I recently had the pleasure of working with The Shape of Things, a wonderful crafts project that aimed to bring the work of new and emerging makers from diverse backgrounds to a mainstream audience.
It was a wonderful experience for me as the project was developed in such a way that artists, promoters, venues all worked together to develop the exhibtions and activities, and all participated in the audience development work.
In late summer last year we all took part in a one day discussion on the future for audience development in the crafts. The conversation took place in the beautiful Touchstones Gallery in Rochdale and included artists, writers, administrators, funders and audxience development specialists like me. The conclusion of the day, shouldn;t be surprising, but somehow it was. For those of us who work in tje arts sector it can be so easy to forget the experience of the arts when we are developing our funding proposals, project outlines etc etc. This discussion, invigorated by the mixed group participating, celebrated the conviviality of participationa nd neoyment of the crafts – the way that the process of making or enjoying objects brings us together as inividuals.
I wrote a paper summarising the day and musing on this idea, it has been published on The Shape of Things website. Please let me know what you think!
http://theshapeofthings.org.uk/?id=107
