Gaining Ground |Exhibition | Craft Council Gallery and British Textile Biennial | 2022-3

Gaining Ground foregrounds global craft practices that value soil, biodiversity, local materials and production systems. Nine making projects were highlighted in this exhibition through a display of films, photography, audio, handbooks, raw materials, and craft objects.

The exhibition drew on the British Council’s Crafting Futures programme and featured work by artisans and researchers from countries across the globe, including Bangladesh, the Philippines, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Argentina, Nicaragua, Guyana, Brazil, Indonesia and the United Kingdom.

The Crafts Council Gallery was transformed into a site for learning, where visitors can engage with craft processes from across the globe. In particular, the exhibition drew attention to territories where colonialism and extractive capitalist processes have disrupted craft knowledge being passed onto future generations. Each project, although geographically and socially distinct, questioned what we can learn from craft to inform climate action and in our quest to build a more sustainable future.

The exhibition was commissioned by Sumitra Upham, Head of Programmes, Crafts Council and Sevra Davis, Director of Architecture, Design and Fashion, British Council.

Gaining Ground will be restaged at the British Textile Biennial 2023 at the Haworth Gallery in Accrington from October 2023. It features six textile and fibre based projects from the original exhibition.