In collaboration with the Crafts Council, this research focuses on the politics of expertise and diversity in the craft economy. Developing initial work in an AHRC-funded Creative Economy Engagement Fund (CEEF) project (to be completed December 2018) which examines how social media can support diversity in craft, this Fellowship intends to develop intellectual, practical and policy contributions pertaining to issues around diversity and expertise in craft. The research primarily seeks to problematise existing notions of expertise in relation to the craft economy, challenging notions of amateur, feminised, craft activities which are perceived to require a lower level of expertise compared to masculinised forms of craftsmanship, such as those lauded in Richard Sennett's The Craftsman (2008). By addressing the framing of expertise in craft, this research will contribute to knowledge on expertise in contemporary craft practice, and provide the underpinning research for policy recommendations to address inequalities in the wider creative sector. This research is partly led by insights from my PhD on how artists develop and signal expertise on social media platforms. In the PhD I found that creatives who have the time and skills to promote their art online are able to make a living, but not everyone has the means to do so. Within the context of existing literature highlighting the precarious and unequal nature of creative work (Banks, 2017) it is essential that creatives from all backgrounds are able to access the resources they need to flourish and/or make a living from their practice. For makers in particular, skills in self-promotion are crucial as the creative sector is predicted to see a 'return to artisanal employment' (Nesta, 2017). As such, makers from all backgrounds should be able to develop the skills to sell products and make themselves visible online, or at least benefit from the opportunities for mutual support and connectivity online (Patel, 2017). Yet my PhD research and insights from the current CEEF point to a lack of confidence and skills with social media use, particularly among women from Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds. The research will involve an ethnography of makers and spaces around the UK, to examine the forms of craft practice which take place within minority ethnic communities. Though aspects of such practice have been explored in the past, for example Parminder Bhachu's (2004) account of Asian fashion economies, this research is situated within the context of the contemporary digital and cultural economy and seeks to address issues of inequalities in the sector, particularly around gender and race. The project will also include the development of a bespoke STEAMLab workshop for makers to develop digital skills, as part of Birmingham City University's pioneering STEAMHouse programme (www.steamhouse.org.uk) which provides space and facilities for makers, scientists and academics to develop new projects and products. The STEAMLab workshop will explore aspects of creativity and wellbeing through digital skills development, to encourage makers to use digital technologies to flourish through creative expression and connectivity with online maker communities. The insights from the ethnography and workshop will inform the Crafts Council's research strategy and Talent Development Programme. Some interviews with makers will be packaged and edited to form a podcast series on craft practice which will be hosted on the project website. In conjunction with the Crafts Council a policy document will be developed with recommendations for using digital technology to support diversity in craft. As part of the project I will also organise an international conference on expertise and diversity in craft and the creative economy at Birmingham City University. From this I will edit and produce a journal special issue which explores the themes and intellectual questions raised in the conference.

Throughout history, Istanbul has been a city where different communities have coexisted, and many languages, religions, and cultures have interacted with and influenced one another. Despite changes over time, the city is still home to a culture where, within craftsmanship, textiles are used in a variety of forms. The breadth of colour and thread types, designs, and motifs used in textile practice has transformed worldwide into a means of expression through which the stories of a particular culture are passed down from generation to generation. Quilting, carpet weaving, cloth stamping, embroidery, and point lace are just some of Turkey's many textile crafts. Passed down from master to apprentice, the various trades associated with these crafts are now slowly giving way to technology. In a project to be carried out by RCA and Istanbul Modern Museum, a network of scholars, artists, and craftspeople from Turkey and the United Kingdom will coalesce to move textiles, as used throughout crafts and art, closer to contemporary technology by creating avant-garde technology and design products. The project is aimed at academics, textile artists, designers and artisans based in Istanbul. Notably, we seek to reach the craftspeople working in the fields of traditional textile craft and art, and young communities of textile art and research, to focus on knowledge transfer and best practice. Hence, universities, arts institutions, craft guilds and associations will be linked through a series of workshops and panel discussions, with the project findings disseminated at a final symposium in Istanbul Modern. The proposed activities will support the economic development of the textile craft sector in Turkey, contributing to Istanbul's 2014-2020 Regional Plan targets by (i) introducing new textile-making skills (ii) gathering local and international qualified creative labour to Istanbul through the symposiums (iii) sharing textile research and development activities with young artists and designers and craftspeople to assist in increasing turnovers in their businesses. From the notion of bringing textile thinking in interdisciplinary practices, we will use this network as a platform to engage with a broader community and test our idea of joint research to launch long-term initiatives. Looking beyond the current state of the art, we will facilitate the sharing of experiences and expertise across different disciplines, which also includes material innovation, AI and technology start-ups. With a strong emphasis on the policy of future craft, we will explore strategies as to how these relationships might be framed to support new talents. By aspiring to make art easily accessible by the masses, and to initiate a conversation at the intersection of craft and technology, Istanbul Modern would be an excellent host to seed this hybrid design framework. Through this series of events, we aim to mutually transfer and share the experience of research and industrial relations to support the local artisans, artists and early career researchers working with textiles to reach a wider audience and discover new elements in crafted textiles. The outcomes of the proposed activities would promote the economic development and welfare of Turkey by (i) suggesting possible pathways and bringing new skills to increase the value of textile craft and goods by technology embodiment (ii) exampling successful models and knowledge transfer to reach the creative labour's full potential and meet international and national demands (iii) promoting interdisciplinary research in traditional craft to enter new sectors, which in turn will increase the export (iv) developing new infrastructure and free programmes in Istanbul Modern encouraging technology adaptation in art and design (v) initiating a dialogue for creation of local policy frameworks and discussing necessary policy measures based on successful models in the UK.

This project focuses on supporting diversity in the contemporary craft economy, drawing on research from the UK and Australia. The project continues an ongoing collaboration between Birmingham City University and Crafts Council UK which seeks to highlight the experiences of makers of colour in UK craft, and work towards supporting a more inclusive sector. During the first phase of the project we have carried out interviews and produced a podcast series called Maker Stories. The research carried out so far suggests that the craft expertise of women of colour is questioned or devalued primarily because of their ethnicity, but in some cases also because of their class. As a result it is difficult for them to establish themselves or gain visibility in the UK craft sector. During phase one the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world, and the utility of craft skills became apparent as some makers used their skills to help with the response, and craft became even more popular as a means to pass the time (Murray, 2020). At around the same time in 2020 there was increased activity around the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK, which helped to draw attention to the whiteness of UK craft. Though the UK craft economy has grown significantly over the past decade, the proportion of professional makers of colour has stayed the same, at 4% (Crafts Council, 2020). Phase two of this project will explore how craft can be more inclusive, looking at how inequalities around race, class and the digital divide are manifest in craft, providing practical interventions to address them and exploring alternative pathways to market, so that more people can contribute to the craft economy and aid its recovery post-pandemic. Some of the research will be carried out in Australia, where craft is also hugely popular, but where there is also racism in the sector (Taylor, 2019). The project will focus on areas of the craft economy which lie outside of the professionalised sector, namely community crafts and social enterprises. This will involve interviews with makers, observation of community craft groups and craft social enterprises in the UK and Australia. This work will raise a greater awareness of the specific experiences of makers whose work is not necessarily considered 'expert' or valuable. This is because it lies outside of the professionalised domain, which tends to be allied to high art aesthetics and white, middle class, Eurocentric tastes (Luckman, 2015). This research seeks to challenge these existing hierarchies of craft within two countries where craft created by migrant and diasporic communities in the UK (see Bhachu, 2004), and indigenous communities in Australia (Myers, 2002), are devalued [see Patel_CfS]. The research will inform thinking around how hierarchies of craft can be challenged or disrupted, to foster a more inclusive sector. The research will also include online ethnography, which will focus on social media platforms such as Instagram, where debates about racism in knitting and fibre crafts have been occurring since 2019. These debates have often resulted in makers of colour feeling targeted and stigmatised online. Research from phase one of the project also suggests that some makers of colour are reluctant to have a significant online presence, for fear of abuse. Some online spaces have emerged which aim to support makers of colour, such as BIPOC in Fiber in the UK and Sydney is Cancelled in Australia. The online ethnography will explore how the makers involved manage their online presence, and what the aforementioned safe spaces do to foster inclusion. The research will inform a toolkit with practical guidance for craft and creative organisations and craft education providers (in further and higher education) to adopt, to make their spaces more inclusive. We will also produce academic outputs and a two-part audio documentary to raise awareness of the specific challenges makers of colour face.

Climate change poses a major threat to cultural and industrial heritage conservation in Damietta. Not only does sea- level rise endanger significant heritage sites, but also puts at risk the conservation and continuance of cultural values and practices that form irreplaceable layers of history in this community, embodied in the local craft and value chain, as well as the industry's social capital and spatio-temporal networks. Critically, the interrelated tangible and intangible cultural heritage directly affect the city's resilience and economic growth. This project aims to examine, quantitatively map and promote the cultural and economic resilience of Damietta, which is under threat from climate change and contemporary political decision-making that is insensitive to its socio-cultural heritage. By documenting and highlighting indigenouss knowlege and the tangible cultural heritage of this craft industry and its social networks, a strong case can be made to protect these practices and save the economic livelihood of the city's inhabitants. The methodology adopts a mixed methods approach, comprising interviews, focus groups and stakeholder workshops, which verify a geospatial GIS network map based on field survey. The research utilises Network Theory, Social Capital Theory and Competitive Advantage Theory as a basis for the evidence to quantity Social Capital and visualise its resilience in relation to space. The project outputs include visual GIS mapping of Social Capital networks as cultural heritage, online interactive platform as a shared arena for furniture industry community awareness towards climate change mitigation, recommendations for inclusive decision-making for municipalities and local authorities, as well as building the case for Damietta's furniture industry network for recognition in UNESCO's ICH programme. This project tackles several UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that relate to cultural heritage, economic growth/reform and sustainability in terms of climate action: decent work and economic growth; industry and innovation; sustainable cities and communities; and climate action (SDG 8, 9, 11, and 13). This offers an opportunity for data-driven sustainable development in Egypt, which is included in the ODA list on reporting for 2020 aid to mitigate against climate change.

This project is designed to explore insights from four intersecting AHRC projects that addressed twentieth and contemporary cultures of craft practice and policy. Craft practice is currently part of the contemporary zeitgeist. Practices of DIY, knitting, up-cycling, sewing, hacking have become responses to austerity, environmental crisis and anti-capitalist actions. Government figures document that 102,000 people work within the craft sector, who together contributed £248 million Gross Value Added to the UK economy in 2012 (DCSM 2014). Trade and industry sees the celebration of 'Best of British' with small scale, bespoke or handcrafted batch production growing in market share, for an audience who eschew mass production and values the 'heritage' of British skilled labour. Practitioners producing hand crafted objects have unprecedented outlets to sell their work at festivals, studio tours or online, in addition to the traditional gallery or commission opportunities. Craft is again 'of the moment', but these moments carry with them the politics of past generations of practitioners and enthusiasts, who share skills, values and experience. Within the research undertaken, 'craft' has gathered as a complex assemblage of relations. The research undertaken sees craft within a circuit of production and consumption, where people, policy, materials, political ethos, skill, time, place, money, makers and buyers combine. The proposed activities within this follow-on-fund aim to bring into relief this nexus of mutuality that underscores the creative economy. The Crafts Council, the Devon Guild of Craftsmen and the Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen are working in partnership with Dr Thomas, University of Exeter to co-design three activities that illuminate different elements of the assemblage of the contemporary craft economy. Activity 1: 'Celebrate: 60 Years of Connecting Makers and Consumers through Craft', delivered in partnership with the Devon Guild of Craftsmen A nine-month exhibition, retail and online campaign that uses the Guild's diamond anniversary to explore the history of the Guild through the 'social lives' of crafted objects made by members of the Guild, past and present. The concept draws attention to the intersection between the Guild's function of connecting designer-makers to audiences through the outputs of skilled labour. The activities follow the stories of the objects as they pass through layers of ownership and develop attachments and stories that transcend the 'hand' of the original maker. Activity 2: 'Making collaborations: Making Connections', delivered in partnership with the Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen An online and touring exhibition that focuses on the Guild as an expanded community of practice and interest to reveal the everyday relations of mutuality that underpin creative endeavors. Dr Thomas' research explored the hidden histories of the Guild, for example the role of peer, family or customer support in supporting designer maker's enterprise. The research will be used to present an alternative history of the Guild, and trigger a community orientated history that explores the organisation's cooperative ethos. The history will be given a forward orientation as ten pairs of Guild member collaborate and produce new work for an associated touring exhibition that illuminates the ongoing politics and practices of cooperation. Activity 3: 'Making policy: Researcher in Residence', delivered in partnership with the Crafts Council Dr Thomas will be seconded to the Crafts Council to work with the Research and Policy team. She will contribute to the Crafts Council's strategic objectives by contributing evidence based research and knowledge to support the Crafts Council's mission to chart and anticipate economic, social, cultural and political trends in craft. Multi-media resources and briefings will be created to disseminate the research findings to audiences within the creative industries.