02 — Exhibition · Curator & Organiser · Aberdeen
The problem
There was no straightforward way for early-career makers from Gray's to show and sell work in Aberdeen outside degree shows and open studios.
What I made
A group exhibition that filled the gap — not a degree show, not a market, something in between.
What made it hard
Curating and organising end-to-end, with no institution behind it and a month to prepare.
The turn
The point was never one exhibition. It was that early-career work needed somewhere with the seriousness of a gallery and the accessibility of a market, and if that didn't exist then organising it was the design problem. Selecting the artists, planning the layout and running the promotion were all in service of one thing: work by people just out of Gray's being seen and bought in a context that treated it as worth buying.
01 — The Exhibition
Crafted By Design came out of something that felt like a gap — there wasn't a straightforward way for early-career makers from Gray's to show and sell work in Aberdeen outside of degree shows and open studios. The idea was simple: put together a group exhibition that gave that work a proper context, in a real venue, with a real public.
I curated and organised it end-to-end — selecting the artists, planning the layout, handling the logistics, and running promotion in the lead-up. The exhibition poster was designed by Louise Calder. It ran for two weeks at The Courtyard Artspace, following a one-month preparation period, and included my own ceramics alongside work from other makers from Gray's.
An exhibition built to give early-career work a proper platform. Not a degree show, not a market — something in between.
This was also the first time selected pieces from the multanni mitti material study were exhibited and made available to buy. Work that had started as research during the residency found its first public context here.
02 — The Role
Selecting who was in the show and making sure the work held together as a group — not just a collection of individual displays. The aim was a coherent standard of presentation while keeping the range across disciplines that made it interesting as an exhibition rather than a single-medium show.
The Courtyard Artspace was configured to support both browsing and conversation — longer dwell time, informal interaction. The layout was planned to balance individual visibility against overall coherence, so work could be encountered as part of something rather than in isolation.
One month of planning and prep before the exhibition opened. Artist coordination, venue communication, installation schedule, and making sure everything was actually in the right place at the right time. Two weeks of run, then takedown.
Social media promotion across platforms to drive local engagement and footfall. The goal was to reach people who wouldn't normally come looking for a craft exhibition — the kind of passing interest that builds when the work is framed accessibly and the promotion is consistent.
2wks
Exhibition Run
1mo
Planning & Preparation
1st
Public Sale of Multanni Work
Where it landed
A two-week run at The Courtyard Artspace, Aberdeen, following a month of preparation, with eleven makers from the school. The exhibition poster was designed by Louise Calder. It was also the first public sale of work from the multanni mitti material study.
What it unblocked
It gave the multanni mitti research its first public context — work that had started as residency testing was seen and sold here rather than staying in a studio — and it proved the format works, which is the part anyone could run again.