About

‘Maker’s Eye: Stories of Craft’ is the first exhibition in the new Crafts Council Gallery. It celebrates the breadth, diversity and qualities of craft, and includes numerous craft objects made in the UK over the course of the last 50 years.

This exhibition was curated with 13 makers, putting their diverse views on craft and making at its centre. Each of the maker-selectors have work in the Crafts Council Collections. Together, they represent a cross-section of craft interests, disciplines, career stages and models of practice. The Crafts Council asked them to select up to 15 objects in response to the brief: ‘What does craft look like and mean to you?’.

In Summer 2020, curator Dr Christine Checinska was invited to consider what was missing. Her selection of works by contemporary makers pays tribute to the founding ethos of the collection – to document innovative practice by emerging makers. Her additions animate conversations about the value of collections, what history is documented, what stories are told, who they are for and who decides what is in them.

With a knitted ‘pussy hat’ worn on the first Women’s March, an industrial toilet mould and one of the first chairs made using recycled plastics all featured, ‘Maker’s Eye’ is a celebration of how irreverent, political, joyful and challenging craft can be, and invites personal reflection on what it means to each of us.