Is craft a product or a process? Is it always something handmade?

A cohort of contemporary makers challenge preconceptions about what the word means today and the role craft can play in shaping culture, identity and society at a new craft biennial in Yorkshire, called ‘Useful/Beautiful: Why Craft Matters’. Works by bookbinder Kate Holland, embroiderer Jenny King, and furniture designers Max Lamb and Yinka Ilori sit alongside historic works by Thomas Chippendale and Robert Adam inside Harewood House, a Georgian manor near Leeds.

In this film – co-produced by Crafts magazine, the Crafts Council and Harewood House – we meet some of the makers and curators, who together aim to spark debate.

‘Useful/Beautiful: Why Craft Matters’ runs until 1 September 2019 biennial.harewood.org