In the Haptic/Tacit exhibition, five markers worked alongside mentors to create work.

Artistic networks are important; they nurture and support, they create an environment to stimulate ideas and develop practice. But not all networks are equal; the good ones push and challenge you, they keep you on your creative toes and help you stay brave, and the very best make you feel just a bit lucky to be thought good enough to be part of them.

Haptic/Tacit comes from such a network, formed between five makers, and their mentors, from the 2013 cohort of the Crafts Council’s Hothouse programme for emerging makers.

For this exhibition each maker has invited their mentor to show work alongside them, to demonstrate how their continuing dialogue has helped grow individual practices and to document how relationships have continued to flourish.

The makers:

• Thomas Appleton and Giles McDonald
• Grant Aston and Bonnie Kemske
• Jane Cairns and Annie Turner
• Laura Grain and Shelly Goldsmith
• Kim Norton and Laura Ellen Bacon