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LTD. Thomas Prior House, Merrion Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 Telephone 01 680764
GOVERNMENT GRANT The Minister for Industry and Commerce, Mr Justin Keating, announced on 11 March last a grant of £24,000 a year to the Crafts Council of Ireland. The Minister in making the announcement said that he was aware that the Council was hampered by lack of funds and that financial assistance was necessary " i f they are to do effectively the work they have set themselves". The fund will be used to establish the permanent office for the Crafts Council with an Executive Officer who will assist the individual craftworker in the areas of raw materials, production and marketing, and who will act as a liaison between craftworker and government offices, state agencies, educational authorities,
Crafts Council nowa Company Since the announcement on 11 March last by the Minister for Industry and Commerce of a grant to the Crafts Council at the rate of £24,000 per annum to set up a permanent secretariat manned by an Executive Officer and secretary assistant, the Council has been going through the lengthy process of forming itself into a Company Limited by Guarantee in order to be in a psoition to accept the grant. This process was completed on 21 September 1976 when the new company, Crafts Council of Ireland Limited was incorporated. The registered offices and new secretariat will be at Thomas Prior House, Merrion Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 which is beside the Royal Dublin Society's premises. The offices, of the Council, which will house a small library, records of craftworkers and their works and a
marketing agencies and buyers. An index of craftworkers and their work will be established. This significant and exciting milestone in the history of craftwork in Ireland is the culmination of five years tireless work by the Executive Committee and the Board of the Council. The Council has been able to arrive at this stage of development only because of the invaluable assistance given them since its establishment by the Royal Dublin Society who placed their premises and staff at the disposal of the Council. The Council gratefully acknowledges its debt to the Society and looks forward to continued association in the years to come.
wide selection of information for and about craftworkers will be open from the middle of January. Correspondence can be addressed as from now to the new address and the telephone will be operative as from the opening date.
Executive Officer appointed Mr E. F. Sutton has been appointed Executive Officer to the Council and Secretary to the Management Committee (the company Board). He took up duty on 1 October. Mr Sutton was one of the original CTT staff, serving in their offices in Dublin, New York and London. Subsequently he spent a number of years in industry, specifically in production and develop ment and was among the original sponsors and active founders, with craftworkers, of the Crafts Council of Ireland.
All Ireland Crafts Exhibition 1976 The All Ireland Crafts Exhibition 1976 opened at the Ulster Museum in Belfast on 30 September and at the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery in Dublin on 11 November, before distinguished gather ings. The Ulster Museum which was responsible for the design and mounting of the exhibition both in the Museum in Belfast and in the Dublin gallery provided a distinctive setting for the works of the 26 craftworkers chosen by the international jury.
The exhibition, which closed on 5 December, was seen by 4,500 visitors to the Hugh Lane gallery. The basis for the exhibition was an open invitation issued early in 1976 to all Irish craftworkers to submit up to three works for an exhibition which would place contemporary crafts in Ireland in an international context. The volume and standard of the response was generally disappointing. The international jury, Erika Billeter, Archie Brennan and Mo Jupp worked long hours during one of the hottest weekends in the summer to select what they felt filled the terms of their brief and out of 256 entries, which was itself a disappointing number, they finally selected pieces by 26 craftworkers. The exhibition sub-committee had hoped for a larger exhibition but accepted the jury's deicision, and in fact the success of the exhibition is of great satisfaction, in particular the public interest which must reflect in a heightened awareness of the sort of standard which is to be aimed at.