As the first director of the Crafts Council, Victor Margrie was responsible for positioning the crafts with huge success in England and Wales throughout the 1970s and beyond. Although the word “craft” is open to endless redefinition, Margrie, who has died aged 92, had no doubt that his role was to support, publicise and exhibit the best applied artists – from potters to bookbinders, and textile artists to radical jewellers.
Margrie’s commitment was to innovation – while the conservation crafts were briefly the Craft Council’s responsibility, he saw the rural and vernacular crafts as outside its remit. The so-called craft renaissance of the 1970s and 80s owed him much.
