August Craft Month 2010

The best in crafts in venues across the country

August Craft Month is Northern Ireland’s annual celebration of arts and craft, organised by Craft NI and held in venues across the country. The theme for 2010 is 'Slow', connecting with the need to slow down, adjust the work-life balance and consider the things we buy and how they are produced.

August Craft Month is packed with exhibitions and work for everyone, whether you want to make, appreciate or buy craft.

Craft NI's 2010 programme includes talks and events in County Down, Portadown, Armagh and Belfast.

In Taking Time: Craft and the Slow Revolution Helen Carnac brings together 19 international artists, makers and designers to reflect on the slow revolution. The exhibition aims to show that contemporary craft practice can generate a modern and timely response to current social debates.

There is also The Jerwood Contemporary Makers exhibition at the Naughton Gallery at Queen's University. This exhibition explores new perspectives in making and creating basket weaves and jewellery. And there is a sub-festival, The Little Bohemian Festival, in Priory Cottages Art, running workshops in everything from bronze-casting to woodland crafts.

There are dozens of other craft and applied art activities going on throughout August, including an exhibition of Coleraine-born potter Jack Doherty's work at the Ormeau Baths Gallery, the Three x 3 glass exhibition and workshops at Craft NI and Lesley Frew's cruelty-free plastic butterfly collection.

A full Listings Guide is available at tourist information centres, libraries, arts centres and galleries, in which can be found events that showcase the work of the top craft makers in Northern Ireland and from across the UK, Ireland and Europe.

Visit Craft NI's new online guide at www.craftnidirectory.org for information on many of their finest craft makers, where to buy craft and up-to-date details on news and events.