Crafting Futures was a three-year British Council global programme supporting the future of craft, its practices and people.
The Uzbekistan programme was developed by the University of Leicester, the ‘Hunarmand’ Association of Artisans and Human House art gallery, with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The programme piloted in 2019 and a number of aspirational medium and long-term objectives were set.
In the medium term the programme would seek to:
- Contribute towards empowering local communities by bringing together diverse individuals, genders and community groups through arts and culture, contributing to more open and sustainable societies.
- Contribute towards the creation of an enabling environment for inclusive participation and leadership in public life by developing skills for employment and creative enterprise, and reducing barriers to participation in creative sectors.
In the longer term, the partners envisaged that the programme would seek to:
- Help increase individual creative expression of craft makers and communities, contributing to more open and inclusive societies, building social capital and sharing economic growth equally across society to address global inequalities.
- Increase recognition of the value of craft culture in a sustainable development context, in order to address local and global challenges, as well as supporting the protection and promotion of cultural diversity and expression.
- Contribute to building more sustainable inclusive businesses and ecosystems for the creative and cultural industries and support long term policy change.
There were many potential actions that came out of the analysis of the data obtained during the scoping and pilot phase projects. However, with major constraints on the nature of activities brought about by Covid-19 restrictions in Uzbekistan, the partners sought to be selective and creative in the implementation of the actions pursued.
Detailed information about the programme can be found in the report (PDF 745 KB).
