Meet John Penrose MP for Weston-super-Mare and minister for Heritage and Tourism.
Following our meeting last week John Penrose has sent us the following message of support.
“ The Heritage Crafts Association has brought together a fine range of different living crafts which are valuable parts of our heritage. The Association’s commitment to supporting small businesses all over the country producing useful, functional and decorative objects in traditional ways is truly impressive. I hope the increased public interest in these hands-on crafts will lead to many more people exploring and deploying these skills so that they are not lost to future generations. The fact that the BBC has given 12 hours of prime time tv to “The Edwardian Farm” is a measure of the public’s enthusiasm. “
This may seem like a simple little statement but it means so much to those of us who work in the traditional crafts to finally gain some degree of recognition. My first blog of 2010 was titled "2010 year for traditional crafts to be recognised as part of our heritage" Once we are recognised as being important we can begin to work on addressing some of the issues the sector faces but for many simply having recognition for the years of hard work mastering difficult skills is enough.
Just to compare how big a step this is have a look back at a few blog posts showing attitudes to traditional crafts from just last year.
This was the adjournment debate we initiated last year. http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2009-06-25c.1036.0
and a blog post from Jan 2009, it seems incredible that we have come so far so quickly. http://greenwood-carving.blogspot.com/2009/01/campaign-for-traditional-crafts.html
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