News
Research project aims to shine light on the plight of endangered crafts
The Heritage Crafts Association is pleased to announce a new six-month research project that will provide a major update and expansion of its groundbreaking Red List of Endangered Crafts, first published in 2016.
Are you the HCA’s next Maker of the Year?
Nominations open on 1st September 2018 for Maker of the Year, one of five prestigious awards awarded annually by the Heritage Crafts Association in recognition of people working in traditional skills. Craftspeople can also apply for, or be nominated for, HCA/Marsh...
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Gilding the Gingerbread
Two fortunate trainees, Ellen Wood and Tony Hassett, learned the traditional craft skills of gilding on the Cutty Sark ship in Greenwich on 6th and 7th August. Master craftswoman Rachael Linton demonstrated the skills and explained the processes and techniques. Tony...
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Two trainee craftspeople needed
Are you a stone mason, letter cutter, wood carver etc? Would you like to be taught how to gild using gold leaf by a master craftsperson? The Heritage Crafts Association has an opportunity for two people to learn the endangered craft for free in Greenwich, south...
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A fabulous exhibition of works at Manchester Craft and Design Centre
Endangered Crafts, which was based on the HCA’s Red List, culminated in a fabulous exhibition of works at Manchester Craft and Design Centre in May. Over 150 students from across the School participated in the project, with selected works exhibited as part of the School of Art’s Unit X Festival.
read moreWinners of the 2018 Heritage Crafts Awards
Basket maker Hilary Burns has been named Maker of the Year in the 2018 Heritage Crafts Awards. Hilary won the award in recognition of her work on numerous projects that have put British basket making and heritage crafts at the centre of public consciousness.
Making It! The HCA and QEST at the Worshipful Company of Carpenters
Craftspeople from the Heritage Crafts Association and QEST demonstrated an array of skills with opportunities for visitors to join in at the Carpenters’ Company on 9 May 2018.
read moreProfessor May Cassar becomes Patron of the HCA
Professor May Cassar has recently accepted The Heritage Crafts Association’s invitation to become a Patron. Professor Cassar joins an existing group of Patrons who support the HCA and its fundraising and campaigning work through their individual public profile.
Endangered Crafts project with Manchester School of Art
The Heritage Crafts Association is delighted to be working with Manchester School of Art on its forthcoming project, Endangered Crafts. Over the next nine weeks, students from across the Faculty of Art and Design are being challenged to respond to the HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts.
HCA project participant Zoe set for a career in papermaking
When we set out on our Ernest Cook Trust funded Countryside Crafts Pre-apprenticeship project last year our main aim was to trial low-risk opportunities for heritage crafts businesses and young people to come together to explore the possibility of apprenticeship-style training…
New £23.5k round of awards and bursaries launched
We are delighted to be partnering with the Marsh Christian Trust, The Arts Society and the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust to offer a suite of awards and bursaries to celebrate and highlight traditional living crafts.
Traineeship offered in one of UK’s critically endangered crafts
The Heritage Crafts Association is delighted to report that one of the seventeen critically endangered crafts identified in the Radcliffe Red List for Endangered Crafts is looking for a new trainee. William Cowley Ltd., maker of high quality parchment and vellum, is looking for an additional employee to ensure that craft skills which have been passed down through the generations are continued into the future.
Extended deadline! The Cockpit Arts / The Arts Society Award 2017
Extended deadline: 17 July 2017, 10am
This annual award from Cockpit Arts is supported by The Arts Society and supports a maker practicing a traditional craft that requires skills at risk of dying out. On offer is one year’s sponsored workshop space at one of Cockpit’s creative business incubators. Since 2012, the Award has been organised in conjunction with the HCA.
Honours for heritage craftspeople
Heritage crafts have received royal recognition and high honour with three craftspeople – Wim Visscher, Felicity Irons and John Lord – included in The Queen’s Birthday Honours Lists this year.
QEST/HCA Apprenticeship now open for applications
Deadline: 3 August 2017
The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) Heritage Crafts Association Apprenticeship provides funding to enable Apprentices to learn craft skills within companies and from master craftsmen and to support employers to take on Apprentices and nurture a new generation of craftspeople.
Heritage Crafts Awards winners 2017 announced
The last remaining professional fore-edge painter Martin Frost has been awarded Maker of the Year by the Heritage Crafts Association at its Textures of Craft conference on 6 May 2017. Fore-edge painting is one of the seventeen critically endangered crafts identified by the HCA.
Rare craft skills on the brink of extinction new research shows
New research by the Heritage Crafts Association and supported by The Radcliffe Trust has found many traditional craft skills in the UK to be hanging on by a thread.
Prestigious Churchill Fellowships awarded to the heritage craft sector
The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust has just awarded eight Travelling Fellowships to people dedicated to working in the traditional crafts, including the woodworking crafts such as joinery, cabinet and furniture making.
We are recruiting new trustees!
We are looking for trustees with experience of fundraising, PR and external communications (including social media), membership development (including Customer Relationship Management) and HR to join our passionate board.
read moreHCA welcomes new Chair
We are delighted to announce that Ian Keys has agreed to take up the role of HCA Chair. A new Trustee, Ian has a background in public services spanning more than 30 years and covering heritage, publishing, local government, the commercial delivery of services and strategic policy development.
read moreAdopt a Potter launches Clay College Stoke Crowdfunder
The Adopt a Potter charitable trust has launched a Crowdfunder to raise £20,000 towards the £200,000 total needed to open Clay College Stoke, a not-for-profit, independent training college set up by potters for the new generation of students.
read moreHCA welcomes new Trustee
New Ernest Cook funded project
The HCA has been awarded a grant from the Ernest Cook Trust to pilot a new programme of pre-apprenticeships in countryside crafts in West Somerset.
read moreTwo new craftspeople honoured
We are delighted that two members nominated by the HCA have been recognised in the New Years honours list.
read moreEuropean Folk Art and Craft Federation
Last month, HCA trustees met with Solveig Torgersen Grinder (Norwegian Folk Art and Craft Association) and Liina Veskimägi (Estonian Folk Art and Craft Union) from the European Folk Art and Craft Federation…
read moreThe Radcliffe Red List of crafts in jeopardy in the UK
The Radcliffe Red List of crafts in jeopardy in the UK – kindly funded by the Radcliffe Trust – is a strategic project which will provide essential decision-making information to all those concerned to increase the sustainability of crafts.
read moreShoemaker and paper marbler win awards
The Cockpit Arts/NADFAS/HCA Award provides a year’s free workshop space at Cockpit Arts, as well as dedicated business support and training, to a craftsperson whose work contributes to the continuation of heritage craft skills.
read moreNew trustee welcomed
The HCA is pleased to welcome Joanna Dunn onto the board of trustees. Joanna is Marketing Manager for a Charity Investment firm in London and an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
read moreBalfour of Burleigh Tercentenary Prizes
The wonderful Radcliffe Trust are celebrating their tercentenary this year and have decided to mark this by creating the Balfour of Burleigh Prizes for Exceptional Achievement in Crafts.
read moreJohn Hayes on the support for heritage crafts
For those that were not at the HCA skills forum at Chelsea College in 2011, or for those that were and would like a transcript, this is John Hayes speech. We felt it was enormously positive, at last we have someone in a position to make a difference who really...
read moreRoyal support for crafts initiative
The Prince of Wales has always had wonderful respect for craftspeople working with tradition, and now he has taken on the presidency of a new organisation created by craftspeople themselves.
read moreHCA Furniture Village Photography Competition
The Heritage Crafts Association in association with Furniture Village has launched its first ever Photography Competition to highlight the wide variety of crafts and makers in the UK.
read moreManifesto for Crafts Education
The HCA’s highly successful and rewarding Manifesto for Making at the Spring Conference last year, the findings of the Mapping Heritage Crafts focus groups, and the Crafts Council’s research into the current state of education in crafts have all highlighted the current issues with craft teaching and learning.
read moreWhy heritage crafts are important
Keynote speech by Professor Ewan Clayton Professor Ewan Clayton is a renowned calligrapher, Visiting Professor in Art, Design, Media and Culture at the University of Sunderland and lecturer in calligraphy at the University of Roehampton. The HCA was honoured that...
read moreSave our Skills Appeal
Until the 1960’s many wooden ladders were made in the UK, one of the largest makers being John Ward and Son Ladder Makers, where Stanley learnt his craft.
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