PROFESSOR GEOFFREY CROSSICK Chair, Crafts Council ROSY GREENLEES OBE Executive director, Crafts Council Welcome to the Collect 2018 catalogue. As ever, Crafts magazine has ensured it is a beautiful publication reflecting the standard and quality of Collect, and for the first time it is free for all visitors to the air. This year we have the largest number of galleries since the fair has been at the Saatchi Gallery: 40 in total, from four continents and 13 countries, representing over 400 artists. The scale is all the more impressive when you note the range of disciplines, techniques, approaches and concepts – truly reflecting the spectrum of modern craft. We’re delighted to welcome 16 new galleries including ESH Gallery (Italy), Galerie Metzger (Germany), JOYA Barcelona Art Jewellery Fair (Spain), Mint (UK), Tansey Contemporary (US) and Ting-Ying (UK) alongside many returning galleries, all of whom will bring artists new to the fair, a longstanding criterion to ensure that we provide a springboard for future craft stars. Collect Open returns, showcasing ambitious new installations by 14 artists and collectives. This year features a life told in a tapestry, the aftermath of a meal presented as a 20-piece metal still life, and an enclosed garden of sculptural jewellery, all illustrating the power of craft to tell stories, make arguments and explore ideas big and small. Since the last Collect, the Crafts Council partnered with BBC Radio 4 and the V&A on the Woman’s Hour Craft Prize, which introduced a new audience to craft. We are pleased that many of the 12 finalists and the eventual winner, Phoebe Cummings, are represented at Collect, not least through the Crafts Council Benefit Auction (more of which below). And as we look forward to the LOEWE Craft Prize exhibition opening at the Design Museum in May, we discuss why prizes and awards are important as part of our interesting talks programme with a great line-up of speakers that will inspire, inform and maybe provoke. Our own Collect Awards will see writer and curator Ekow Eshun, curator and journalist Corinne Julius and the Crafts Council’s creative director Annie Warburton select the Collect Open Award, Object of the Fair and the award for Outstanding Display by a Gallery. In addition, further awards will be presented by Kit Kemp of Firmdale Hotels (One to Watch) and Liaigre (the Liaigre Award), both of which will result in commissions for the winners. This year we are delighted to present Masters of British Studio Pottery in recognition of the growing global interest in British studio ceramics. It brings together pieces by the most significant and influential ceramic artists of the 20th and 21st centuries from Erskine, Hall & Coe, Marsden Woo Gallery and Oxford Ceramics Gallery, and from the collections of both the Crafts Council and The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, who have co-curated the showcase with us. And at a critical time for craft in education at all levels, we will again be hosting a Crafts Council Benefit Auction, online with Artsy, to raise funds to ensure we can continue to champion craft in the future. Many thanks to the Woman’s Hour Craft Prize finalists who have generously donated to this auction. Finally, thank you to our sponsors this year: LOEWE FOUNDATION, Liaigre, Firmdale Hotels, Newby Teas, Chapel Down, G.F. Smith, EBISS, Republic of Fritz Hansen, Contour Digital and all our donors, patrons, funders and partners, especially Arts Council England, for their continued commitment to our work. We would also like to thank our Collect selectors this year, who have worked with us to ensure the continued high quality of the fair. Phoebe Cummings, Triumph of the Immaterial, 2017. Image courtesy of the V&A. Phoebe Cummings is represented by Joanna Bird Contemporary Collections and has donated to the Crafts Council Benefit Auction WELCOME 17