What Circle Craft is known for
Circle Craft is an artist-run co-operative of British Columbia craftspeople, incorporated in 1974 and based since 1984 in the Net Loft on Granville Island at 1-1666 Johnston Street. Around 140 members sell ceramics and glass, wood and textiles, and jewellery through the shop, whose gallery mounts monthly exhibitions. The co-op also runs a Christmas market at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre.
Circle Craft is an artist-run co-operative of British Columbia craftspeople. It formed in 1972 by its own account, began trading in Victoria in 1973 and incorporated as a co-op in 1974. It moved to Vancouver by 1977, trading first off Gassy Jack Square in Gastown. In 1984 it opened the shop it still keeps in the Net Loft on Granville Island, at 1-1666 Johnston Street. The co-op is owned and run by its members, and it sustains itself on sales commission and participation fees. A purchase therefore goes back to the maker rather than to a middleman. The shop and gallery carry contemporary and traditional work in clay and glass as well as fibre and wood, together with metal and mixed media. Around 140 members from across the province supply it, and the gallery mounts monthly exhibitions alongside member pop-ups. Its Christmas market has been a fixture at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre since 1987. Circle Craft sells more than 1.3 million dollars of members' work a year. It marked fifty years in September 2024, when it revived an annual scholarship for a craft student at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.
In the press
- Vancouver Sun 2024
Best for — British Columbia ceramics, jewellery and textiles
British Columbia, Canada
Where next
- Big Buck's OBX — United States
- Atma Alam Batik Art Village — Malaysia
- Mill Handmade — Australia
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