Project 09: Innovation Program

Role Title: Director of Innovation and Creative Partnerships, Crafts Council, London, UK.

Responsibilities: Program scoping and research, business plan development, creative and cultural strategy, innovation and futures research, new partnerships development, artist management, event and exhibition concept and delivery.

I was invited to scope out and then develop a new innovation arm of the organization, supporting artists, designers, and makers who were working across disciplines, collaborating with experts from other sectors, and developing new real-life products that had potential future impact.

The Innovation Program comprised an annual conference; Make:Shift, a series of cross-disciplinary partnerships, representation at biennial’s, design fair’s, conferences papers, discussion panels, and ongoing research into new areas of practice.

The inaugural Make:Shift conference ran over 3 days, and sold out. Supporting 20+ speakers, spanning discussion panels, workshops, off-site collaborations, and presentations, it helped position the organization as one the leading materials-research and creative platforms in the UK.

Partnership projects that ran as part of this program were: Parallel Practices; placing artists in medical teams at Kings College London, Sound Matters; a touring exhibition commissioning new sound art works, FutureEverything Festival; new sound-art commission by Scanner and Ismini Samanidou, Material Matters; a series of talks on Resonance FM Radio.

The program was represented at London Design Festival, London UK, Collect Art Fair, London UK, Kaunas Biennial, Lithuania, and numerous other festivals and academic events.

All Image credits: Sophie Mutevellian