Sky Arts and Prince Charles set out to reinvigorate heritage crafts in brand new series, The Prince’s Master Crafters: The Next Generation
Sky Arts and Prince Charles set out to reinvigorate heritage crafts in brand new series, The Prince’s Master Crafters: The Next Generation
Sky Arts is set to spotlight Britain’s rich heritage of traditional crafts with a new 7x60 series, The Prince’s Master Crafters: The Next Generation, airing later this year. Backed by The Prince’s Foundation, produced by Spun Gold TV and Motion Content Group and hosted by Jim Moir, the series will see a selection of top amateur craftspeople take on a variety of crafting challenges to supercharge their skills before each of them creates a final showcase piece to present to His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales in person.
When it comes to traditional crafts, Britain has a rich heritage – from wood carving to blacksmithing and weaving to stained glass – but we risk losing them forever. Last year alone in the UK, four heritage crafts were declared extinct and a further 56 critically endangered. The Prince's Foundation advocates for the preservation of heritage craft skills through the vast array of education and training programmes it runs at sites across the UK including at its Ayrshire headquarters Dumfries House, Trinity Buoy Wharf in London and at Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire. The Prince’s Master Crafters: The Next Generation will bring some of these crafts back to life, reinvigorating them with a new generation of talent.
Drawn from across the country, the six amateur craftspeople will explore the history and importance of six key disciplines. They’re joined by some of the country’s leading experts who each week set them a new task within their crafts. The challenges and experts are as follows:
- Episode 1: Wood Carving – Sarah Goss asks the craftspeople to create a carving inspired by William Morris and the arts and crafts movement
- Episode 2: Stained Glass – Derek Hunt challenges the craftspeople to create a stained-glass panel to include a symbol
- Episode 3: Weaving - Rezia Wahid sets an intricate task asking our craftspeople to use different types of weaving in as they weave material of their choice
- Episode 4: Blacksmithing – Phil Carter challenges our craftspeople to create a fire poker with a leaf detailing
- Episode 5: Stone Carving – Zoe Wilson sets a task to create a stone carved leaf
- Episode 6: Pargeting – Johanna Welsh’s task for the crafters is to create a pargeted panel of leaves and acorns
- Episode 7: Grand Final
The final episode will see our crafters visit Dumfries House, home to The Prince’s Foundation, to seek inspiration for their showcase pieces. They’ll then take part in a graduation like no other as they present their individual pieces to His Royal Highness himself at his private residence, Highgrove House. All the showcase pieces are then displayed at The Prince’s Foundation’s new training base at Highgrove.
Phil Edgar-Jones, Director of Sky Arts, commented: “Over the last two years many of us have taken up artistic pursuits and more people are getting into crafts - from stained glass to woodcarving and everything in between. The Prince of Wales has championed those traditional crafts for many years, so it feels like there’s no better time to showcase the brilliant skills of this cohort of crafters. And with Jim Moir at the helm guiding us through the show it promises to be an entertaining and enlightening delight.”
The series was commissioned by Zai Bennett, Managing Director of Content for Sky UK and Ireland and Phil Edgar-Jones, Director of Sky Arts and Entertainment. The executive producers are Ceri Jones for Spun Gold and Melanie Darlaston for Motion Content Group, with Kerene Barefield the development executive producer for Spun Gold. Barbara Lee is Commissioning Editor for Sky.
Daniela Neumann, Managing Director, Spun Gold TV, added: “We are delighted to be partnering with Sky Arts for the first time on this wonderful series. The talent out there in the UK is astounding and it’s a real honour to be working with HRH The Prince of Wales to champion these amazing craftspeople.”
Melanie Darlaston, Executive Producer for Motion Content Group commented: “It’s been a pleasure working with Sky Arts and Spun Gold on this charming series. It’s great to see that traditional crafting is still going strong in the hands of some seriously talented individuals.”
This series will air on Sky Arts, Freeview Channel 11, and streaming service NOW in May 2022.
For more information please contact:
hannah.harris-turner@premiercomms.com, emma.hall@premiercomms.com and media@princes-foundation.org
About Sky Arts
Sky Arts exists to bring more art to more people across the UK. In 2020, with the creative industries under serious threat, we threw open our doors to make the channel free for everyone to watch. We’ve redoubled our mission to increase access to the arts and we’re committed to getting everyone involved as the industry recovers. The fact is, we need the arts now like never before, and Sky Arts brings them straight to your living room.
We have something for everyone, championing creative talent by showcasing the best in music, theatre, dance, literature, opera and visual art. From Glyndebourne to Grime and Cézanne to The Style Council, we’ve got your passions covered. Millions of viewers tune in to hit returning series such as Portrait Artist of the Year, Urban Myths and British cultural institution The South Bank Show, but our acclaimed new programmes might take you anywhere from Pinter’s house with Danny Dyer to a Scottish road trip with Samuel Johnson.
Collaboration is at the heart of what we do. Sky Arts is the headline sponsor of National Theatre Live in the UK, and we work with cultural partners across the country including the English National Opera, Royal Academy of Arts, Tate, Creative Industries Federation and Coventry City of Culture to name but a few.
You can watch Sky Arts for free on Freeview channel 11 and Freesat channel 147. If you’ve got Sky or a Now TV entertainment pass, you can also watch over 2,000 hours of shows exclusively on demand.
We’re passionate about supporting the next generation of artists, so we’re working with five leading Sky Arts Ambassadors - Booker Prize-winner Bernardine Evaristo, dance artist Akram Khan, conductor Charles Hazlewood, Theatre Royal Stratford East Artistic Director Nadia Fall, and sculptor Anish Kapoor – to run bursary schemes for new and emerging talent.
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NOW is the home of brilliant entertainment. We’re one of the UK’s leading streaming services with critically acclaimed shows, new and exclusive movies, unmissable sport and epic kids TV – all with no contract. Join in with an Entertainment, Cinema, Sports, or hayu Membership to stream instantly across TV, mobile, desktop and over 60 other devices. Watch on the go and even offline with our app by downloading shows and movies.
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About The Prince’s Foundation
The Prince’s Foundation provides holistic solutions to challenges facing the world today. It champions a sustainable approach to how we live our lives and build our communities, runs a diverse programme of education and training for all ages and backgrounds, and regenerates and cares for places where communities thrive and that visitors enjoy. The charity works nationally and internationally but at the heart of the organisation is the heritage-led regeneration of the Dumfries House estate and its wider community, where its principles and philosophies are explored and put into practice.
The Prince’s Foundation was created through the merger, in 2018, of The Prince’s Foundation for Building Community, The Prince’s Regeneration Trust, The Great Steward of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust and The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts. The charity’s headquarters is at Dumfries House in East Ayrshire, a visitor attraction and centre for education and training that is complemented by learning facilities at Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire, at Shoreditch and Trinity Buoy Wharf in East London, and at various satellite centres worldwide. The Prince’s Foundation has established an exhibition space at The Garrison Chapel at Chelsea Barracks in London’s Belgravia district and stewards’ commercial operations at Highgrove, The Castle of Mey, and at the Rothesay Rooms restaurant in Ballater on Royal Deeside.
