Photo: Flycatcher by Joanna Gilmour (woven papercord), below Dreamcatcher by members of the Vernon Gardens Day Centre group, 2004 (mixed media). Courtesy of Hove Museum
Kristen Bailey is inspired by A Crafty Way of Thinking, an exhibition of contemporary craft by older people, on show until July 18, 2004.
Joanna Gilmour’s floppy sculpture Flycatcher reclines on its spotlit plinth beneath an airborne creation made of wooden slats, hung with all manner of intriguing items – jewellery, photos, scraps of fabric.
It’s called Dreamcatcher. It’s not by a well-known craftsperson, or even an art student. Dreamcatcher is the work of a group of older people from the local day centre.
The group from Vernon Gardens Day Centre wanted to make a 'memory catcher', hung with items which sparked reminiscences from each of them. The fabric scraps are from a shirt John Buckley wore once on a visit to his daughter in Rome.
There’s a photo taken when Margaret McGuinness took her children on a trip to Bristol Zoo. Millie Instone has added a packet of pins, which remind her of when pins were given as change in shops, and a necklace her son gave her (she didn’t really like it but didn’t want to offend him).
Photo: Bowl On Stand by Anita Johnson, 2004 (silk painting), next to Bowl On Stand, by Jane Chambers, 1992 (earthenware). Photo: 24 Hour Museum
This is just one of the wonderful, inspiring pieces of work produced by groups involved in the A Crafty Way of Thinking project.
Older people from local community groups have worked with staff and volunteers at Hove Museum & Art Gallery to curate a special exhibition showing objects from Brighton and Hove Museums’ craft collection that are not normally on display, alongside individuals' responses to them.
The project aims to promote understanding of the value of older people’s responses to craft and to provide a platform for them to express themselves.
Three very different groups of older people were involved, each with very different ideas of what ‘craft’ is. As well as the Vernon Gardens group, people from the Avondale Centre in Hove, which helps adults with learning difficulties took part and so did older students from a local Experimental Textiles course.
Photo: Photo: Cup Cakes, by Lyn Leese, 2004 (cake, icing, cherries), with Racial Harmony, by Quentin Bell (earthenware). Photo: 24 Hour Museum
Polly Hartnett, Crafts Officer, along with project volunteers Milly Bowie and Simone Carvin, encouraged participants to make responses however they chose. "We wanted to show that every person, no matter what age, could make a response that was important and valuable."
The responses take many forms – ranging from participants simply describing how they felt about the objects they were looking at, to producing sketches, pottery and pieces of textile work. Sometimes it’s hard to tell which are the original pieces and which are new – such is the quality of the new work.
Avondale’s Anita Johnson has produced a vibrant silk painting, Bowl On Stand, which hangs, with its preparatory drawings, next to Jane Chambers’ 1992 earthenware Bowl On Stand.
Photo: Tea Leaves & Memory, Frances Davis, 2004. Tea Cup, Shirley Hart, 2004 . Teapot, Susan Roddie, 1983. Photo: 24 Hour Museum
Quentin Bell’s 1980 sculpture Racial Harmony is displayed encircled by cupcakes, iced in flesh tones – a witty and apposite response from Lyn Leese of the Experimental Textiles group.
"This piece did not in my view represent racial harmony," she says. "It is ugly and disturbing. I could only respond to this piece by wanting to produce something that I felt was harmonious."
In the centre of the room is a case full of craft objects inspired by afternoon tea. Frances Davis from the Experimental Textiles group found a tea leaf in her cup during a break in one of the sessions and it prompted her to produce teacups and a book about memories of fortune telling using paper and tea leaves. They are on display next to a 1983 teapot by Susan Roddie.
Reg Westwood’s beautiful Fish Bowl, glowing in vibrant shades of green and blue, sits beside a 1986 teapot by established maker Michael Casson.
Photo: Fish Bowl by Reg Westwood, 2004 (earthenware). Photo: 24 Hour Museum
Visitors to the exhibition are encouraged to respond to what they see too. The 'You Respond' section gives visitors an opportunity to give their responses to some of the pieces on display. A prize of a place on a craft workshop at Hove Museum will be awarded for the best response.
Vernon Gardens’ John Buckley says, "I was wary of the museum at first but as time went on got more used to everything… At the start I didn’t want to get involved, but as time went on I got interested, discovered things could be done as you wanted them done."
