The Blackwater Polytechnic (Ben Coode-Adams, Freddie Robins, Sara Impey, Justin Knopp and Simon Emery – The Paintbox) are exhibiting the collaborative work, Tree, in the Craftspace national touring exhibition We are Commoners: Creative Acts of Commoning.

The exhibition highlights acts of ‘commoning’ that are shaping the way communities are working together to share and steward commonly owned assets and resources. It also investigates craft as a form of commons through knowledge, materials, practice and heritage.

The exhibition also includes new work by artists: Amy Twigger Holroyd, Deirdre Nelson, Hefin Jones, Linda Brothwell, Jacky Oliver, Common Agency Projects (Shane Waltener & Laura Glaser), Lise Bjørne Linnert with Gelawesh Waledkhani, Rachael Colley, Alinah Azadeh, Hefin Jones and Kate Hodgson.

Hub: a national centre for craft and design
Navigation Wharf, Carre Street, Sleaford
Lincolnshire, NG34 7TW

Exhibition runs from 7 May – 10 July 2022
For more information and gallery opening hours

For more information about Craftspace and We are Commoners

Freddie Robins will be exhibiting Hand of Good, Hand of God (1997) as part of Amazing Women in the The Show Windows: Reflections project, City Arcade, Coventry, CV1 3HX. The Show Windows will be visible all day every day throughout March 2022.

This Show Windows: Reflections project, co-produced by Historic England, Quiet Down There and Coventry BID for and with Coventry UK City of Culture, 2021, celebrates the city’s post-war architecture and hope for the future. The objects were selected from the Crafts Council collection by Coffee Tots, a cafe based in City Arcade and run by the charity Three Spires Family that offers a safe space for parents and their young children and a free creative group for parents who may feel isolated, are struggling with their mental health or anxiety and/or are on a low income.

The exhibition is also available online through Smartify until May 2023.
View exhibition here

For more information

Collected – How an affinity with material objects shapes a creative life and practice
Organised by UAL Awarding Body. Teach Inspire Create 21/22

Recorded live on Friday 25 February 2022 3.00pm (GMT)

Watch recording on vimeo
Film running time 48:41 mins including Q&A session

In this keynote session Robins discusses her affinity with material objects and how this obsession has led her to create a life and a home surrounded by them.

“I love the silence of objects, their stasis and their dependability. In my keynote I will talk about how the objects that I own, and the ones that I fantasise that I own, inform both my creative practice and my teaching.”

For more information

Freddie Robins is delighted to have been awarded an a-n Artists Bursaries 2021: Time Space Money.

a-n (The Artists Information Company) Artists Bursaries 2021: Time Space Money is an emergency response fund to support artists and arts organisers to enable them to continue their professional practice at this critical time.

a-n.co.uk

Freddie Robins is one of the selectors invited to chose works from the Crafts Council Collection to create a ‘visual answer’ to the question – What does craft look like and mean to you? Alongside this selection curator Dr. Christine Checinska was asked to consider what was missing. Her selection of works by contemporary makers plays tribute to the founding ethos of the collection – to document innovative practice by emerging makers.

The final result is Maker’s Eye: Stories of Craft, an exhibition which features over 150 craft objects embodying multiple viewpoints on craft and its meaning.

As well as being a selector Freddie Robins has also been selected. She has two works from the Crafts Council Collection exhibited in Maker’s Eye – Hand of Good, Hand of God (1997) and Crafts Kills (2002).

Maker’s Eye: Stories of Craft runs from 7 July – 9 October 2021.

Crafts Council Gallery
44a Pentonville Road
Islington
London
N1 9BY

Open Wednesday – Saturday. Entrance free
For more information and to book tickets

Maker’s Eye: Works by Selectors
Crafts Council Gallery

(Freddie Robins, photographed with Allsorts by Judith Robson, Allerseelen by Hans Stofer and Match Pin by Gary Wright. 1 – 11 Floor Pad by Ann Sutton can be seen in the background (all held in the Crafts Council Collection), at her home. Photo: Jamie Stoker)