Biography
Charmian Adams (b. 1937 - d. 2022) was a private applied arts collector, and Contemporary Art Society buyer (2003 -2005) of nearly 30 items which were distributed throughout UK public museums. She was also President of Gloucestershire Guild and a supporter of the Contemporary British Silversmiths where she sponsored its New Designers Award for early starters. In her home town The Holburne Museum, Bath (for whom she was also a Patron) held the exhibition Charmian Adams Collecting Craft in 2019.
Adams was passionate about the multitude of talent that is to be found in all areas of the contemporary craft world. In 2003 she said: 'I have chosen a very wide spectrum of work in order to embrace some makers whose work does not receive the recognition it merits. The contemporary crafts deserve to reach a far wider public than they do at present'.
She would have been happy to know that the Contemporary Art Society's interest in craft is still as strong today as it was since Sir Edward Marsh (1872-1953) gifted a William Staithe Murray Vase in 1927 which prompted the setting up of the Contemporary Art Society's Pottery and Crafts Fund (1928-48) by Ernest Marsh (1863-1945).
This was succeeded by other Craft Acquisition schemes throughout our organisation's history and has been called the 'Omega Fund' since 2014. And furthermore that two new funds have been awarded to the CAS in 2022 for the buying of craft specifically: the Ada Award and the Griffin Award. Also, The Holbume Museum, became a CAS museum member in 2022 following the Crafts Study Centre (CSC), Univerysity of Creative Arts, Farnham in 2021.
