Seasons Greetings from Creative Leicestershire!

We are only a few days away from Christmas and the Creative Leicestershire team have had a really  busy month with lots of fantastic activity such as the Makers Mart at Curve on the 8 December where we had 26 stalls and lots of sales and commissions throughout the day, celebrating the Igniting Ambition programme at the final Culture Club in Derby on 14 November, hosting the Leicester 'Making a Living' networking evening on 4 December at the LCB Depot and working with the Performing Arts Leicester group to recruit Sue Pike to manage their new leadership and training programme for 2013-14 .  Lastly if you are working away over Christmas and looking to exhibit next year,  entries are now open for the Rutland Open Exhibition 2013.

This extremely popular exhibition of work by artists is organised by a sub-group of Arts for Rutland, and held annually at Rutland County Museum. Entry is open to Artists and Designer-makers (painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, photography (including digital), ceramic, glass, textiles and jewellery) from Rutland, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire. This year's exhibition will take place between Saturday 2 March and Saturday 20 April 2013. For full details, download the application form .

We will be back on the 7th January 2013 so until then have a good break and...

The Creative Leicestershire December e-bulletin is now out, click here to download it 

Congratulations Ruth Singer

Ruth Singer, a former Creative Leicestershire Bursary winner has recently won the Craftspace Prize at the inaugural Contemporary Craft Open Exhibition at Unit Twelve, Staffordshire.


The inaugural Contemporary Craft Open Exhibition at Unit Twelve, Staffordshire was
selected by industry experts from Craftspace and Madebyhandonline.com and includes some
of the best contemporary craft being made today.

Ruth had two pieces selected for the show from her collection Monumental Folly; a new body
of work combining personal experience, emotions and the heritage of extraordinary buildings.
The pieces shown are a wall panel created using dyed and manipulated fabric from garments
along with personally-significant found objects, combined with hand stitch. The companion
piece, an over-sized pincushion, uses digital print and manipulation, along with handconstructed
elements referencing natural history specimens pinned to the base.

Ruth says “The work I presented for Unit Twelve marks a change in my style – using
personal issues and narrative alongside new techniques such as photography and mixedmedia.
I was absolutely delighted to get a award from Craftspace as I have so much respect
for their expertise in contemporary craft. It is a real boost to me creatively and gives me the
much-needed validation that my work is up there with the best. I will be spending the £100
prize money on exciting materials to use in my future work.”

Jennifer Collier, artist and Director of Unit Twelve Gallery says:
"I am so pleased that this award has gone to Ruth Singer, as she is a maker I have worked
with and admired for many years, and it has been a pleasure to watch this body of work grow
from an idea to fruition".

Emma Daker, Exhibitions and Projects Development Manager for Craftspace says:
“We were really pleased to be asked to select for the open Contemporary Craft Fair at
Jennifer Collier's gorgeous Unit Twelve Gallery in Staffordshire. We awarded our Craftspace
prize to Ruth Singer. We felt her works, 'Monumental Folly' highlight a new direction for
Ruth into more narrative textiles, which we think is very exciting!”

www.ruthsinger.com