Halima Cassell MBE, the dynamic sculptural ceramicist, has won the 2024 Brookfield Properties Craft Award, announced at a ceremony during the previews of Collect 2024. Cassell is represented by Joanna Bird Contemporary Collections, a gallery with a long focus on ceramics that has participated in all twenty editions of Crafts Council’s annual fair, dedicated to craft and design.
The Brookfield Properties Craft Award celebrates its fifth edition in 2024. The leading contemporary craft prize in the UK, it was created by Brookfield Properties in partnership with Crafts Council to celebrate a distinguished maker for their expert craftsmanship and significant contribution to contemporary design and making.
Based in Shropshire, UK, Cassell practices predominantly in clay – her first love – but also works across other media including bronze, glass, concrete and wood. Cassell was awarded an MBE in 2022 for outstanding achievement for services to the arts; several of her pieces are held in numerous public and private collections worldwide.
The judges of the 2024 Brookfield Properties Craft Award selected Cassell from the shortlisted artists in recognition of her distinctive geometric style and boundary-pushing approach to materials. The shortlisted artists included the multi-disciplinary studio Fung + Bedford (Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust, England), ceramicist Steven Edwards (Vessel Gallery, England), the collaborative work of glass and ceramic artists Joshua Kerley and Guy Marshall-Brown (Bullseye Projects, USA), and interdisciplinary designer Naomi Mcintosh (Ruup & Form, England).