Craftschool is an exhibition and workshop space that explores the art of making, the connection to materials, the sharing of skills and the repair and recycling of objects to extend their functionality. The artists exhibiting in the upper gallery will share the space with a practical workshop for one-hour ‘taster’ classes each morning led by regional makers (free with admission). Visitors are invited to try their hand at a range of crafts, such as spoon-carving, weaving on cardboard looms or crafting a wooden whistle.
In the lower gallery there will be a display of work by makers based in Cornwall working in wood, metal and fabric, with an emphasis on purity of materials and function, alongside black and white portraits of the makers in their workplace by photographer Oliver Udy. Craftschool provides a platform for them to experiment or realise an ambitious piece of work.
With so much manufactured disposable objects in our world, Craftschool is a reminder that we can all make and repair objects with our hands. The classes will be relaxed and friendly, and aimed at absolute beginners of all ages (U12s must be accompanied by an adult). Though the one-hour classes are free with admission, a donation is requested for materials.
Makers and artists include
Ravi Bains / Blackhorse Workshop / Kinsley Byrne / Jacob Dodd / Francli Craftwear / Synnøve Fredericks / James Hankey / Louis-Jack Horton-Stephens / Ishinomaki Laboratory / Sarah Johnson / Felix McCormack / Celia Pym / Heather Scott / Oliver Udy / Kai Venus / Richard Wentworth
Each Thursday the following week’s programme of classes will be listed below in read more.
In the upper gallery artist Richard Wentworth presents four new images from his ongoing photographic project, Making Do and Getting By and Louis-Jack Horton-Stephens presents his film Gill & Gill, a study of a female boulderer and a master letter cutter and their mutual relationship with stone, with a newly finished film Teaching a Tree to Sing. Finalist in the BBC Woman’s Hour Craft Prize, Celia Pym’s practice is concerned with repair, in particular the darning of favourite worn-out or frayed clothes and celebrating the evidence of damage. James Hankey has been patching together different damaged chairs to make usable ones to furnish his new home (for his MA he took this approach to conceptual extremes, such as using crochet as a mug handle). The Japanese collective Ishinomaki Laboratory, who will be represented by a short film, inspired the gallery staff to make the workshop space together, under the guidance of the gallery’s exhibition technician. We will also be exhibiting information about Blackhorse Workshop, a fully equipped wood and metal workshop space in London created by Turner Prize winners Assemble.
Craftschool builds on the history of the Industrial Classes and the subsequent Newlyn Copper, an arts and crafts class to train and provide an alternative employment for fisherman. Archive material will be on display in the resource area while craft work for sale will be presented in the shop and café.
