Prof Edward Collins becomes a Patron of HCA

HCA are very pleased to welcome Professor EJT Collins as a patron. Prof Collins major publication "Crafts in the English Countryside" is the most in depth recent research into traditional crafts in the UK and is highly recomended reading. It is available free online here.

One of the key recommendations of the 2004 report was "the establishment of a Vernacular Crafts Council to compliment the fine arts and contemporary crafts remit of the Craft Council, and to serve as an umbrella organisation for all crafts operating in the heritage sector."

The report was widely welcomed and publicised in the press but the key recommendations were not taken up by government. It was the lack of action on this point that led to the setting up of the Heritage Crafts Association and perhaps in some ways it is better to have an organisation formed by and for craftspeople themselves rather than a government quango.