Cork Craft Month

The previous Blog was posted last June, it might be worth re-reading for the history of CAD and how we got to this position....I was pleased to receive a lot of responses from craftspeople in Cork, detailing their plans for this year and hoping that our proposal to run a craft month in 2010 would be successful in attracting support.

I am happy to inform you that funding has been allocated and CAD will be running "Cork Craft Month" during August 2010.

The purpose of the craft month is to celebrate the rich diversity of craft produced in this region. We aim to do that by coordinating and promoting the events and activities that craftspeople regularly hold during the summer and bring them to a wider audience.

This region is well known for the quality and variety of its crafts , we hope to create opportunities for craftspeople to:

• showcase their work through open studios and craft trails
• offer masterclasses and short courses
• offer experiential events where families and/or children participate in making craft
• organise exhibitions, talks and seminars in craftshops, studios and galleries
• create craft areas in local farmers markets throughout August

You might be interested to know that this project is being funded by West Cork, South Cork and Cork City Enterprise Boards and the Arts Office of Cork County Council, with further funds to be confirmed from Crafts Council of Ireland, and the Arts Office of Cork City. Failte Ireland are offering support with marketing and promotion.

Whilst the budget is slightly less than we had requested and it arrived much later than we expected, we have sufficient resources to market and promote your events and to organise open studio trails and hopefully one exhibition/craft event. We aim to bring together all craft related events and activities in Cork and produce a fold- out map which shows when, where and what activities are taking place in Cork. The Map/ Listing will be distributed to Tourist Offices, Libraries, Hotels etc as well as being available on our website.

Next year as many of you already know, is designated "Year of Craft" in Ireland and the Crafts Council of Ireland hopes that some, if not all other counties will hold their own Craft Month throughout August. Our event is being seen as a "pilot" and we hope it will be a great success, it could become an annual event that will develop year on year.

You will be contacted very soon and asked for details of the events you are planning for August. The success of the Craft Month depends largely on your imaginative and exciting ideas, without the craftspeople "Cork Craft Month" would not be possible....