A Danish eye on Lustre, Nottingham

In the beginning of November, I had the opportunity to visit the Lustre market in Nottingham, on invitation from Neil Walker.

The trip involved a lot of travelling time - six hours each way, but it was my first time in UK outside London (which I don´t know well either), and I found the bus ride from Heathrow very interesting. It appeared to me that the countryside is similar to (parts of) Denmark in terms of fauna and morphology, but very different in the way the land is being distributed and used.

This itiniary gave me only 21 hours in Nottingham, which I rushed through, making my return travel arrangements, and getting some associations to Amsterdam (not the canals, though).

In the evening, I attended the official opening of Lustre - that is, only the latter half, because I was dropped at the wrong bus stop and got lost at the University Campus. But I finally made it and met with Neil and Liz Cooper from the Forming Ideas delegation and was introduced to representatives from Lakeside Arts Centre and Arts Council East Midlands.

Afterwards, I spent some time looking at the market and talking with some of the exhibitors, and had a short, but effective discussion with Neil, concerning the possible of participation of Danish craftspeople in 2010.

My impression of Lustre was very positive. It reminded me in size of the indoor market "KIC" in Aarhus (Denmark´s 2nd largest city, market in November) and the works at display were of good quality. Among the things I noted especially was the exhibition design, which was both elegant and relaxed, the number of guides at place for the guests, and also the small, but intensively used activity area for children, which is an idea, I hope to present at our association´s own outdoor market in Copenhagen next year.

It is new to Danish Arts and Crafts Association to consider active involvement in our members´ participation in markets, especially outside Denmark. As a member organization, we need to be impartial and can not select individual artists for an exhibition group. But the discussion with Neil made it clear to me that these obstacles can be dealt with. The main issues about exhibiting so far from your home is that the travel, transportation and accomodation costs may well exceed your earnings from sales - especially when you are new and not established on a market, and that practical problems are more difficult to solve when you don´t have a local network to help you. But Neil and I agreed that we may find ways to extend some help to diminish these particular problems.

I will be discussing this issue with the association´s board Dec. 9th. - and feel optimistic about returning to Nottingham in 2010.

Nicolai Gjessing