About the project
The Craft Expertise project was a four-year UKRI/RCUK Innovation Fellowship led by Dr Karen Patel of Birmingham City University. The project ran between 2019-2020, and explored the experiences of women of colour in the contemporary craft sector, revealing the prevalence of racism and microaggressions across all areas of craft, from higher education, to studio spaces and fairs, to dealing with suppliers. The findings from the first phase of the project are published in the Making Changes in Craft Report.
The second phase of the Craft Expertise project focused on socially engaged craft organisations, which tend to work with people or groups which are underrepresented in contemporary craft, and people who aren’t necessarily pursuing craft as a career, but engage with it for creative, health or social reasons. The interviews with people who run these organisations took place during 2021 and 2022, involving visits to Edinburgh, London, Adelaide and Melbourne. The podcast series Craft Expertise: The View From Australia, featuring interviews with the Australian craft social enterprises is available on the Craft Expertise website. The research also produced the Toolkit for Inclusive Practice in Craft Organisations, which includes case studies of five craft social enterprises in the UK and Australia, and includes some recommendations for craft organisations to work towards creating safe and inclusive spaces for all.