research centre, home to internationally renowned collections of modern British craft.

A free guided tour of the exhibition Open that explores new interpretations of the Centre’s collections, led by the Director of the Crafts Study Centre Stephen Knott. The tour includes a behind the scenes viewing of selected objects drawn from the collections.

Free, booking essential.

The Crafts Study Centre is a specialist university museum and research centre, home to internationally renowned collections of modern British craft.

A free guided tour of the exhibition Open that explores new interpretations of the Centre’s collections, led by the Director of the Crafts Study Centre Stephen Knott. The tour includes a behind the scenes viewing of selected objects drawn from the collections.

Free, booking essential.

This study day draws on themes developed in the exhibition Mary Farmer: A Life in Tapestry at the Crafts Study Centre and will explore subjects as diverse as Farmer’s commitment to colour and weaving, her prominence in the buoyant craft scene of the 1970s, 80s and 90s, the intensity of her technique, and the significant legacy that she left behind. The day provides a chance to examine Farmer as an overlooked figure in recent craft history and the contemporary significance of her textiles, within the environment of West Dean College, the site of the only professional Tapestry Studio in England.

BOOK YOUR TICKETS FROM THE WEST DEAN WEBSITE HERE

Tickets: £20 (including lunch and refreshments)

Join Studio Leader of the West Dean Tapestry studio Philip Sanderson and West Dean alumni and studio weaver Emma Straw to see weaving demonstrations at the Crafts Study Centre. Sanderson and Straw will demonstrate the process of weaving on simple frame looms in front of Mary Farmer's tapestries, with the chance for visitors to have a go themselves. Weaving samples and further information about West Dean College and their tapestry studio will also be available.

To book a place please click on image

Join Studio Leader of the West Dean Tapestry studio Philip Sanderson and West Dean alumni and studio weaver Emma Straw to see weaving demonstrations at the Crafts Study Centre. Sanderson and Straw will demonstrate the process of weaving on simple frame looms in front of Mary Farmer's tapestries, with the chance for visitors to have a go themselves. Weaving samples and further information about West Dean College and their tapestry studio will also be available.

To book a space please click on image

Join Studio Leader of the West Dean Tapestry studio Philip Sanderson and West Dean alumni and studio weaver Emma Straw to see weaving demonstrations at the Crafts Study Centre. Sanderson and Straw will demonstrate the process of weaving on simple frame looms in front of Mary Farmer's tapestries, with the chance for visitors to have a go themselves. Weaving samples and further information about West Dean College and the Tapestry studio will also be available.

Please click on image to book a space

Join Director of the Crafts Study Centre, Stephen Knott, for a lunchtime tour of Mary Farmer: A Life in Tapestry. The talk will provide a chance to hear more about the social and historical contexts of Farmer’s work and highlights from the archival research, in the presence of her bold, abstract tapestries.

Join Director of the Crafts Study Centre, Stephen Knott, for a lunchtime tour of Mary Farmer: A Life in Tapestry. The talk will provide a chance to hear more about the social and historical contexts of Farmer’s work and highlights from the archival research, in the presence of her bold, abstract tapestries.

To mark the end of the Making:50 exhibition Textile Study Group members Julia Triston, Siân Martin and Mandy Pattullo will be in discussion with Director of the Crafts Study Centre, Dr. Stephen Knott about their own work, the impact of the Making:50 exhibition and future plans for the collective against a backdrop of increased interest in textile research and practice.

Image - Shelley Rhodes, Entangled (detail). Salvaged marine plastic, stitched and wrapped with fishing line.

Free to attend via Zoom.

Join members of the Textile Study Group – Sian Martin, Bobby Britnell, Janet Edmonds, Amarjeet Nandra, Ann Wheeler, Penny Burnfield - as they talk about their work that forms part of the Making:50 exhibition. They will be in conversation with each other and the Director of the Crafts Study Centre, Dr. Stephen Knott.

Image - Installation view Making:50, January 2024. Photograph courtesy of Amarjeet Nandra.

BOOK HERE

PAUL GREENHALGH : THE WEIGHT OF BEING: THOUGHTS FROM THE CERAMIC PAST

Paul Greenhalgh is a historian, writer and curator. His previous roles include Director of the Sainsbury Centre (UK), Director and President of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington DC), President of NSCAD University (Canada), and Head of Research at the V&A Museum. In this lecture on ceramics past, Greenhalgh asks how ceramic artists of the past thought about their practice? How did they position their practice in their respective cultures? And how does this impact contemporary ceramic? This lecture will explore the underlying nature of ceramic history, arguing that it is a ‘thing in itself,’ rather than a branch of art history. The lecture will look at the theoretical and empirical characteristics of the ceramic past, to identify what makes it relevant today.

BOOK HERE

Join us for the opening of Making:50, a landmark exhibition celebrating 50 years of innovative textile practice by the Textile Study Group, a collective of textile artists who have been at the forefront of the discipline as both practitioners and teachers.  

Free to attend, but please book tickets in advance using the Eventbrite link below. 

BOOK HERE

Image – Jenny Bullen, A Celebration. Courtesy of Curtis James. 

Join us at the Crafts Study Centre for launch of Formidable Partners: The Founding of the New Craftsman in St Ives by Professor Simon Olding and Greta Bertram. The book is published to accompany the Crafts Study Centre’s exhibition New Craftsman, St Ives: The Craft of Selling. The event will be dedicated to Simon’s long service to the Crafts Study Centre (2002-2022) and copies of the book will be available for sale.

Part of Farnham Craft Month 2023

BOOK HERE

The Crafts Study Centre is a specialist university museum and research centre, home to internationally renowned collections of modern British craft. This session is specifically designed for makers who want to deepen their engagement with their craft through further reflection on its meaning and its histories. We will introduce the Centre and its current exhibitions, but the focus is on the resources we can offer to makers: what we have in our collections, how to access them, and how they might inform your future work and practice. The introduction will conclude with a discussion in our research room, where selected objects from our collection will be on view.

Part of Farnham Craft Month 2023

BOOK HERE

The Crafts Study Centre is a specialist university museum and research centre, home to internationally renowned collections of modern British craft. Free guided tours led by the Director/Curator of the current exhibitions (Lineages and The New Craftsman, St Ives: The Craft of Selling) will include a behind the scenes viewing of selected objects drawn from the collections.

Part of Farnham Craft Month 2023

BOOK HERE

The Crafts Study Centre is a specialist university museum and research centre, home to internationally renowned collections of modern British craft. Free guided tours led by the Director/Curator of the current exhibitions (Lineages and The New Craftsman, St Ives: The Craft of Selling) will include a behind the scenes viewing of selected objects drawn from the collections.

Advanced booking essential

Part of Farnham Craft Month 2023

BOOK HERE

To coincide with the opening of Farnham Craft Month and the launch event at the University for the Creative Arts, the Crafts Study Centre will open its doors to the public on Sunday 1st October from 2-4pm.

Part of Farnham Craft Month 2023

Crafts Study Centre Curator Greta Bertram will be giving a talk at the New Craftsman Gallery in St Ives, Cornwall. The influential shop-cum-gallery was founded by Janet Leach in 1965. This talk traces its history, from its roots in The Craftsmen's Shop, set up by David Leach and Robin Nance in 1952, to its present form as the New Craftsman Gallery, run by Ylenia Haase since 2008.

This talk is part of the St Ives Festival and is held in association with the exhibitions New Craftsman, St Ives: The Craft of Selling at the Crafts Study Centre, 12 September to 16 December 2023, and New Craftsman: Past, Present, Future at the New Craftsman Gallery, 9 September to 6 October 2023.

Free: Book via info@newcraftsmanstives.com or call 01736 795652

Professor Lesley Millar will be retiring in September of this year after leading textile research at UCA since 1998. During this time she has curated many ground breaking exhibitions, introducing international textile artists to UK audiences, including her cross-cultural collaborations with Japanese and UK textile artists for which she received the Japan Society Award in 2008.

At this lecture she will reference some of her projects, their background and outcomes.

It will be followed by a short discussion and Q&A led by Professor Victoria Kelley.

Venue: Film and Media Centre, Nr. Main Carpark, UCA Farnham

The lecture is free but places must be booked in advance here