Supporting endings, sustaining – exploring vulnerability

Day 3 of the Festival began with Daniel Carpenter outlining hhis work on safeguarding heritage crafts – and working to celebrate skills of artisans as well as pass them forward to the future. The complexity of making when using materials can mean that everything doesn’t go to plan, and yet makers are perfectionists was explored, together with the societal benefits of craft.

So many crafts are now endangered and becoming extinct in the UK, the session left us questioning how to innovate in the business of craft and develop new audiences as well as financial models for it.

Rose Kue spoke of her work as a researcher and user designer for Care and as a death doula. She talked about how curiosity was a key skill and approach in all of her work, that curiosity is the root of empathy, and that she then worked to move from empathy to equitable experiences for others. She asked us to question what it might be that prevents us from being curious – whether there is fear, or unwillingness to step in to optimism and connection with the world. She talked about how she is driven by what she can do to reduce individuals suffering.

Rose articulated good leaders as being able to constantly confront their own fears and not shy away from being shown the truth, to not see people as broken but see the potential. She also reflected that leadership is different to power and power exchanges.