Launch Night

This evening’s launch of Age of Experience, in which the work of 15 senior craftspeople occupy all three Canolfan Grefft/Craft Centre galleries, will no doubt be its usual high society affair. I say “no doubt” because I’ve not been invited to the wine and nibbles do to find out.

The exhibits are from a generation that is said to have established the highly regarded British craft movement. Expectations are high. As with many exhibitions, it won’t appeal to all tastes and some items will appear a little surprising at first but none the worse for that—such as plastic toy soldiers stuck in broom heads.

All in all, it’s a very rounded presentation, from the threaded ‘curtain’ along the long windowed wall to the curiously compelling 3D stereoscopic images.

As you walk around the galleries, you just wonder how long the centre can keep this sort of thing up, in the recessionary times in which we find ourselves. It would be a tragedy for Rhuthun if funding became a problem. Public money will no doubt soon be in short supply. The arts (applied or otherwise) always has to fight its corner, even in the good times. And, which quoted company can afford to throw away thousands on arts, these days?