The Peter Dormer Lecture is the UK’s major annual applied arts lecture, held in memory of Peter Dormer, the writer and critic who died in 1996. Organised by a committee of his friends and colleagues and hosted by the Royal College of Art, the lecture aims to continue the debate about applied art and society that was central to Dormer’s concerns.

Peter Dormer’s writings embraced art, architecture, design, technology and education; and his critical and curatorial work helped to promote the crafts into the freeflowing currents of postmodern visual culture. This connectivity is something these lectures celebrate and promote – previous speakers have embraced architecture, ceramics and modernism, the implications of digital technology, craft history and criticism, and design innovation. Radical rethinks are vital to the Peter Dormer Lecture’s purpose.

Peter Dormer (1949–96) trained in art at Bath Academy of Art and in philosophy at Bristol University. After a short career in education he joined the staff of Crafts magazine under the editorship of Martina Margetts. By that time he had already started writing about the applied arts. He later left Crafts to become a full time writer and exhibition curator and developed his thinking in applied art, design, and architecture, the connections between them and their role in society. Among his exhibitions were Fast Forward (ICA, 1985) and Beyond the Dovetail (Crafts Council, 1991), both polemical exhibitions on the nature of the new and the traditional in crafts and the search for critical criteria. For Thames and Hudson he wrote the New series – starting with The New Jewelry (with Ralph Turner) and including The New Furniture and The New Ceramics. One of his last books was also on jewellery — Jewelry of our Time: Art, Ornament, and Obsession — written with Helen W Drutt-English, the Philadelphia collector. He also wrote about and curated exhibitions on design and architecture, writing The Meanings of Modern Design in 1990 and Design since 1945 in 1993. Peter Dormer was notable among critics for being appreciated by makers, and one of his persistent interests was in understanding the nature of skill and how it is learnt, used, and judged. This is the theme of The Art of the Maker (1994), one of his most important books, based on a PhD he did at the RCA.

The Peter Dormer Lecture Committee organises the annual lecture and raises funds and current members are: Dr Glenn Adamson (Chair), Jane Smith (Secretary), Grant Gibson, Nicholas Rena, Professor Hans Stofer, Clare Twomey and Ellis Woodman.

The Committee is grateful to the Royal College of Art for its support in hosting the annual lecture, to private donors, and occasional financial support from the Crafts Council.

Funds are always very welcome. Cheques should be made payable to the Royal College of Art (Peter Dormer Fund) and sent the CHS Administrator, RCA, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2EU, UK.

The 2012 lecture will be given by Grayson Perry.

The 2011 lecture was given by Dr Jorunn Veiteberg. Click here to download a transcript of the lecture.

The 2010 lecture was given by Dr Julia Bryan-Wilson. Click here to download a transcript of the lecture.

The 2009 lecture was given by Professor Edward S. Cooke, Jr. Click here to download a transcript of the lecture.

The 2007 lecture was given by Dr Glenn Adamson. Click here to download a transcript of the lecture. For a copy of Glenn Adamson's biography click here.