In 2006 Craft NI commissioned a research report A Future in the Making, a socio-economic survey of makers in Northern Ireland, to fill the too long neglected need for information on the state of the craft sector.

Recognising the use of research as a tool to generate support for craft sector development, Craft NI commissioned Professor Andrew McAuley and Dr Ian Fillis from the Department of Marketing, University of Stirling to establish baseline levels on the size and nature of the sector in NI, the characteristics of its business owners and the issues critical to the development of the sector.

McAuley and Fillis were also to benchmark these findings against similar studies undertaken for the countries and regions of Great Britain and in the Republic of Ireland, including the report Making it in the 21st Century commissioned by the Crafts Council (UK) and the Arts Councils of England and Arts Wales.

The core aim was to provide a comprehensive and reliable base of information to underpin planning and policy making, to contribute to the evaluation of policy effectiveness and to provide information, which could be used for advocacy purposes. The research was carried out by postal survey in spring and early summer 2006 and achieved a highly respectable response rate in excess of 38%.

This document summarises the findings of the study, it details: -

• the background to the craft businesses responding to the survey, their products, the markets they trade in and their success
• the key issues facing those designer-makers / artists who choose to work within the craft sector
• a series of measures by which the stage of development of the craft sector in NI might be compared with the industry across the rest of the UK and in Ireland.

The executive summary is available to download.

On the bases of Craft NI's survey’s findings, Craft NI produced an advocacy document, Why the Crafts Matter, which reflects the sector’s own aspirations and ambitions and sets out why the crafts matter in Northern Ireland.