Crafts Council – 2025 in review
As we near the end of 2025, it’s time to reflect on the year gone by
The end of the calendar year is typically a time to look back over the past twelve months. Here, we highlight just some of the many things we’ve shared and achieved together at Crafts Council since January.
YCC Placements
We hosted two successful Young Craft Citizens placements in the Public Programmes team, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Aditi worked for us for six months, updating and refreshing the information held around insurance valuations for the collection, and Sophie completed her project on accessibility for the Handling Collection, then moved on to a job at the National Maritime Museum’s archives.
Young Craft Citizens placement holder Sophie working in the Collections Store. Photo credit: Sabrina Chu Young Craft Citizens placement holder Aditi working in the Collections Store. Photo credit: Sabrina Chu
Shoreditch Works Placements
We also welcomed two placements: Millie and Chaimaa as part of a partnership with Shoreditch Works. The pair led on creative consultation with communities in Hackney, building different events, collaboration and outreach. They successfully engaged local communities, creative businesses and makers in the future development of the Shoreditch Works site and programming.
Collect
Collect 2025 hosted forty galleries and four hundred contemporary artists over five days at Somerset House. Following the fair, Collect launched three Collect Open bursaries, supported by Spinocchia Freund. After saying a fond farewell to Fair Director Isobel Dennis, we welcomed TF Chan into the role. Preparations are now in full swing for this year’s fair – the 22nd edition – in late February 2026.
Festival of Making
We worked with a group of emerging makers from the Festival of Making in Blackburn. After inviting them for workshops in Blackburn and at the Crafts Council Collections Store, they produced an ever-evolving exhibition at the Festival of Making with pieces from our Handling Collection. This work formed part of our nationwide consultation on the Crafts Council Collection, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Collections Advisory Committee
We held the first four meetings of the newly-formed Collections Advisory Committee, our new collections advisory group who will steer the future of the Crafts Council Collection. Sessions were held on refreshing the Collection’s remit and its acquisition policy.
Festival of Making. Photo credit: Jack Bolton The Collections Advisory Committee outside Crafts Council Gallery.
Decorated/Adorned
We co-curated two wonderful summer exhibitions for the Brookfield Properties Craft Award, the sixth year of the prize. Entitled “Decorated: The Sculptural Ceramics of Ebony Russell” and “Adorned: Celebrating Craft and Form”, the exhibitions welcomed thousands of visitors over the four months they were open.
Two new Trustees
Our final board meeting of the year welcomed two of our Youth Advisory Panel members to the board as observers, in preparation for their appointment as trustees in February. Maariyah Patel and Melody Ramsay have both been involved with our Young Craft Citizens programme for a number of years, and have each served a term as Youth Advisory Panel members. We are delighted to be welcoming them onto the board as part of our ongoing commitment to ensuring our Trust board is reflective of the communities we serve.
Craft School
We launched Craft School: Jasleen’s Challenge in September, and now have over 100 schools across the nation taking part in the annual challenge, creating 3D work and craft in response to this year’s theme, Community.
We delivered two CPD sessions featuring talks from craft and education professionals, including woodworker Darren Appiagyei, illustrator and bookbinder Fidelia Schlegl, and Early Years maker–researcher Natalie Zervou. Sessions continue in the New Year.
New Membership Programme
Having listened to feedback from makers and audiences, we revamped the Crafts Council Membership scheme, combining quarterly editorial content, membership events, directory listings and craft resources into one bundle. We launched the membership at our first ever Craft After Dark event in the Crafts Council Gallery, bringing over sixty people together to celebrate making. We appointed Crafts Council Champions, industry leaders who are pushing their craft forward, including woodturners Ash & Plumb, textile artist Margo Selby and botanical embroiderer Olga Prinku.
Craft After Dark. Photo credit: Rory Lindsay
Discover! Creative Careers
As part of Discover! Creative Careers month, an initiative by the UK Government to demystify paths into the creative arts, we hosted in-person presentations with four makers at ten schools in Kirklees. We were active in sharing resources around craft careers using #DiscoverCreativeCareers and #CraftCareers.
And besides all this, we are continually advocating for craft, uplifting makers and spotlighting the fantastic craft being made across the country. We look forward to pushing ahead in 2026 to support more makers, audiences and communities with our work.
