Together with our partners, Meet Your Maker presented 80 events to total audiences of over 13,000, working with nearly 200 makers. With feedback from our participants, makers and partners we have this expanded this programme in 2017. Read more about our evolved Outreach programmed for 2017/18. 

Meet Your Maker took makers out of the studio and into novel spaces. It was a chance for communities to see behind-the-scenes of a maker’s practice; learn more about their design process. Plus, learn about the skill, commitment, and creativity involved in creating a hancrafted piece of work.

The programme began life as an exhibition in partnership with the National Museum of Scotland in 2010. It has since included events at Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) and Young Offenders Institution (YOI) Cornton Vale in Stirling; the Living Memory Association in Edinburgh; Dumfries & Galloway College and during the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

During 2016 our Meet Your Maker programme was part of the Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design 2016, and we shone a light on makers who use innovative technologies and design processes.  We held maker demonstrations for Scottish Jewellery Week, pop-up events at FLY with Visual Arts Scotland, a student-focused demonstration, and workshop at Dunfermline High School and ran a national Meet Your Maker weekend event in September 2013. Our event now takes the form of a rolling project: a series of targeted events in partnership with different organisations throughout the year.

For 2014/15 we developed our rolling programme, growing our project to encompass 27 events and creating opportunities for over 60 makers. In 2015/16 we developed the rolling project to encompass events for wider audiences and continued this trend in 2016/17. 

On 7 and 8 September 2013, seventeen makers gave a rare, behind-the-scenes look at their craft work. Eight venues across the country, committed to the support and promotion of Scottish contemporary craft, partnered with Craft Scotland to deliver an exciting weekend-long event. Meet Your Maker 2013 was supported by the Hugh Fraser Foundation and Creative Scotland.

Meet Your Maker at the National Museum of Scotland ran from 29 January to 14 March 2010. The work of nine makers from different craft disciplines was on display alongside sketches, videos and details of their work processes. From 21 May to 28 June 2010 we took Meet Your Maker to Timespan in Helmsdale, where we showed five contemporary craft makers working in textiles, ceramics, jewellery, weaving and bookbinding.