A voice for craft

At our Living Legacies reception last week, the Heritage Minister Baroness Twycross said:

“These crafts are vital to the identity, pride and cohesion of communities, and recognising them is only the first step. Next year, we’ll be launching a full public consultation to set our safeguarding priorities. Please do get involved. Share your insights so we can best safeguard heritage craft for the next generation.

“I’d like to pay particular thanks to our hosts here today. Heritage Crafts was so integral to the UK formally ratifying the 2003 UNESCO Convention. It’s only through collaboration between the private sector, government, the third sector and interested organisations, that we can truly ensure a sustainable future for heritage crafts.”

Following UK ratification of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, Baroness Twycross’s department have created a new Living Heritage in the UK Inventory and commissioned Heritage Crafts as one of eleven Community Support Hubs to help members of the public list their living heritage practices.

@dcmsgovuk @londoncraftweek @theleathersellers @saddlerscompany.saddlershall

At our Living Legacies reception last week, the Lady Mayor of London Dame Susan Langley said:

“I talk a lot about opportunity, but not everyone is academic. You give opportunity to those who can move forward with a livelihood that they perhaps didn’t think was possible. And thanks to your efforts, we are creating those living legacies across all of these crafts for years to come.”

Dame Susan has set up a Heritage Crafts Taskforce during her year in office, which we have been an active part of, to help create lasting change for support for heritage craft skills within the City.

@londoncraftweek @theleathersellers @saddlerscompany.saddlershall

#londoncraftweek #london #heritagecraft

Heritage Crafts at the Cutty Sark during @londoncraftweek ⚓️

When we talk about heritage, we usually think about buildings, monuments, museum objects and historic vessels like this one.

We think about the things we can touch and see.

But the most important part of our heritage is actually invisible. It is the know-how in the minds of the makers.

If we preserve the Cutty Sark but we let the skill of ship building die out, we have lost the ability to ever build another one.
We have lost a piece of human ingenuity.
A ship without a rigger, or a sail without a sailmaker, is just a dead object.

But when those skills are alive, the ship is a living thing.

Thank you @royalmuseumsgreenwich for hosting a weekend of Heritage Crafts.

#heritagecrafts #londoncraftweek #maritime

Heritage crafts at the core of the day!

Words cannot describe how proud we are to have hosted such a wonderful event in collaboration with @heritagecrafts the @theleathersellers and @saddlerscompany.saddlershall for @londoncraftweek this year.

From the beautiful pieces contributed to the auction, to the makers who spoke about their work, to those who gave demonstrations and answered questions. We were thrilled to see so many showing an interest and especially grateful to those who bid on the silent auction.

We ended the day with some inspiring speeches and hope to keep the conversation going.

#londoncraftweek #heritagecrafts #craft

Wonderful evening of speeches in celebration of Living Legacies at @theleathersellers for @londoncraftweek.

What is a heritage craft? @maryeluned_craft talks about the history of the Red List of Endanger Crafts and its role in the future. Great thoughts for @londoncraftweek.


Thank you to our incredible speakers, none of this would be possible without you!

#heritagecrafts #londoncraftweek #redlistofendangeredcrafts