Celebrating a 35 year history in the city of Leeds, The Craft Centre and Design Gallery has been asking past visitors Where are They Now? Their campaign, which hopes to share the stories of purchases made by past visitors, is just one of the campaigns launched at the beginning of the year to mark this special milestone as we featured in our Feb edition.
Visitors have been encouraged to share their own craft story of perhaps a print they fell in love with all those years ago, a pair of earrings friends have always commented on or a pot sitting pride of place on their mantelpiece, to highlight how the tastes of individuals have shaped the history of The Craft Centre. With many contributions already being made and shared on their blog and via social media the gallery are keen to add even more craft stories and would encourage you to get in touch if you have a story you’d like to share. Send your story and a few photographs of the treasured item to craftcentre-leeds@btconnect.com and the gallery will do the rest.
Janis Goodman, a Yorkshire printmaker who displays work in the gallery contributed to the campaign a few weeks ago; “I moved to Leeds in 1982, so it is also my 35th anniversary of living in Leeds. I discovered the Craft Centre and Design Gallery almost immediately as a customer rather than as an exhibitor. I was still working in animation with no notion of becoming an etcher. My largest buy took place a year or two later; it was a wonderful bog oak sculpture of a raven made by Claire Guest. There was a show of her work, with a flock of dark, powerful wooden birds and I spent time deciding whether I should spend so much money on myself. I struggled with the decision for a while; then bought the bird. The raven has made its presence felt in all the houses I have lived in in Leeds. I discovered recently that the now adult daughter of a close friend, had as a child dreaded going into my front room. I kept a box of toys there but she had to pass under the watchful and sombre gaze of the raven. I have never assigned it a name or gender but love it still.”
The Craft Centre’s Artistic Director Hayley Walker spoke of the campaign; “the contributions so far have been great. It has been so lovely to see where these items have gone to after they’ve been bought from us and many of the makers involved have also been touched by the campaign. We’re so proud to have reached our 35 year anniversary and we’ll be sharing many more stories as the year progresses so watch this space.”
Discover more about The Craft Centre’s 35 year anniversary programme on the What’s On page of their website;
Opening hours
Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 5pm. Closed Sundays and Mondays. Please contact the gallery approaching Bank Holidays for revised opening hours.
