As a winner of a QEST (Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust) scholarship, Hanny has seen first-hand how awards, programmes, and grants can keep endangered skills alive. ‘I think it really raises the ambitions and the standards of craft in the UK, because people really want a QEST scholarship, and to be part of that QEST family,’ she says.
Across the country, charities and trusts such as QEST, the King’s Foundation, Art Fund, Arts Council England, and advocacy groups like the Heritage Craft Association act as safekeepers. Mary Lewis, Head of Craft Sustainability at the Heritage Crafts Association, says its mission is ‘to focus on people and skills, not on the objects themselves particularly.’ The Association was born at a grassroots level, started by makers who felt heritage funding tended to go to buildings, while arts funding leaned contemporary, leaving centuries-old skills stranded in between. For Mary, what she describes as ‘local possessiveness’—that fierce pride people have over their traditions– can actually be a powerful tool for revival. And then there’s the Red List of Endangered Crafts, which could sound gloomy but has actually done the opposite: it’s given heritage crafts a strong, visible advocate.
What unites these stories is not nostalgia but curiosity: an urge to ask ‘how was this made?’ and ‘who made it?’ These makers aren’t just creating objects; they’re charting the towns, techniques and stories that stubbornly refuse to be buried under anonymous factories. They’re demonstrating that saving heritage craft often starts with taking the place you are from seriously.
