Crafting Futures: Inspiring Interdisciplinary Innovation with Young Craft Artisans in Malaysia

The authors present a studio-based approach to inspiring interdisciplinary innovation with young craft artisans in Malaysia drawing on Crafting Futures, a project delivered in partnership between the British Council and The Glasgow School of Art. The Malaysian craft context currently faces a range of challenges that have led to a precarity in communities where craft has historically been a key mode of economic production, in addition to youth migration, particularly young women, from villages to urban centres. In response to this, Crafting Futures is predicated on the economic empowerment of young women in South East Asia through fostering innovation and design-led skills for female artisans. A Design Innovation pop-up studio programme was co-designed with Malaysian-based craft experts, and delivered to young craft students studying at the Insitut Kraf Negara, a specialist craft school in Rawang, Kuala Lumpur. Studio-based pedagogy underpinned the programme, with a focus on nurturing creative capacity-building towards cultivating a collective community of practice centred on Design Innovation approaches. The authors share insights surrounding the co-design process of programme development and delivery, where themes around gender, neo-colonialism and cross-cultural collaboration emerged. The authors conclude by discussing the value and impact of participation for the students, and set out directions for future regionally-focused research in the Malaysian craft context