On 15th May the CSC was involved in an international forum The Wind from Craft Town, held at the Victoria & Albert Museum. It was organised by the Better Institute at the China Academy of Art, convened by Loucia Manopoulou of Newlands House Gallery and Xiaoxin Li, from the V&A’s Asia department, and curated by Chuan Lu of GyreCraft. Director Stephen Knott gave a short talk ‘How a town of craft might be run’ reflecting on the five years that Farnham has been a World Craft Town, with a series of slides provided by all the partners of Farnham Craft Town. The title of the talk is a reference to Professor Simon Olding’s lecture at a 2011 conference, ‘How a town of craft might be planned’ where the former Director of the CSC talked about what it takes for a town to be a centre of craft, with reference to St Ives, Stroud, and New Asheville in North Carolina, USA. Simon’s lecture discussed local political support, a grassroots investment in craft among the residents, the importance of education, and how traditions of craft need to be explored, discussed and vitalised through contemporary practice. The slides of Stephen’s presentation outlined how these elements are present in Farnham’s experience as a craft town to date, driven by particularly strong engagement among community groups, individual makers and the town’s key craft-based organisations.

Other speakers in the conference included Penelope Luk, Creative Director of Crafts on Peel, an exhibition and residency space in Hong Kong that sets out to revive traditional craft techniques through bespoke residencies based on skill transmission from established craftspeople to contemporary makers; Dr Loucia Manopoulou; Wang Sha of the China Academy of Arts; Chuan Lu who explored The Story of Stone, the Quangzhou Pavillion that was exhibited in London Craft Week 2024; Jessica Wood of ROSA magazine who talked about Sussex Craft Week; and Rebecca Skeels, course director in the School of Jewellery at Birmingham City University who talked of her recent experiences hosting the panellists from the World Craft Council who will decide whether Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter will become the next of England’s World Craft cities. The forum was reviewed by China Minutes a website, ran from London, on UK-China cultural exchange.

In the week following the forum a group of curators, representatives from the art and design media, and craft charities from China visited Farnham (see below). They were shown the Farnham Pottery in Wrecclesham, the Crafts Study Centre, the New Ashgate Gallery and Farnham Maltings, as well as the delights of Lion and Lamb Yard and St Andrew’s Church. The CSC looks forward to future collaborations in the effort to bring global attention to the development of local craft cultures.

Images courtesy of GyreCraft, the International Craft Innovation Institute.