The currency, role and practices of craft guilds represent a significant gap in our knowledge and understanding of the contemporary creative sector. This lack of critical attention seems to imply that they are marginal, nostalgic, and anomalous, in contrast with other creative sub-sectors such as 'digital media'. Yet craft guilds display a very distinctive combination of notable characteristics: unusually longstanding and resilient, with deep historical roots and wide cultural trajectories; typically artist-maker led; specific to a particular range of practices; quality-controlled through specialised aesthetics of skill, born of long apprenticeship; spatially-defined, with primarily rural 'county' memberships of considerable size; producing work which is the most accessible form of artistic experience for millions of people. As such, their internal governance is deeply implicated in a key range of distinctions and working practices with long histories and complex politics and geographies. The research will examine both the organisation and management of guilds and their functions for their supporting membership within the craft economy. Bringing together both governance and practices, it will interrogate just how rich in contemporary relevance these are for the wider development policies of the 'creative industries', which have recently been given such high national economic priority. \n\nAttention will therefore be given to situating guilds within the formal governance of the sector at regional, national and international scales. This will include the historical context of guild organisation and the links to policy-led, sector-wide, support initiatives in the twentieth and twenty-first century. It is timely to note that the activities that the supposedly 'marginal' guilds have traditionally organised are precisely those now being aspired to in support of the 'new' broader creative industrial economy - networking, mentoring, supporting micro-businesses, promoting new markets and fostering innovation. Investigating the geographies of guild activities will address key issues here: the dynamics of networking; the sustenance of practitioner-led communities of practice; long-term mechanisms for supporting lone practitioners in peripheral areas; product and market innovation.\n\nThe place of the guild in the creative life of its membership will also be examined. Historically, guild's have been understood to offer practitioners a variety of opportunities to network with their peers, display and sell their work, access continued professional development, and be part of a practitioner led network that champions their craft at a regional, national and international scale. This research will ask practitioners about the role and value of the guild in their practice over the course of their career. Given the powerful legacy of the Arts and Crafts movement with its ethos of mutuality and socialist principles, this research will seek to understand the moral and ethical politics embedded in guild members' practices. By investigating the politics of craft in a historical context, the research will seek to question and understand the implications of craft politics for contemporary guild organisations. \n\nThis research will offer a historically and geographically situated analysis of contemporary guilds within the broader context of the creative industries. At present the craft industry contributes £3 billion GVA to the UK economy (with an estimated potential for further growth of 63%) and employs up 13% of people working within the creative sector (around 88,000 people) many of whom hold guild membership. There are over 100 self-defined craft guilds operating across the UK and many more guild-styled associations. The research will consider the role of contemporary craft guilds in fostering development and innovation for their members, and will bring out the value that understanding guild practices can deliver to the wider creative economy.

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.