Press release – Charities join forces to celebrate Britain’s heritage crafts

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Robin Wood and Paul MartinFour charities are working together to celebrate and support the best of British craftsmanship with the new heritage crafts awards.

The awards have been coordinated by the Heritage Crafts Association and individual awards are sponsored by the National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies, the Marsh Christian Trust and the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust. They will be launched on 4 July at ‘The New Craftsmen’ in Mayfair by TV presenter Paul Martin and presented at the Heritage Crafts Association’s conference at the V&A in March 2014.

The Heritage Crafts Awards are to celebrate and highlight the traditional living crafts made in the UK that contribute to our national heritage. Such crafts include weaving, wood turning, basket making, furniture making and upholstery, shoe making, metal, stone and clay crafts, textile crafts such as embroidery, knitting and lace making, the lettering crafts, the Sheffield cutlery trades, boat building and similar other crafts where there is a significant degree of hand skill at the point of manufacture.

This is the first time that there has been such a suite of awards specifically for heritage crafts. Together, over £26,000 is on offer.

Robin Wood, Chair of the Heritage Crafts Association says:

“Britain has a rich heritage of traditional crafts from shoemaking to blacksmithing. However, today, in many instances the specific craft skills and techniques required to produce these hand made items are known by only a few, in some cases only one. As craftspeople become older and retire from their work, there is no-one coming into the trade. One of the key concerns of the Heritage Crafts Association is the lack of support for what we call ‘skills transfer’ – the passing on of skills from one generation to the next. We are delighted that our generous sponsors are helping us to celebrate British Craftsmanship and help with the passing on of skills.”

Click here to download the full press release

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