Current Exhibitions Archives

Useful/Beautiful

Mar 30, 2026 | Current Exhibitions, News

Blackwell – The Arts & Crafts House
Bowness-on-Windermere, Cumbria

1 May – 29 August 2026

Useful/Beautiful marks 25 years of contemporary craft at Blackwell – the Arts & Crafts house, celebrating the makers, ideas and objects that have shaped our collection since opening our doors to the public in 2001.

Set throughout the house, the exhibition brings together much-loved works from our nationally significant collection, alongside more recent additions. Visitors can rediscover standout pieces by artists including Magdalene Odundo, Kate Malone, Edmund de Waal and Philip Eglin, and explore how craft can tell stories about materials, making and everyday life.

A dedicated exhibition space highlights our most recent acquisitions, supported by the Art Fund’s Sir Nicholas Goodison Award, and invites you to explore conversations around the future of collecting: What should we collect and why? What is the future of craft? And in the spirit of the Arts & Crafts Movement, should objects we acquire be useful as well as beautiful?

Whether you’re a longtime lover of craft or completely new to it, Useful/Beautiful offers a chance to slow down, look closely and appreciate the skill, ideas, and principles behind contemporary making.

Exhibition included with house admission.

The P&O Makower Trust Collection from Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales

Mar 30, 2026 | Current Exhibitions, News

Ruthin Craft Centre

28 March – 14 June 2026

For over 45 years, the P&O Makower Trust has commissioned major objects of silver to go on long-term loan to national museums throughout the UK including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Ashmolean, National Museums Scotland and Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales.

The original collection, comprising ten pieces, moved to National Museum Cardiff in 2006, from its previous home at the Crafts Council. Since then, several newly commissioned pieces have been added by the makers Sarah Denney (2007/08), Theresa Ngyuen (2009/10), Kevin Grey (2011/12), Adi Toch (2013/14), Claire Malet (2016/17) and most recently by William Romeril with his piece ‘The Royal Game of Urm…?’, commissioned in 2024 and accessioned in 2025.

This exhibition in Ruthin Craft Centre’s CELF space, is the first time the entire P&O Makower Collection, held by National Museum Cardiff, has been brought together in one space, with all thirteen silversmiths’ work on display.

Featuring a display by North Wales silversmith Rauni Higson.

Exhibitors: David Bromilow, Ane Christensen, Angela Cork, Sarah Denny, Ndidi Ekubia, Diana Greenwood, Kevin Grey, Marion Kane, Chris Knight, Claire Malet, Theresa Nguyen, William Romeril, Adi Toch

Curated by Gregory Parsons