Guild Welcomes New President

The Gloucestershire Guild are delighted to welcome Lady Anne Evans as our new President, taking over the role from Lucy Abel Smith.  We asked Anne to introduce herself and to share her understanding and enthusiasm for what we do, and why art, design and craftsmanship matters.

'" First of all, I am thrilled and honoured to take on the role of Guild President. Lucy has done a fantastic job and I hope to continue her work, adding my own perspective.

As an introduction. Back to my earliest memories, I have always had a strong aesthetic understanding and sensibility, as a child constantly making, drawing, painting. I’m sure if my life had taken another direction-ie Art School rather than Uni, I would have become an artist/maker myself. Fast forward to today, I am a Fine Art collector, designer. One of my greatest pleasures is collaborating with artists/craftspeople commissioning works, allowing them to push boundaries. I am fascinated by the creative process, the working medium as each individual’s form of expression, and also with the tipping point at which Craft becomes Art. In a throwaway world of gratuitous and wasteful consumption your skills and techniques and traditional ways of working could not be more precious. What you do is enduring and timeless. And what better way to spend your lives than creating pieces of work in your chosen materials distilled from your own individual aesthetic and vision and hopefully then, sending them out into the world and being paid for it! Seriously, I do understand the commercial dynamics of the Art/Crafts world, I’m immersed in it every single day, and I feel strongly that they’re are so many opportunities out there to sell your work, to maximise your audience.

Finally, we are fortunate enough to live in the heart of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Morris’s sentiment of the fusion of function and beauty is so important. I’m am so proud to be involved with the Guild and I will do all I can to support you all! "