Join us for this year’s annual Peter Dormer Lecture, one of the leading events in Applied Art in the UK, delivered by Neal Shasore at the Royal College of Art in London.
What is the role of craft in education and in building our cities? Peter Dormer had strong views on art schools and skills and embraced a broad understanding of craft. In this lecture, CRAFT…In Glorious Polytechnicolour, Neal Shasore takes on these interests to think through historical ideas of craft and education to reflect upon their relevance in making the contemporary city.
Date: Monday 7 December 2026 – 6.30pm
Location: Gorvy Lecture Theatre, Dyson Building, Royal College of Art, 1 Hester Road, Battersea, London SW11 4AY
Dr Neal Shasore is a historian of the built environment and advocate for heritage and craft. His research has focussed on architecture, design and craft in twentieth century Imperial Britain: his first book, Designs on Democracy: Architecture and the Public in Interwar London was published by Oxford University Press. He is a trustee of the Architectural Heritage Fund and the Crafts Study Centre and sits on Historic England’s Advisory Committee and is an Honorary Fellow of the RIBA. Following positions at the Universities of Westminster, Liverpool and Oxford, for four years he served as Chief Executive and Head of School of the London School of Architecture. He has recently founded the School of Building to focus on conservation, craft and construction.
The Peter Dormer Lecture is the UK’s major annual applied arts lecture, held in memory of Peter Dormer, the writer and critic who died in 1996. Organised by a committee of his friends, colleagues, and specialists in craft disciplines, the lecture aims to continue the debate about applied art and society that was central to Dormer’s concerns. Peter Dormer’s writings embraced craft, art, architecture, design, technology and education; and his critical and curatorial work helped to promote the crafts into the free-flowing currents of postmodern visual culture. Previous speakers have included Edmund de Waal, Grayson Perry, Julia Bryan Wilson, Glenn Adamson, Alison Britton, Deirdre Figueiredo, Gus Casely-Hayford and last year, Jasleen Kaur, RCA Jewellery & Metal graduate and Turner Prize winner. The Peter Dormer Lecture Committee is chaired by Professor Freddie Robins, Professor Cat Rossi and Dr. Stephen Knott.
This event is free but tickets must be booked through eventbrite