IC:Innovative Craft Blog

Autumn has clearly arrived in Edinburgh

Posted Wednesday 23 September 2009, 09:06am

Autumn has clearly arrived in Edinburgh.  Heavy morning dews; wild winds and temperatures hovering around 12 degrees when the sun disappears, which it frequently does.  All that remains of this years International Festival are a few tattered posters and, at Dovecot, visitors books brimming with comments and suggestions.  The IC/Dovecot exhibitions continue until this Sunday 28th September when we finish, as last year, with a Doors Open Day event.  Then a pause, for IC, until our next exhibitions/events begin in mid-November.

With Nick our Administrator holding fort at IC, I managed a few days walking in the French Pyrenees where the challenges of climbing 1,000 m rocky slopes in 29 degrees of sunshine put the challenges of IC and Dovecot into an attractively different perspective.  A quick shift from French mountains to Welsh hills followed with the opening of Follow A Thread – 6 Contemporary Approaches To Tapestry at Ruthin Craft Centre 10 days ago.  Greg Parsons and the Ruthin team had installed all the works beautifully and Matt Hulse’s new film ‘Lightworks – Many Hands’ has highlighted the potential of a new film space for the gallery.  Matt and co-exhibitors Sara Brennan, Jo Barker and Linda Green joined us for the opening, together with Francesca from Dovecot, and we managed to spread our Scottish generosity to local bars, 24-hour bus routes and knitting shops with great enthusiasm. 

The other highlight of the past few weeks has been the opening of the new ceramic galleries at the V&A which puts contemporary making at the heart of a fabulous collection of historic ceramics in new and exciting ways.  Benchmark stuff for how museums can engage intelligently with contemporary craft. 

We’re delighted to be involved in our own museum linked project through Image/Craft – an exhibition exploring the links between craft and photography that IC are developing with the National Museums Scotland which will become one of the shows at Dovecot in November. 

A busy autumn beckons,
Amanda