Events & talks
We provide an exciting range of events, offers and opportunities for our members to enjoy. Find out what’s coming up and check back regularly for updates
Through our in-person and online events, we bring Crafts Council Members together with the most exciting and influential figures in UK contemporary craft. From book clubs to panel discussions, visits to Crafts Council Collection and Gallery, plus much more, we'll keep you immersed in and inspired by craft.
Upcoming events
Creative Recharge
Monday 12th - Friday 16th January 2026. Online- emails and via Zoom Webinar.
Exclusive to members, we will be running an online five-day course focusing on different ways to recharge your creative practice. The Creative Recharge course will comprise of five emails packed with resources and creative prompts, and four online live events, which will be recorded and available to watch after. We will introduce you to the concept of 'Make First', Crafts Council’s signature philosophy, and show what it can do for your work. Mid-week will see us talking to Margo Selby about her practice as a textile artist and designer. Then creative career coach Sheryl Garratt will be taking over for one day, sharing the advice and insight that allows her one-to-one clients to thrive. We'll give you tips to get the most from our digital archives and the week will end with a session to reflect on your learnings as a group.
Start 2026 with new ways of thinking and a zest for the year to come.
Online Webinar: Make First with Crafts Council
Monday 12 January, 7 - 8 pm. Online via Zoom Webinar.
To kickstart the week, join Crafts Council's Senior Learning & Participation Manager, Amanda Rigler, and Education Manager, Melise Djemal, for an online webinar introducing Make First, a learning philosophy created by Crafts Council. Amanda and Melise will explain the principles of Make First and how it can benefit your practice.
Tickets for this event are free for members. Book here
Online Webinar: In conversation with Margo Selby
Wednesday 14 January, 7 - 8 pm. Online via Zoom Webinar.
Next up, hear from celebrated textile designer Margo Selby. She will be speaking to us about her own creative practice, how she finds her inspiration, and works through difficulties.
Tickets for this event are free for members. Book here
Online Webinar: Sheryl Garratt: This Creative Life takeover
Thursday 15 January, 6:45 - 8:15 pm. Online via Zoom Webinar.
Sheryl Garratt will be taking over. Sheryl runs The Creative Life and specialises in coaching for creative professionals. Sheryl will help us overcome the various fears that stop us from creating. Check in for the morning email and join us at 6:45 pm that evening for a live session with Sheryl.
Tickets for this event are free for members. Book here
Online Webinar: Open review session
Friday 16 January, 7 - 8 pm. Online via Zoom Webinar.
To round off the week, join Crafts Council's team, Associate Editor, Anna Fielding, and Sector Support Manager, Amelia Lawrence for an online group session with a chance to share what you’ve learned with your fellow Rechargers.
Tickets for this event are free for members. Book here
Book Club: Queer Crafts: A Conversation with Dr Daniel Fountain, chaired by Eleanor Medhurst
Thursday 29 January, 7 - 8 pm. Online via Zoom Webinar.
Join Crafts Council for an online talk, in conversation with Dr Daniel Fountain, artist, curator, researcher, and author of the new publication Queer Crafts: Materiality, Identity, Contemporary Practice. Through a focused analysis of work made from textiles, ceramics, wood, paper, metal, and glass, this book explores how contemporary artists, designers, and practitioners identifying as LGBTQ+ use a range of craft materials and processes to explore their identity and queerness. Reframing craft through a queer and trans theoretical lens, Fountain analyses how practitioners reclaim histories, rewrite narratives, disrupt hierarchies, and craft their own worlds.
Dr Daniel Fountain is Senior Lecturer in Art History and Visual Culture at the University of Exeter, UK. They are a practitioner, curator, and scholar whose work explores the intersections between LGBTQ+ art, craft, and visual culture. Fountain is the editor of Crafted with Pride: Queer Craft and Activism in Contemporary Britain (2023) and the author of Queer Crafts: Material Practices and the Making of Identity (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026).
Eleanor Medhurst is a historian of queer fashion and culture and the author of Unsuitable: A History of Lesbian Fashion (2024). She shares her research in accessible online spaces, including her website Dressing Dykes and across social media platforms. She is now pursuing her PhD in lesbian textile craft histories at the University of Brighton.
Tickets to this event are free for members. Book here
Save the date
Collect Art Fair 2026
26 February - 01 March 2026, Somerset House, London
Collect is the leading international art fair dedicated to contemporary craft and design. Over 40 prestigious galleries and organisations are hand-picked to exhibit by an advisory panel. Together they present the work of 400 living artists, 80% of which will have been made in the last five years. A wide range of disciplines and materials are represented at Collect: ceramics, furniture, glass, jewellery, wearable art, metalwork, non-traditional materials, precious metalwork, sculpture, textiles, woodwork and more.
Crafts Council members receive priority booking for tickets and Crafts Council+ members enjoy 2 for 1 tickets. Tickets will be released January and information about booking your tickets will be communicated to members early 2026.
Craft After Dark and Collect
Friday 27th January 2026, Somerset House, London
Craft After Dark is a chance for makers, craft enthusiasts and supporters to meet, make, network and discover the Crafts Council community.
