The month in craft!
Introducing Objects of Dissent, bringing light to the last months of winter, & supporting the future of craft culture...
We’re back! After taking some time in January to rest, we’re excited to get back to a year of craft rounds-ups, interviews with creatives, and deep dives into craft culture. We also have something new for 2026 – Essay Club, a series of subscriber only posts – which we describe in more detail below. But we’ve always thought of our newsletter as a place to encounter contemporary craft makers and artists through interviews, studio visits, and round-ups, and we’ll continue to publish this content for free before it’s archived.
If you’ve thought about becoming a paid subscriber, now is the time!
Decorating Dissidence is an ever-evolving research-led platform and, this year, we’ll be working hard to develop it further… with exciting plans for an exhibition coming up in 2027 (!). If you’d like to collaborate or co-write with us, please get in touch via DM - or leave us a comment to tell us what you’d like to see from us this year!
Exhibitions
We never miss an opportunity to shout about Pinkie Maclure’s stunning stained glass artwork, which comes alive when seen in person - Earthly Spirits at East Quay (on until 4 May 2026) is no exception. Through stained glass, sound, and film, Maclure revisits long-held concerns for the artist around the environment and sacredness. At the heart of the exhibition lies The Soil, a 3-metre x 2.7-metre stained-glass installation that Maclure made single-handedly over 10 weeks.
Revisit our review:
Let there be light at London’s LAMB Gallery for A Collection of Behaviours, an exhibition of sculptural lamps by twelve artists on until 28 February. Curated by Stéphanie Ruth, the work on show ‘enacts a behaviour — stretching, swelling, or coiling — so that illumination communicates with matter to reveal its own distinct temperament’. At the Frestonian Gallery, CROSSINGS: Hans Coper, Sam Herman, Lucie Rie & Eduardo Paolozzi brings together four immigrant artists who brought an international flair to modern British craft and design, through ceramics, glass and sculpture. Co-curated by Isabella Smith, CROSSINGS features some wonderful examples of work from the Craft Council Collection (until 21 March). Further West of the city, Sherbet Green present (Icon)oclast, an exhibition of new ceramics by BLCKGEEZER and Cas Campbell. From clay’s ancient histories to contemporary culture, ranging across queerness, motherhood, and care, both artists use ceramics to challenge the icons society holds dear (until 21 February).
Glass takes centre stage at Sunderland’s National Glass Centre, which is closing on Friday 31 July 2026, despite a campaign to save it. To celebrate the Centre’s legacy, its final exhibition The Graduates brings together 51 artists who have trained or taught at the University of Sunderland’s Glass and Ceramics Department.
The sad fate of the National Glass Centre is a reminder that it’s so important to support craft culture and help safeguard it for the future. On that note, Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft will close to the public from 23 February, to plan its next phase in response to changes in the challenging economic context in which museums now operate (the museum receives no regular government or local authority funding). You can help support it by visiting its current exhibition It Takes a Village (until 22 Feb), which celebrates the museum’s 40th anniversary or by buying something from the online shop - we love the £15 Museum Donation Ethel Mairet Tea Towel and the fabulous Mairet’s Beret Sewing Pattern!
In Bath, the American Museum and Gardens are hosting Kith & Kin: the Quilts of Gee’s Bend Exhibition (14 Feb–21 June 2026). Celebrating the intergenerational knowledge passed down, the women of Gee’s Bend have created quilts that are renowned for their abstract designs, bold colours, and unique materiality.
Continuing with quilts, our international exhibition pick this month is the American Folk Art Museum’s thought-provoking An Ecology of Quilts: the Natural History of American Textiles. Exploring the materials, global networks, technologies, collaborations, and labour that underpin this quintessential American art form, the exhibition prompts us to see as powerful material metaphors for human relationships and entanglements within the natural world. It’s brought vividly to life by a newly commissioned sound work weaving by guest artist Alexandria Eregbu, Blue Magic.
Join our Essay Club!
We’ve got something new to share in 2026: a brand new essay series, Objects of Dissent. We’re going deeper into the decorating part of Decorating Dissidence to examine surface tensions and the stories that objects can tell us when we look closer...
Why is decoration dismissed?
What messages are everyday objects trying to tell us?
And what can decoration teach us in an age of AI slop, technical disconnect, and flattened aesthetics?
These essays look at how everyday objects, materials, and patterns have quietly shaped how people worked, lived, and resisted in the twentieth-century – and how they still offer us tools for thinking and acting today. We take items that might be easily overlooked to dig deeper into their meaning. Over the year, we’ll publish eight essays that begin with an everyday object – such as curtains, pots, lampshades, and throws – using these to dive deeper into stories of makers who have enacted resistance in the last 150 years. Being part of the club means we want to hear from you: what everyday objects tell a story; what materials are meaningful; and what stories do you want to hear next?
We’re excited to return to research and to share some of the stories we’ve uncovered during the years of running our project! Publishing independently gives us the freedom to write on our own terms. A paid subscription supports that work and gives access to these essays as they develop – so you can be part of the essay club from the ground up and piece together how each story fits together.
Watch, listen, read
Artist Corin Sworn and filmaker Luke Fowler have collaborated to create On Weaving, a beautiful film shot in 16mm at High Sunderland, the house built by Peter Womersley in 1957 for textile designers Bernat and Margaret Klein. Watch it at Gallery North, Newcastle until 21 February.
Just what is it that makes today’s crafts so different, so appealing? - this question drives curator Nicolas Trembley’s new publication Craft: About Exhibitions, Craft, Art, Cultural Hierarchies, Typologies and the Art of Display. Reflecting on exchanges between arts, crafts, and design, Trembley argues for a more complex approach to objects, cultures, and forms that better reflects the interconnected relationship between making and thinking, craftsperson and artist.
We loved designer and craft aficionado Jonathan Anderson’s debut Dior show, inspired by his longtime admiration of Magdalene Udondo - a stunning example of the relationship between art, craft, and couture. Seeing Odundo centre stage on the runway led us to delve into the Decorating Dissidence’s archive, to revisit writer So Mayer’s brilliant poetic response to an exhibition of her work: M87 (2019). So’s brilliant memoir-manifesto Bad Language is out now with Peninsula Press.
Jobs and Opportunities
Job: The historic Leach Pottery in St Ives is currently offering an exciting opportunity to to celebrate the power of ceramics to bring together communities, as part of its National Lottery Heritage Fund project Make With Leach. The Coordinator will take Bernard Leach’s legacy into the twenty-first century through a range of collaborative workshops and programmes. On the practical side, the studio is also seeking a Learning and Participation Manager for hands-on facilitation of sessions. Apply by 23 February.
Job: University for the Creative Arts seeks an experienced, forward-thinking Programme Director with strong creative vision to lead, develop and promote our suite of specialist undergraduate and postgraduate Craft courses. A brilliant opportunity to shape the future of craft! Apply by 22 February.
Job: Help develop the Manchester Craft and Design Centre as its new Public Engagement Coordinator. More info here
Grant: Makers have a few more weeks to apply for a QEST grant to support training, education and skills development at all career stages - from scholarships for mid-career/established craftspeople, support for emerging makers, and apprenticeships for those starting out in craft, don’t miss your chance to apply by 18 Feb.
Residency: Scotland-based makers are eligible to apply for the brilliant fully funded Radcliffe Heritage Craft Residency at Cove Park. The selected maker will draw on cultural heritage to create new work, research, and experimentation. Applications are due by 9 February.