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My wife, Kate Day, who has died aged 52 from pancreatic cancer, was for almost 15 years director of the Manchester Craft and Design Centre, which promotes craft in all its forms and provides studio spaces to about 30 artists each year.
Kate was born in Crawley, in West Sussex, to Felicity (nee Rodgers), a psychoanalyst, and David, a systems engineering manager at IBM. However, she grew up in north London, where she went to Creighton school and then William Ellis school before gaining a degree in the history of design from Manchester Metropolitan University.
In her spare time at university she was a hunt saboteur and was active in performance art, working as a pyrotechnician with Dogs of Heaven, a performance group, and afterwards establishing a small theatrical pyrotechnics business.
After a year teaching English as a foreign language in Greece, she obtained a diploma in art gallery and museum studies from Manchester University in 1997, after which she became curator of contemporary craft and design at Manchester Art Gallery.
After 10 years working in that post, Kate took on the role of director at Manchester Craft and Design Centre, overseeing a growth in income and visitor numbers during her time there and building long term regional and national partnerships with the Arts Council, Manchester Metropolitan University and Manchester city council.
Kate was active in many areas of the arts and crafts in the north-west of England, including as a member of the Craft Council Acquisitions Advisory Committee and a nominator for the Perrier Jouët Craft Awards. She was also instrumental in the setting-up of the North West Craft Network, of which she was co-chair.
She is survived by me, our son, Nathan, her father and her brother, Alex.
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