Heritage Crafts is a registered United Kingdom charity (registered as 'The Heritage Crafts Association') set up to support and promote traditional crafts. It has been operating under the name Heritage Crafts since October 2021.
The charity was launched at the Victoria & Albert Museum in March 2010, with a membership programme for supporters.
Heritage Crafts initiated a 30-minute adjournment debate on the state of traditional crafts in the House of Commons in June 2009.
In May 2017, in association with The Radcliffe Trust, the Association published the Red List of Endangered Crafts, which was repeated again in 2019, 2021 and 2023, when it was funded by The Pilgrim Trust. This publication was also covered on Woman's Hour.
In 2020, the charity's President, King Charles III, launched The President's Award for Endangered Crafts, which was won in 2020 by Ernest Wright scissor makers, in 2021 by watchmaker Dr Rebecca Struthers and in 2022 by pargeter Johanna Welsh.
Trustees and patrons
The President of the Heritage Crafts Association is the former Prince of Wales pending the patronages review that followed the Royal Succession. It is run by a board of trustees, including Co-Chair Jay Blades MBE (furniture restorer and presenter of BBC1 The Repair Shop) and Robin Wood MBE (professional wood turner and co-founder of Spoonfest with Barn the Spoon).
Ambassadors include: Will Kirk – furniture restorer and television presenter Kaffe Fassett – textile designer Alex Langlands – archaeologist and star of Victorian Farm and Tales from the Green Valley Rose Sinclair – lecturer in Design at Goldsmiths, University of London