Browse
Membership
Why join? Member benefits Healthcare HMCA discounts benefits For Individuals For Students and ECTs For Educational Institutions NSEAD Member Assistance Programme New Member Portal Join Us
Resources
The Big Landscape Curriculum Primary Education Anti-Racist Art Education Research, reports and reviews Units of Work Drawing Design Craft Digital Media NSEAD 22 Video Library Health & Safety Ofsted Research Review
Publications
iJADE AD Magazine START library Books NSEAD Shop Archive Life after lockdown #NSEADcreate: Learning Online
Courses & Events
Events CPD and Training E-Learning
Professional Learning Community
About NSEAD NSEAD Awards Advocacy Policy and Research NSEAD Directories Regional Networks Groups
News
Trade Union
Trade Union: Industrial Action Advice About the union How to seek help Legal advice & aid Trade Union FAQs Health and Safety Updates Careers advice COVID-19 Advice and Guidance Useful Links Introducing Sensitive Topics into the Art, Craft and Design Curriculum TOOLKIT
Join Us

Craft skills under threat with 37 additions to the Red List of Endangered Crafts

New research by the Heritage Crafts Association has identified dozens more traditional craft skills on the verge of extinction in the UK, in the first major update of its pioneering project, the Red List of Endangered Crafts.

Sixteen new crafts have been added to the ‘critically endangered’ category of the Red List, meaning that they are at serious risk of dying out in the next generation, including withy crab pot making, millwrighting and commercial handmade paper making. They join 20 other critically endangered crafts, including five (bell founding, flute making, scissor making, tinsmithing and watch making) that have been reclassified as being at a higher level of risk than when the research was first published in 2017.

Critically endangered crafts include those with very few practitioners, few (if any) trainees and a lack of viable training routes by which the skills can be passed on. Often they serve very niche markets, and craftspeople cannot afford to step away from production to train their successors for fear those markets will disappear.

It’s not all bad news, however, as the craft of sieve and riddle making, which was listed as extinct in 2017, has now been revived by two new makers devoted to bringing it back, both of whom are now beginning commercial production. In addition, the organisation behind the research, the Heritage Crafts Association, has, with funding from The Dulverton Trust, employed an Endangered Crafts Officer to look for practical ways to safeguard these crafts skills, and has set up an Endangered Crafts Fund to provide the means to do so.

Daniel Carpenter, who led the research on behalf of the Heritage Crafts Association, said:

'The Red List of Endangered Crafts is vital in drawing our attention to parts of our shared cultural heritage we are at greatest risk of losing. What we as a society decide to do with that knowledge is up to us, but at the Heritage Crafts Association we believe that the country’s skills and practices can be just as valuable as its historic artefacts and monuments… perhaps even more so as they may offer opportunities for future generations to create their own sustainable and fulfilling livelihoods in ways we cannot yet imagine. If we allow these crafts to disappear then we seriously diminish these opportunities.'

Whilst the UK has been a world-leader in the preservation of tangible heritage (museum collections, buildings and monuments), it has fallen behind the rest of the world when it comes to the safeguarding of intangible heritage (knowledge, skills and practices). It is among only 15 of 193 UNESCO members that has not yet ratified the 2003 Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage, and government responsibility for heritage crafts falls in the gap between agencies set up to support arts and heritage.

Julie Crawshaw, Director of the Heritage Crafts Association, said: 'In an age of hyper-digitisation these skills can offer a viable alternative workplace and a lifestyle that can bring a sense of accomplishment and increased wellbeing. As examples of tacit knowledge that cannot easily be passed on in written form; they survive only through practice and the transmission of skill from one person to another. The Heritage Crafts Association, which is celebrating its tenth year in 2019, is dedicated to safeguarding heritage crafts skills for the benefit of everyone.'

Back
When
14th March 2019
Share

See latest NSEAD news....

Standardising portfolios for art and design-related university applications
news

Further to issues raised by the NSEAD community about the process and impact of multiple portfolio generation on students, we conducted an indicative…

Find out more
School Funding and Pupil Premium Report
news

The Sutton Trust have published a report which shows the impact of the cost of living crisis on the financial pressures this is taking on school budgets.

Find out more
How can we build strong foundations for the future of the Arts in schools?
news

Today saw the release of a new report The Arts in Schools: Foundations for the Future, published by A New Direction and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation…

Find out more
NFER’s Annual Teacher Labour Market Report 2023
news
Initial Teacher Education

NFER’s Annual Teacher Labour Market report monitors on the progress in the recruitment system in England. The report predicts that there will be continued…

Find out more
News homepage
Learn More
About NSEAD T&Cs Support us Funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Legal / Privacy News Letter Invest in arts subjects to protect our children’s futures
Company
Support our work
Support
01225 810134 Contact Us
Advertise with us
Learn more
Follow Us
© 2023 NSEAD | All Rights Reserved
Site by Grandad Digital