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Devon Guild of Craftsmen
Spreading the artistic message
Devon Guild of Craftsmen is an educational charity which shares the pleasure of making and connects people through craft. We aim to give everyone a taste of making: whether enjoying our exhibitions; meeting members of the Guild who work in a wide range of craft disciplines; or learning new skills at one of our creative workshops.
The Guild has an extensive outreach programme, Freehand, which provides craft residencies in schools and community groups. Freehandresidencies provide young people with practical skills as well as enhancing their self-esteem, encouraging their creative development, and providing the empowerment that comes from creating something by hand, that connects them with natural materials and with their heritage. This crucial experience of hands-on, purposeful activity can also inspire a life-long appreciation of the hand-made and hand-crafted that may, for some, lead them to consider craft and design-based careers.
Freehand’swork with community groups helps people in a multitude of ways: reducing social isolation, supporting the rehabilitation of offenders, helping refugees build confidence and integrate into society, increasing well-being and giving those who need it a space to relax and express their emotions. In the past year our community projects have worked with bereaved families, refugee women and Headway, the charity for people with acquired brain injury.
Alongside our outreach work, our exhibitions always feature a programme of workshops which explore the themes of the exhibition, and give visitors a chance to have a go at making. We seek to encourage young visitors in particular to respond and make their own work in our maker’s corner. We also offer free family workshops in the school holidays and drop-in demos and workshops with our members throughout the year.
We are one of the few professional gallery spaces in the country devoted to craft, making us an important touring destination and prestigious place for makers to exhibit their work. But as well as providing a platform for our elected expert members and for some of the best craftspeople nationally and internationally, we seek to extend our outreach and education work into our three exhibitions galleries.
Two examples this year include ‘Methods Making Madness’ and ‘A Good Age’.‘Methods Making Madness’ exhibited the winning entries to a photography competition for 14-24 year-olds and was devised, selected and curated by a team of young people, mentored by our in-house exhibitions officer in this, their first experience of curating a show.
For ‘A Good Age’, Devon Guild commissioned five professional artists, all born before 1948, to make contemporary craft on the theme of personal or global change in their lifetime. At the same time, five Devon libraries hosted artist-led workshops for people aged 65 and over, also producing craft inspired by change in their lifetimes.
The oldest person taking part was 94, and the results were amazing. One participant said: ‘. . . without this, I wouldn’t go out. It has persuaded me to go out and interact with other people.’
As well as our education and outreach work, another crucial part of the Guild’s remit is to support local craft-makers – both the established who are elected to membership and new makers seeking to make the difficult leap between study and working as a craftsperson.
Our biennial ‘Get Fresh’exhibition showcases the work of the best new and emerging makers in the South West, and every year we select a craft graduate from Plymouth College of Art and from Plymouth University to win the opportunity to showcase – and sell – their work in our extensive craft shop.
Check our website (www.crafts.org.uk) for details of exhibitions, workshops andFreehand opportunities.
Andrew North
Devon Guild of Craftsmen