In the beginning of 2021, a writing circle was established, consisting of seven craft artists who graduated in the midst of the pandemic, as well as their former professor in artistic writing. Since then, the group has met regularly to share texts they've written on various given themes, as well as writing assignments they give each other, linked to their artistic practice. The book contains a selection of texts and images produced by the group over the past four years since its inception. The book will be launched during Stockholm Craft Week 2024.

In the beginning of 2021, a writing circle was established, consisting of seven craft artists who graduated in the midst of the pandemic, as well as their former professor in artistic writing. Since then, the group has met regularly to share texts they've written on various given themes, as well as writing assignments they give each other, linked to their artistic practice. The book contains a selection of texts and images produced by the group over the past four years since its inception. The book will be launched during Stockholm Craft Week 2024.

In the beginning of 2021, a writing circle was established, consisting of seven craft artists who graduated in the midst of the pandemic, as well as their former professor in artistic writing. Since then, the group has met regularly to share texts they've written on various given themes, as well as writing assignments they give each other, linked to their artistic practice. The book contains a selection of texts and images produced by the group over the past four years since its inception. The book will be launched during Stockholm Craft Week 2024.

In the beginning of 2021, a writing circle was established, consisting of seven craft artists who graduated in the midst of the pandemic, as well as their former professor in artistic writing. Since then, the group has met regularly to share texts they've written on various given themes, as well as writing assignments they give each other, linked to their artistic practice. The book contains a selection of texts and images produced by the group over the past four years since its inception. The book will be launched during Stockholm Craft Week 2024.

In the beginning of 2021, a writing circle was established, consisting of seven craft artists who graduated in the midst of the pandemic, as well as their former professor in artistic writing. Since then, the group has met regularly to share texts they've written on various given themes, as well as writing assignments they give each other, linked to their artistic practice. The book contains a selection of texts and images produced by the group over the past four years since its inception. The book will be launched during Stockholm Craft Week 2024.

Putting the Art into Craft: The Craftsman’s Art exhibition, 1973  The 1970s were a unique period for craft in Britain, in which practice and idea experienced a significant renaissance. Sharing points of similarity with the previous century’s Arts and Crafts movement, the 1970s gave impetus to a new generation of craftspeople and crafts businesses. Crucially, it was supported by newly created government institutions, which attempted to redefine and shape the meaning of craft. This paper will focus on the newly created Crafts Advisory Committee (CAC - now the Crafts Council), and its flagship exhibition, The Craftsman’s Art, held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1973. The CAC was a state supported, centralized body with overall responsibility for the development and management of craft activity in Britain. As an organization, it continues to play a key role in how the crafts in Britain are supported and defined.  From its inception, the CAC chose to align itself with ‘fine art’ focusing its attentions on high-end studio craft rather than vernacular, traditional or amateur crafts. This ideological stance was boldly manifested in the title of The Craftsman’s Art, and was timed to coincide with the launch of its bi-monthly magazine Crafts (still in circulation). The exhibition was intended to change public attitudes by introducing them to the new, fine art crafts. The legacy of The Craftsman’s Art exhibition cannot be underestimated. This paper will explore the CAC’s attempts to elevate the status of craft, legitimising it in professional spheres, and introducing new ways of making, theorising, and exhibiting craft. 

Scotland has long been a subject of the tourist gaze. By consequence, its identity and material cultural have undergone significant transformation and invention. This paper will analyse the relationship between craft, souvenirs and the invention of tradition in the Highlands of Scotland.  It argues that national development agencies, in particular the Highlands and Islands Development Board (1965-1990), played a key part in shaping the identity of Scottish craft in the twentieth century, by promoting it as a traditional Highland product to be consumed by tourists. The Board’s motivation was to diversify the economy by increasing the number of light industries. In a bid to arrest the crippling economic and social decline that can be traced back to Scotland’s industrial revolution, craft was commodified. By outlining the socio-economic context in Scotland following the Second World War, the paper will demonstrate how craft came to be associated with national development, and subsequently promoted as a cultural product, and souvenir. Building on archival research as well as oral history interviews, the paper focuses on the ceramic industry, Highland Stoneware (1973-present). Highland Stoneware provides an important case study of how Scottish development strategy attempted to link craft with tourism, with lessons that can be applied widely. The paper is conceptually underpinned by Hobsbawm and Ranger’s invention of tradition and Glenn Adamson’s thesis of the invention of modern craft.  Richard Peterson’s production of culture theory, as well as theories of tourism in a post-industrial context, including the work of Dean MacCannell, Nelson Graburn, provide further support to the arguments in the paper. As a case study, the paper sheds important light on the role that national development agencies play in shaping a nation’s cultural products, the relationship between tourism and the invention of tradition, and the economic impact behind the promotion of craft as souvenirs.