Race and craft in the Covid spotlight

After the UK embarked on lockdown in mid-March, craft and creative organisations had to quickly adjust to the new normal. Crafts Council UK and Craft Scotland gathered sources of help for makers that included guidance on financial help available, tips for livestreaming craft and advocating for adequate financial help for makers at all levels. Arts Council England also announced emergency funds for arts organisations and individuals. During a very worrying time, professional makers have been trying to adapt to the new climate, but at the same time craft has never been more popular as a means to pass the time, with TV shows such the BBC’s The Great British Sewing Bee being moved to a primetime TV slot and attracting around 5 million viewers. Many makers have also been turning their skills to making scrubs for health and care workers, or making and selling novelty cloth masks on Etsy. In Australia, the social studio in Melbourne has managed to save the jobs of all its employees by switching to sewing scrubs for health workers. While many are rightly worried about the future of the cultural industries post-pandemic, in some areas craft seems to have found a role in the current crisis. But in thinking about all these changes, and what they mean for the future of the professional craft sector, there is an urgent need to address the deep inequalities that exist within it.

Inequalities and racism in craft

According to the Crafts Council’s own most recent figures, the professional craft sector in the UK is dominated by white makers, and that has not improved in the past decade or so.¹ Since 2006, the proportion of makers from Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds in the UK has remained at around 4 per cent, and this lack of change points to a systemic problem in the sector. My AHRC-funded research on supporting diversity in craft (in collaboration with the Crafts Council), suggests that the UK craft sector is far from inclusive, and that some craft spaces are unwelcoming for makers of colour. Some of the makers I have interviewed have told me about incidents of racism at craft fairs, and microaggressions from other makers, customers and suppliers. And some of the makers I have spoken to feel that value judgements about their work are frequently filtered through perceptions about their ethnicity, gender and sometimes class, making it especially difficult for them to build a successful career in craft.

Since January 2019 there have been ongoing debates about racism in knitting on Instagram, and time and again knitters of colour attempting to call out racism and microaggressions have been accused of ‘bullying’ and (pejoratively!) labelled ‘social justice warriors’. In the meantime, in light of the recent increased attention on Black Lives Matter after all the events surrounding the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the Crafts Council, like many other organisations, sought to demonstrate their support for anti-racism by taking part in #BlackOutTuesday. However, this met with a lot of criticism, with makers of colour in the industry highlighting how the Crafts Council’s own actions are not inclusive. The Crafts Council have subsequently admitted they need to do much more.

This latest wave of conversation about racism in craft indicates the need for systemic, fundamental change in the sector to address inequalities that are mostly determined by race and class. At the moment, people of colour are doing a lot of the labour of highlighting the need for change and holding organisations accountable. Black makers are again having to go through the exhausting task of looking at empty statements and more racism online. This can adversely affect their work - some have been voicing their inability to make during such fraught and traumatising times for Black people around the world. All of this will not have the same emotional or mental toll on white makers.

Covid-19 and craft

The unequal impact of Covid-19 has highlighted the entrenched racial and social inequalities in UK society, and there is a danger that the crisis will only deepen...