Cultural values: why Heritage Crafts is redefining ‘craft’

13 June 2023

British-Romani weaver and Crafts Council Equity Advisory Council member Imogen Bright Moon explains why cultural distinctiveness, not only type of skill, matters – as canal art, fairground art and vardo making enter the 2023 Red List of Endangered Crafts

Imogen Bright Moon

13 June 2023

The UK's craft heritage is famous worldwide; if you grew up watching Antiques Roadshow, like I did, you'll know the kind of thing that comes to mind when people think about British culture – country houses and antiques. All that is valid, but we also have crafts that are less well known, for example those practiced by Gypsy, Roma, Traveller, Showmen and Boater (GRTSB) communities.

Romani people arrived in England in the 1500s, so we've been here for a long time. In general, though, there's an idea that GRTSB people belong to the past – people forget that we're living people who are practising crafts today. It's important that makers from minority backgrounds like ours are represented in mainstream spaces – both to shatter these kinds of prejudices and so we can see ourselves on these platforms.

Last autumn, I was invited to join the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion subcommittee of Heritage Crafts , where I've been a long-term member. As a charity, it has a duty to honour and preserve all types of craft, including those of minorities groups that are often hidden, forgotten, mislabelled or denied. Doing so also amplifies craft and its depth, context, richness and diversity.

Above: A green bow-top vardo wagon being painted by Jane O’Connor in 1990s Derbyshire. Photo: Jane O’Connor and Steve Lowe, 2023

Floral and harlequin-inspired motifs adorn Kerri Williams' canal art. Photo: Váradi Béla

A major element of Heritage Crafts’ work is the Red List of Endangered Crafts, which is published biennially. The 2023 edition, launched last month, included for the first time three practices by GRTSB craftspeople: canal art (barge and narrowboat painting, associated with the Boater community), Showmens' fairground art (which includes lettering work), and the Romani Traveller craft of vardo making ('vardo' translates to 'van', so that's the creation of bow-top and painted wagons). GRTSB presence was also noted in horn and antler working, practiced by Scottish Travellers; and floristry and tin-smithing, which is largely done by the Irish traveller community.

The inclusion of these crafts on the list does not imply a sudden downturn in their fortunes – it’s actually the result of a major change in how the research team behind the report define a craft. The methodology behind compiling the Red List is updated every year to reflect changing realities, and this time involved a major change in how a craft is defined. Previously, crafts were categorised primarily by skill, and seen as clearly distinct from one another. If you can move between them without ‘substantial retraining’, they were not treated as separate. The problem was that crafts are not only separated by the skills involved, but also by cultural context.

The inclusion of these crafts on the list does not imply a sudden downturn in their fortunes – it’s actually the result of a major change in how the research team behind the report define a craft

Fairground art is an example of this – it may involve skills used in other types of lettering work, but it is also practiced in a specific way by a particular community. While the wider practice of lettering may not be endangered, in this context it is. To champion the cultural distinctiveness of traditional craft practices and highlight the endangered status of crafts practiced by minority communities, the Red List now defines crafts not just by skill but also by their cultural specificity, especially when those are more endangered than their more widespread equivalents.

Over time, this will allow it to incorporate more crafts from diaspora and migrant communities that may resemble ones previously practiced in this country. This year, it has also resulted in the inclusion of Cornish hedging (which has been used to enclose fields for 4,000 years), Shetland lace-knitting (used to make a delicate fabric using a garter stitch) and the Scottish practice of Sgian dubh and dirk-making (creating the small, single-edged ‘black knife’ worn as part of traditional Scottish Highland dress).

Over time, this will allow it to incorporate more crafts from diaspora and migrant communities that may resemble ones previously practiced in this country

Kerri Williams is one of the few practising GRTSB canal artists. Photo: Váradi Béla

When it came to the GRTSB community, the organisation knew there were culturally-specific making practices out there, but were unsure how to reach out to those craftspeople. To preserve their own safety and mental health, minority groups can sometimes be closed off, so we had to build a bridge – it wasn’t just a matter of calling or emailing someone out of the blue, there needed to be a relationship of trust. In December 2022, I set up the GRTSB Craft Makers Survey; I had conversations and conducted interviews with people in my own Romani and adjacent Traveller communities, gathering contacts and data that I then fed into the Red List research.

The GRTSB crafts that are on the Red List are those that have been identified from the Victorian period onwards – makers have since strived to keep up traditions, but now knowledge of vardo making, canal painting and fairground art is held by fewer than 20 people in each craft category.

There's the idea that GRTSB communities somehow belong to the past – people forget that we're living people practising crafts today

Traveller culture has an inbuilt practice of passing on skills inter-generationally. I'm from a family of makers, and many people that contributed to the list were also taught their crafts as children and have been practicing for some 25 years. But now young people have more freedom, so there isn't the impetus to learn a family trade – unless they want to. They need to see the value in craft, and have to want to practise it on their own terms.

Yet there are opportunities. For example, restoration is big among current GRTSB craftspeople – a lot of the historic vardos and living wagons need repair, and as they're no longer on the road, they get put on private land or given to museums. Makers are learning how to retrofit these. The older generation of makers prefer restoring things to how they were, which gives them deep pride in their past and brings up memories. But craft is also a living thing and has to be re-energised. In 200 years' time, when people look back on GRTSB crafts, what will the contemporary iteration of that tradition look like? It’s an important question each craftsperson has the duty to reflect on – as it has implications for the survival of these practices.

A cart undergoing restoration. Photo: Jane O’Connor + Steve Lowe, 2023.

There are positive signs for their future, including some inspiring GRTSB projects in the works. Next year there will be a significant exhibition at Museums Worcestershire designed by Romani curator Georgina Stevens. I've been talking to the V&A about Romani and Traveller artefacts in their archive that may have been hidden during colonial-era cataloguing.

With this change in approach to the Red List, there are two main things I hope for: that it will galvanise new talent and show young people they can be involved in crafts at a professional level, and that it encourages the older generation of GRTSB people to believe their knowledge is valuable.

Imogen Bright Moon is a member of the Crafts Council Equity Advisory Council

The Red List of Endangered Crafts 2023; brightmoon.co

Cultural values: why Heritage Crafts is redefining ‘craft’

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