Maggie Broadley

Manifesto point 2 - We identify craft as a contemporary and traditional art form and as a creative industry.

“My mother taught me to make things; to knit, to sew, in the way she’d been taught by her mother…so my early view of craft was that it was something every-day and practical. I applied to art school in my mid-30’s, inspired by the ‘new’ Glasgow Boys (and Girls) and German Expressionist painters and printmakers like Käthe Kollwitz. I was redirected from Fine Art/ Painting to Ceramics, discovered I ‘knew’ clay and that I could use it to express my deep affinity with a culture and heritage that had making and the land at its core (I’m first generation off the island; the grand-daughter of a crofter weaver from the Isle of Lewis).

For me, craft is the keeper of tradition and the subverter of tradition; makers can innovate, commentate and challenge.  I find endless fascination in our multitudinous approaches to craft and its ‘shape-shifting’ across boundaries and barriers –  and artificial divides between design, making objects and making art.

MAKE is timely, recognising barriers but shouting out loud and proud about the place of making in all its forms to our culture, economy and society.”

 

Maggie Broadley graduated from GSA’s Ceramics course in 1997. She has worked at senior level within creative-led regeneration with an honest commitment to embedding craft in communities, supporting makers and promoting skills.

Maggie is keen to listen, learn, respect and represent; to look beyond boundaries and promote the broad church that is ‘craft’ – across not only craft disciplines but creative industries, design, education, environmental activism, fine art and socially engaged practice.