Heritage Crafts announces Co-Chairs

JAY BLADES MBE and DAVID CLARKE will serve as Co-Chairs of Heritage Crafts for the next three years. 

Heritage Crafts is a national charity set up to celebrate and safeguard traditional heritage craft skills. Its aim is to support and promote heritage crafts as a fundamental part of our living heritage. 

Blades established former charity Out of the Dark, a charitable social enterprise that trains young, vulnerable people to recycle, restore and revamp furniture. He is now the presenter of BBC’s The Repair Shop, where restoration experts and craftsmen revive family heirlooms and cherished antiques. 

Blades has received an MBE in recognition of his services to craft and was appointed the first Chancellor of Buckinghamshire New University in May 2022.

He has served on the judging panel of the President’s Award for Endangered Crafts since 2021, established by Heritage Crafts President HRH The Prince of Wales.

Blades said he is delighted to be appointed Co-Chair of Heritage Crafts alongside Clarke: “Together we have big plans to further raise the profile of Heritage Crafts and ensure pathways for a new generation of craftspeople”.

Clarke is a heritage and cultural sector consultant who joined Heritage Crafts as a Trustee in 2019. 

Clarke was the Director of Chapter, a cultural centre featuring contemporary arts, performances and films in Cardiff. Clarke is now Managing Director of DCA Consulting, a cultural consulting firm he set up to provide the development, innovation and regeneration of cultural buildings.  

He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), a RIBA Client Advisor and a member of the Heritage Trusts Network, the Museum Association and the Theatres Trust. Clarke has led the Heritage Crafts fundraising subcommittee since 2020.

He said it is tremendously exciting to be asked to work alongside Blades over the next three years.

“It’s a time of huge growth and opportunity for craft, but also one of serious challenges and concerns for craftspeople. We look forward to all the work ahead.”

Heritage Crafts believe Co-Chairing is the best approach to leadership as it enters a new strategic period from January 2023. Director DANIEL CARPENTER said he was thrilled to welcome the pair. 

“Their skills and expertise are the perfect combination to help push forward a revolution in the recognition of heritage crafts as a vital part of our collective cultural identities, social lives and individual wellbeing.”