CLUSTER CRAFTS FAIR 2020 | ONLINE TALKS PROGRAMME
Curated by Pita & Elliott Burns
Artwork by Diane Bresson
Cluster Crafts’ 2020 presents a programme focused on exploring new methods of making, cutting-edge materials and business strategies post-Covid.
Gathering experts from across the UK and mainland Europe, Cluster Crafts programme looks at the present and future of crafts, recognising the growing impact of new technologies in everyday life and the urgent environmental need for restructuring our production methodologies.
*Stay tuned as the programme will keep evolving in the following weeks.
Expect in-depth recorded conversations with key design & craft
professionals such as William Knight, Duncan Richies and more.
SUBSCRIBE below for updates.
INDUSTRY REPRESENTATIVES Q&A
Our Q&A series brings together four perspectives into the contemporary craft market, responding to the most urgent concerns of Cluster Crafts participants, four London based professionals share their experience and career knowledge. Answering questions ranging from how to build an online network to finding representation in a crowded scene, the series presents practical advice valuable for both emerging makers and those with a more established trade.
LOUISA PACIFICO | FUTURE ICONS
DANIELLA WELLS | CRAFTS COUNCIL CONSULTANT
VARUNA KOLLANETHU | RUUP&FORM
KATHY KING | NOT JUST A SHOP
Click on name to see full content
NEW MATERIALITIES [FUTURE TRENDS]
When considering what makes the forward most boundary of craft, it can be useful to step outside of traditional definitions and to step into alternate arenas of creativity. Through this series of video interviews, Cluster sought to explore five practices that represent new approaches to materials, emergent mediums and the transformative potential of digital communication.
With Fred Gwatkin we discovered a potter helping to reinvent what forms we associate with clay, employing 3D printing to generate dramatic new results; whilst performance artist Anna Nazo embraces an empathetic approach to the code and drones she collaborates with to increasingly understand their subjectivities. In the field of bio design, the artist Tiare Ribeaux adds indigenous knowledge to scientific models whilst creating new living fabrics and Jen Keane crafts tools to allow bacteria to shape garments and footwear. Finally, the art collective Keiken expands notions of authorship by pioneering new open systems of world building to generate their multi-screen projection pieces.
CRAFT DOCUMENTARIES SCREENING
IN COLLABORATION WITH FOLKSTREAMS
The screening series showcase a selection of films about traditional and contemporary craft practices. To be presented on site as a looped film reel.
Weaver (1974) Jack Ofield
The Last Shovel Maker (1974) Jack Ofield
How to Build an Igloo (1949) Douglas Wikinson
Alex Stewart: Cooper (1973) Thomas Burton & Jack Schrader
The Pirogue Maker (1949) Arnold Eagle
PORTFOLIO CONSULTATION
The Industry Portfolio Consultation Sessions will give Cluster Crafts participating creatives an opportunity to meet one-on-one with experts, showcase their work and gain vital insight into developing their careers. In these sessions, exhibitors will have the opportunity to present their work to high profile expertise in the field and address the challenges of breaking into the contemporary craft market.
MELODY VAUGHAN
Melody Vaughan is a curator and writer who facilitates encounters between people, objects and craft makers. Through acts of gathering she creates spaces for sharing experiences of making and the questioning of contemporary craft practices. With an interest in supporting the work of emerging makers, she works as a mentor and writer developing and articulating their practices. Her current research focuses on sustainable and responsible making and makers who work with found objects. Melody has a background in archaeology, museum education and was previously a contemporary craft maker specialising in ceramics and metal.
www.melodyvaughan.co.uk
@melody_vaughan
NATALIE MELTON
Natalie Melton joined the Crafts Council as Creative Director in January 2019 after spending more than a decade working in craft. From 2012 to 2018 she was Co-Founder and Managing Director of The New Craftsman, a business which curates commissions and sells unique contemporary objects rooted in craftsmanship and narrative, made by makers from across the British Isles. As Commercial Director at Arts & Business, between 2005 and 2011 she oversaw the development of Crafted, a business support and mentoring programme for highly skilled makers.
@nat_melton
LOUISA PACIFICO
Louisa Pacifico is the Director of Future Icons, a London based consultancy that presents a bespoke collection of design and craft led business, producing connections with museums, galleries and private residences across the world. Her previous roles include being appointed Chief Executive for Craft Central, a charity housing seventy-six craft led brands in sites across Clerkenwell, as well as between 2010 and 2015 serving as the Head of Sales and Venue Curator for the Clerkenwell Design Week. From 2005 to 2010 she was the Sales Manager for the New Designers fair, directly curating and producing two annual graduate exhibitions occupying the entire Business Design Centre.
www.futureicons.co.uk
@futureicons_
