Lunchtime Lecture at the V&A: The First Decade (1972-1982)

I have just got back from a Lunchtime Lecture: The First Decade (1972-1982) at the V&A. I’m now relaxing with a cup of tea and a copy of CRAFTS.

The lecture was given by Holly Burton, Archive Learning Officer and Gloria Lin, Curator, Researcher at Crafts Council UK. The project they are working on at the moment is to digitalise archives from the first decade the Crafts Council was established. Up until the 1970’s there was not a organisation to represent Craft, there was the Arts Council and the Design Council but the Crafts people just got by without.

It was really interesting to hear how they are looking back into the old archive, not just copying the documents they already have into a digital format. Gloria Lin described her role as being a bit like a detective. Where they are able to they are revisiting Crafts people from that decade and interviewing them, so there will oral recordings, visual documents and the actual pieces in their archive. They are also looking at what was happening socially see how this affected the makers and the work they created.