Director of Harewood House Trust, Jane Marriott, provides insight into its second Harewood Biennial devoted to craft and craftsmanship. Titled Radical Acts: Why Craft Matters and curated by Hugo Macdonald, the exhibition considers why craft is a Radical Act, what can be learnt from our roots, and how craft can facilitate personal, communal and societal change. 

Radical Acts: Why Craft Matters will open on 26 March 2022 at Harewood House, Leeds. Full details at harewood.org/biennial to be released soon.

This podcast is produced by Bird Lime Media.

The construction industry is one of the greater culprits in modern society for carbon emissions and waste. But the subject of reuse in construction and architecture is gaining ground. Encouragingly, we are beginning to see material solutions and building processes that are bringing sustainability into the heart of an industry that is currently responsible for 100 million tonnes of waste per year in the UK alone. 

Retrouvius is an architectural salvage and design studio, founded by husband and wife Adam Hills and Maria Speake in Glasgow 27 years ago. Today, based in west London, Adam looks after the salvage side of the business, rescuing architectural materials from buildings of all scales up and down the country. Maria heads up the design firm, giving new lives to old materials in projects that span private houses, hotels, restaurants and retail. 

In this podcast series, Radical Acts: Why Craft Matters, Harewood Biennial curator Hugo Macdonald meets the designers, artists, makers and creators who are using craft and design to tackle the urgent crises that shape our lives.

Radical Acts: Why Craft Matters will open on 26 March 2022 at Harewood House, Leeds. Full details at harewood.org/biennial to be released soon.

This podcast is produced by Bird Lime Media.

Mass commercial farming is a modern ill with extreme environmental and social consequences. Traditional, rural farming communities are decimated by conglomerates, and once fertile fields are rendered wasteland. How might craft help?

Fernando Laposse is a Mexican designer who has developed a project he calls radical agriculture in a rural farming community in Mexico. Planting heritage corn crops doesn’t just restore biodiversity to the land and give control back to the farmers, but Fernando has set-up a workshop in the community and trained locals to transform the colourful corn husks into expressive marquetry panels. The project, called Totomoxtle, has established a viable circular economy at the heart of the community, and Fernando has taken to the stage of the World Economic Forum at Davos, to promote the possibility of the model to a global audience. 

In this podcast series, Radical Acts: Why Craft Matters, Harewood Biennial curator Hugo Macdonald meets the designers, artists, makers and creators who are using craft and design to tackle the urgent crises that shape our lives. 

Radical Acts: Why Craft Matters will open on 26 March 2022 at Harewood House, Leeds. Full details at harewood.org/biennial to be released soon.

This podcast is produced by Bird Lime Media.

The impacts of our throwaway culture are extreme – socially, environmentally and globally. In the UK alone, we produce around 200 million tonnes of waste a year. 

Michael Marriott is a London-based product, furniture and interior designer with resourcefulness built into the heart of his practice. His extensive portfolio explores ways in which surplus, discarded and found materials can be given a new life as objects of form, function and charm. Michael believes that the things we use on a daily basis should be fit for purpose, and simultaneously have an in-built humanity to them. The more we enjoy using things – the more valuable they become to us - and the less likely we are to throw them away. 

In this podcast series, Radical Acts: Why Craft Matters, Harewood Biennial curator Hugo Macdonald meets the designers, artists, makers and creators who are using craft and design to tackle the urgent crises that shape our lives. 

Radical Acts: Why Craft Matters will open on 26 March 2022 at Harewood House, Leeds. Full details at harewood.org/biennial to be released soon.

This podcast is produced by Bird Lime Media.

Not so long ago, we wouldn’t have thought twice about getting out the sewing box and mending holes in our clothes. Today, thanks to the rise of fast fashion and the decline of our patience and skills at darning, we tend to consider worn out garments as no longer of use. 

Textile artist Celia Pym has a unique approach. She is on a crusade to help us not just mend our clothing, but re-appraise what the things we wear mean to us in the process. She believes clothes aren’t just a second skin for the body, but are a conduit for so much more – our clothes tell stories of our lives, our habits, behaviours and relationships. 

In this podcast series, Radical Acts: Why Craft Matters, Harewood Biennial curator Hugo Macdonald meets the designers, artists, makers and creators who are using craft and design to tackle the urgent crises that shape our lives. 

Radical Acts: Why Craft Matters will open on 26 March 2022 at Harewood House, Leeds. Full details at harewood.org/biennial to be released soon.

This podcast was produced by Bird Lime Media.

Join Joe Williams and Vanessa Mudd, the creatives behind Leeds-based Heritage Corner, as they discuss the making of A Storm at Harewood, launched in Spring 2021 as part of Harewood House Trust's Open History programme. 

Heritage Corner took Harewood visitors through a series of walks around the House and Grounds, recounting the story of Pablo Fanque, a once iconic circus owner of African heritage with his wife, Mrs Pablo. Heritage Corner transported guests from the Grounds to the House, revealing hidden narratives of African and West Indian connections to Harewood’s history. 

Listen to find out more about the development of the walks and their reception, Harewood’s own historic connections to the transatlantic slave trade, and the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement following the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

This podcast was produced by Bird Lime Media.