Contemporary Art Society Annual Conference - The Making of Things

I attended the Contemporary Art Society's Annual Conference on 18th February, 2011. The theme of the conference was how applied art and craft can be "framed within the context of the museum collection."

The conference began with a video of Indian craft expert and founder president of the Sanskriti Foundation, Professor Jyotindra Jain, who described his work supporting  crafts people in tribal areas of India. In particular, how traditional folk designs are adapted to suit prevailing political and economic contexts was discussed and a female scroll painter from Bihar whose work changed after a trip to the USA was mentioned as an example.

Divia Patel, Curator in the Asian Department, V&A, then discussed, India Design Now, a new exhibition of contemporary Indian craft and design to be held at the V&A in 2012. Several  fashion/ textile designers and architects who incorporate  traditional crafts into their work were mentioned.

Eleanor Bradshaw, Inspire Fellow at the British Museum, talked about her work with Grayson Perry who is in the process of developing some new work based on the BM's collections. The project was described as an 'ode to the [unknown] craftsman".

Glen Adamson, V&A, spoke about the "invention of craft", arguing that the act of making is in essence a creativve and innovative process (I think?).

Andrew Renton, Head of Applied Arts, National Museums Wales, Cardiff, presented several collaborations between artists and makers and the  Museum, including Arcanum, Edward DeWaal's curation of an exhibition of porcelain items from the De Winton Collection.

Neil Brownsword discussed his exhibition, Collaging History, The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, 2005, which was described as a "transformative archaeology of the Potteries". David Cushway discussed  the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff's, recent acquisition of one of his  films.

The full programme is below:




This Conference will raise a number of issues relating to craft and applied art with a focus on dynamic use of collections, collection development, exhibition making and the concerns of the artist.



Timetable for the day

10:00
Registration

11:00
Introduction by Lucy Byatt, Head of National Programmes, Contemporary Art Society

11.15
Film of Professor Jyotindra Jain

12:00
Panel 1 – Chaired by Grant Watson:
To include: Grant Watson, Senior Curator and Research Associate, Iniva; Divia Patel, Curator, Asian Department, V&A; and Eleanor Bradshaw, Inspire Fellow at the British Museum

12.45
Questions to the panel

13.00-14:15
Lunch and preview of the new National Network website

14.15
Talk - Glenn Adamson, Deputy Head of Research and Head of Graduate Studies at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

15.00
Panel 2 – Chaired by Andrew Renton
To include: Andrew Renton, Head of Applied Arts, National Museums Wales Cardiff; Neil Brownsword, artist, senior lecturer and researcher at Buckinghamshire New University; Fiona Jardine, artist and writer; and artist David Cushway.