Craft Northern Ireland

Last updated
Craft NI
Craft Northern Ireland Logo.jpg
Type of site
Cultural
Created byCollaborative
URL www.craftni.org
Launched2004
Current statusactive

Craft Northern Ireland is the regional development agency for craft in Northern Ireland. In 2000, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland took formal steps to establish "an organisation to help shape and define the craft sector in Northern Ireland". [1] Craft NI was set up in 2004 and is located in Cotton Court, Cathedral Quarter, Belfast.

Craft NI produces information and publicity about the craft sector. It represents Northern Ireland on national and international bodies including the UK National Advisory Panel for Craft, World Crafts Council, NI Employers Panel for Creative and Cultural Sector Skills Council. It develops partnerships with other agencies for strategic investment in the sector including the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Invest NI.

In 2007, Craft NI hosted its first exhibition of contemporary craft from Northern Ireland. The work represented gave the first multi-disciplinary overview of craft in the region in the period from the 1980s to the first few years after 2000. [2] In May 2007, the exhibition travelled to the S Dillon Ripley Centre, Smithsonian Institution as part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure's Rediscover Northern Ireland programme.

August Craft Month is Northern Ireland's annual celebration of craft - a coordinated programme of events and activities that showcase the work of craft makers in Northern Ireland and from across the UK, Ireland and Europe.

Craft NI also runs a 2-year business incubation programme for designer-makers entitled 'making it'.

Related Research Articles

Arts and Crafts movement Design movement c. 1880–1920

The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America.

British–Irish Council Intergovernmental organisation

The British–Irish Council (BIC) is an intergovernmental organisation that aims to improve collaboration between its members in a number of areas including transport, the environment, and energy. Its membership comprises the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, the devolved governments of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and the governments of the Crown dependencies of the UK: Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man. England does not have a devolved administration, and as a result is not individually represented on the Council but represented as a member of the UK.

The Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art is a contemporary art gallery based in Manchester, England. It is located on Thomas Street in Manchester's Northern Quarter in part of the renovated Smithfield Market Hall.

The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) is a government department in the Northern Ireland Executive, the devolved administration for Northern Ireland. The minister with overall responsibility for the department is the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs. The department was called the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development between 1999 and 2016. The Minister of Agriculture previously existed in the Government of Northern Ireland (1921–1972), where the department was known as the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland or the Ministry of Agriculture. The current Minister is Edwin Poots MLA and the department's Permanent Secretary is Denis McMahon.

Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action is the national infrastructure body for the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland. NICVA also hosts and manages several websites for Northern Ireland's voluntary and community sector online.

Rudolf Staffel

Rudolf Harry "Rudi" Staffel was an American ceramic artist and educator.

Creative Lives is an arts organisation based in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Northern Ireland Screen

Northern Ireland Screen is the national screen agency for Northern Ireland. The agency's purpose is to promote the development of a sustainable film, animation and television production industry.

Making Music (organisation)

Making Music is a UK membership organisation for leisure-time music groups of all musical genres, representing over 200,000 musicians and promoters of all levels and experience. Making Music provides them with practical services, guidance, artistic development opportunities and a collective voice for advocacy.

Paul J. Smith was an arts administrator, curator, and artist based in New York. Smith was professionally involved with the art, craft, and design fields since the early 1950s and was closely associated with the twentieth-century studio craft movement in the United States. He joined the staff of the American Craftsmen's Council in 1957, and in 1963 was appointed Director of the Museum of Contemporary Crafts, a position he held for the next 24 years. In September 1987, he assumed the title of director emeritus and continued to work as an independent curator and consultant for museums, arts organizations, and collectors.

Joyce J. Scott is an African-American artist, sculptor, quilter, performance artist, installation artist, print-maker, lecturer and educator. Named a MacArthur Fellow in 2016, and a Smithsonian Visionary Artist in 2019, Scott is best known for her figurative sculptures and jewelry using free form, off-loom beadweaving techniques, similar to a peyote stitch. Each piece is often constructed using thousands of glass seed beads or pony beads, and sometimes other found objects or materials such as glass, quilting and leather. In 2018, she was hailed for working in new medium — a mixture of soil, clay, straw, and cement — for a sculpture meant to disintegrate and return to the earth. Scott is influenced by a variety of diverse cultures, including Native American and African traditions, Mexican, Czech, and Russian beadwork, illustration and comic books, and pop culture.

Jack Doherty is a Northern Irish studio potter and author. He is perhaps best known for his vessels made of soda-fired porcelain. He has been featured in a number of books, and his work has been exhibited widely in both Europe and North America. Articles of his have appeared in various pottery journals and he has been Chair of the Craft Potters Association.

Stephen Dixon is a British ceramic artist and professor at the Manchester Metropolitan University. He is also a satirist, writer, lecturer and curator. He is known mainly for his use of dark narrative and for using "illustrated ceramics pots as an unlikely platform for social commentary and political discontent." From Renaissance paintings and British politics to pop culture, Dixon draws on a variety of sources to "challenge the status quo and inspire new ways of thinking." Dixon tends to create busy, complex ceramics pieces, each with an intriguing message.

Jack Earl is an American ceramic artist and former teacher, known for drawing inspiration from his home state of Ohio to create rural pieces “with meticulous craftsmanship and astute details… to where you could smell the air, hear the silence and swat the flies.” Although his works hint at highly personal, intellectual, and narrative themes in an almost unsettling manner, Earl is “a self-described anti-intellectual who shuns the art world." He is known particularly for using his trademark format, the dos-a-dos : “This art form is like a book with two stories… the two seemingly incongruent images prompt the viewer to fill in the conceptual gap through poetic speculation.” His work often involves dogs or the character “Bill”, who is said to be a combination of Earl’s father-in-law, himself, and others. The titles to his pieces are typically lengthy, stream-of-consciousness narratives that suggest the folk or rural lifestyle. These are intended to add another dimension to the artwork. His work has received a notable response over his decades-long career, especially since he is regarded as “a master at reminding us that within the events we take for granted are moments of never-ending mystery and wonder.” Earl continues to live in Lakeview, Ohio with his wife, Fairlie.

Wendy Maruyama is an artist, furniture maker, and educator from California. She was born in La Junta, Colorado.

Judy Kensley McKie is an American artist, furniture designer, and furniture maker. She has been making her signature style of furniture with carved and embellished animal and plant motifs since 1977. She is based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Jeremy Henderson was an Anglo-Irish artist and painter. Henderson was Artist in Residence at Kingston University, with art exhibited at the Royal Academy and National Art Collections.

Ann Sutton is a British artist, author, educator and broadcaster. She gained international recognition as an innovative textile artist and designer from the 1950s and has continued to develop her making and research in other media to the present day.

Cóilín Ó Dubhghaill is an Irish artist and academic, crafting as a silversmith and also in copper and Japanese-inspired copper alloys, gold and other metals. He lived in Japan and studied Japanese metal crafts for seven years in the national arts university. His art is held in a range of national and other museums and galleries, and has been widely shown. His research work bridges art and materials science, and he is co-inventor of a new hybrid metal, mikana.

City Art Centre Art gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland

The City Art Centre is part of the Museums & Galleries Edinburgh, which sits under the Culture directorate of the City of Edinburgh Council. The City Art Centre has a collection which include historic and modern Scottish painting and photography, as well as contemporary art and craft. It is an exhibition based venue with no permanent displays.

References

  1. Arts Council of Northern Ireland (2000), Review of the Crafts Sector in Northern Ireland: A Consultation Document.
  2. McBrinn, J. (2007), Making changes: contemporary craft in Northern Ireland.