Simon Olding is Director of the Crafts Study Centres and Professor of Modern Craft at the University for the Arts, UK. The Crafts Study Centre has featured contemporary textiles in its exhibition programme with solo shows for Sophie Roet, Makeba Lewis, Rezia Wahid and Diana Harrison. These exhibitions are often planned with the International Textile Research Centre at UCA where the Director, Professor Lesley Millar acts as expert adviser and curator, for example in forthcoming exhibitions on the work of Caroline Bartlett and the first museum show for Richard McVetis. The Crafts Study Centre also regularly displays woven and printed textiles from its outstanding ‘pioneer’ collections including signature works by Barron and Larcher, Ethel Mairet, Rita Beales. Simon Olding’s particular research interests lie in British studio ceramics and the history of craft guilds in south west England and he is working on a book of essays on a newly discovered archive of Bernard Leach and a book on New Craftsman in St Ives.