AI ProfileRosy Greenlees, executive director of the Crafts Council
Two recent items in newspapers gave Rosy Greenlees the opportunity to underline the importance of the crafts and the Crafts Council. One was a news story that said surgeons are no longer leaving medical school with the “haptic” skills – manipulative dexterity - they used to; the other was by a critic writing about architecture who wrote that “visual artists fought for centuries to define themselves as more than mere craftsmen”.

Between them, they serve to define where the crafts are in the 21st century. One reason given for apparently cack-handed surgeons is that they used to be taught craft at school – not simply sewing but moving different materials around to serve a new purpose or an old one better – and our children are not being taught the crafts at school that provide those haptic skills. “It seems to me there’s a much broader value around that engagement” says the executive director of the council. “Engagement in tangible materials and skills is central”.

The remark by the critic, Jonathan Jones of The Guardian, reflects a long-standing misconception about the creative hierarchy, with visual art standing way above the handicrafts, and craftspeople striving to be promoted to recognition as artists. “If an artist does something which is craft it’s called art” she says. “If a maker does something original they’re criticised for trying to aspire to be artists. I’m not saying craft is art, it’s different, they’re apples and pears, one is not superior to the other.”

And these are two key messages she has made it her mission to get across as the Crafts Council moves on as the national development agency for the contemporary crafts in the UK, with a key new document, the Craft Blueprint, created by a Crafts Skills Advisory Panel she chaired and published jointly by the Crafts Council and Creative & Cultural Skills.

The report calls for more diverse entry into the craft professions, and education in craft at all levels, with new apprenticeship provision, and a review of craft qualifications. It wants to enhance leadership, professional development and business support in a sector which has been seen to be fragmented. And the report calls for more alliances among craft, visual arts and other relevant organisations. In her forward, Greenlees says the sector needs the skills to reach new markets born of globalisation, fragmentation and new consumer trends. “It needs to further capitalise on developing digital cultures to create new types of craft production and consumption”.