meeting the Crafts Council and visiting Richard Long exhibition

Yesterday was another London trip to meet with Rosy Greenlees and Amanda Jones, executive director and director of external relations of the Crafts Council. The Crafts Council is the national development agency for contemporary crafts in the UK their funding comes through the arts council and in their programs they tend to promote work which is innovative rather than traditional.

In their advocacy role they have a wider remit and are very supportive of the work of the Heritage Crafts Association and we hope that there will be opportunities for collaboration in the future. We shall be meeting again next week at the House of Lords for the launch of the craft blueprint which has been produced following an extensive period of research and consultation to determine the actions required to support both contemporary and heritage craft skills in the future.

After the meeting I went to Tate Britain to see a new exhibition by land artist Richard Long. Most people know Andy Goldsworthy's work, less folk know Long though he has been doing these things since the 1960s. It was a very good exhibition which I would recommend though at £9 a ticket it makes you realise how lucky we are now to have the rest of the galleries and museums open for free.