Introduction:Exhibiting Craft: Histories, Contexts, Practices Exhibiting Making: Gesture, Skill and Process

Imogen Hart, Claire Jones and Inês Jorge, ‘Introduction’, Special Issue Exhibiting Craft: Histories, Contexts, Practices. Issue 1: Exhibiting making: gesture, skill and process’. This is the introduction to the first of two special issues that examine craft from the perspective of exhibition histories, contexts and practices. This emerging field offers a significant methodological framework for understanding how the category of craft has been shaped, redefined and contested through display. Focusing on the exhibition as a site of enquiry, our contributors explore the ways in which diverse spaces, agents and curatorial practices influence the creative, political, economic, and social role of craft.