Performing & Visual Arts
Crafting Futures: Knowledge, Curriculum & Climate Resilience
Join us for an inspiring evening exploring the power of craft as a living system that connects nature, culture, livelihoods and global trade. In the context of the climate crisis, ethical production and cultural resilience, this event invites designers, educators, students and industry partners to rethink the role of craft in shaping our future.
Our keynote speaker, Carry Somers – founder of Fashion Revolution and co-founder and Director of Advocacy and Programmes at the League of Artisans – will draw on her extensive work with Indigenous communities and traditional artisans around the world. Her talk will explore craft as a carrier of ecological knowledge, cultural memory and place-based identity, and reflect on how storytelling, transparency and material awareness can transform fashion and design systems.
We are also delighted to include talks from:
Dr Francesco Mazzarella, who will share insights from his research on decolonising fashion and cultural reconciliation, reflecting on experiential work with communities and landscapes and what this means for more just, relational fashion systems.
Dr Kirsten Scott, who will present her work on radically local practices, exploring how place-based making, community knowledge and local economies can reshape design education and future craft ecosystems.
The evening will feature: -
We will place particular focus on the role of craft within education and the curriculum, asking how institutions can embed making, repair, circularity and heritage knowledge into teaching and professional practice.
Guests will also have the opportunity to meet some of the Sri Lankan artisans and European brand partners involved in the EU–Sri Lanka Craft Matchmaking Programme, and to learn more about their collaborative projects.
This will be a warm, conversational and thought-provoking event that celebrates craft not as nostalgia, but as a dynamic, future-shaping practice.
