After a formidable finish in the Lightweight Women’s double sculls at the 2024 Paris Olympics in August, Team GB’s Emily Craig and Imogen Grant secured their places as the last Olympic champions in this event. Whilst Grant has now started working at the NHS, Craig is re-paddling into the art world. Cherwell caught up with the Olympic gold medallist Emily Craig just after the closing ceremony, discussing her art history degrees, netsuke, and rowing-life balance…
When did your rowing journey begin, and when did you start thinking of going into the art world?
They were pretty separate. My parents used to go to the British indoor rowing championships. When I was about twelve, they asked me, ‘‘do you want to give it a go?’’ I went along and somehow got a silver medal. So, I thought, maybe I could be good at this. Went down to my local club that summer, got in a boat and was like– I wanted to do this in the Olympics.
But the pragmatic side of me, thankfully, as I got older, thought it was always important for me to not have either one or the other. Passion for art probably came from family holidays, particularly Barcelona. Dalí especially is obviously technical and skilful, but also weird enough to capture your imagination and be interesting when you’re a child.
Apollo magazine has said this about you ‘Do an art degree and you might just end up a sporting hero. Does this ring true for you?
I was quite lucky; the Courtauld is a great place to study, and it was also part of the University of London, so I could join their boat club. I was very determined that one wouldn’t affect the other. I was very, very organised. As soon as lectures finished, and it was the period between March and exams, I had already started revising. So, when I get to these exams and I’m racing, I know I’ll be okay.
What motivated you to do both and achieve excellence in both?
When I was at uni and I was doing both, if one was going badly, I’d throw a lot more time into the other. If rowing was going badly, never mind! I’ll just do well at my degree, and one day I’ll run Tate Britain. if I wasn’t enjoying uni as much – well, I’ve got the rowing.
Since being on full time on the team since 2015, it’s been more challenging. But certainly, a way for switching off has always been going to an exhibition, going around galleries. I can wear nice clothes. I’m not in tracksuits, like a normal person!
Why have you chosen East Asian Art as a particular sector?
I always knew that I wanted to do something non-Western. In my last year of the Courtauld I got to study contemporary Chinese art, which I found completely fascinating. I ended up picking the Sotheby’s masters, partly because I knew I wanted to go more into the commercial side of things, and partly because their degree covered everything from Neolithic up until modern, from China, Korea, and Japan.
Would you say that the industry has evolved a lot since you first started?
One good thing with the more ‘classical’ Chinese, Korean, and Japanese art, rather than super modern art is that you’ll always get a stable core market of people who love it. But particularly from the Chinese side of things, a lot younger buyers are coming through who are getting more interested. There’s definitely a way to modernise how auction houses connect with their potential buyers, such as the social media space which would make it relevant and interactive, but without debasing the brand a little bit.
How do you gain enough first-hand experience getting started?
After my break after Tokyo, I had such a long list of auction houses, I just emailed and emailed and emailed. There’s a lot of asking around, and you’ve got to throw quite a wide net to make sure you get something.
You’ve also got to be okay to go with the flow. You might go for a job interview, and they think you’re really great, but they think you’d be a good fit in our furniture department, not Asian Art. Get your foot in the door! A lot of people whom I’ve spoken to in the art world have taken very winding paths, and it’s all turned out to be the right thing for them.
Do you have any special connection with any artwork or artefact that you have worked with?
I really love netsuke. I did my first work experience in 2017 at Grace Tsumugi’s. I walked in, and I had no idea what was going to happen! She put down a tray of netsuke in front of me, asked me to re-thread the cord and put the beads on all these. I was like – Oh my gosh! That’s going to be my job for the next two weeks. It’s always been that tactile thing and the humorous nature.
Do you find any kind of artworks inspirational?
There’s a couple of landscapes and a lot of watery based things. They don’t necessarily capture the competitive side of things, but one of the lovely things about rowing was training outside on the water. So, it’s a beautiful, sunny day; flat and calm. You are paddling along, you’ve seen kingfishers and the peaceful English countryside. There are works that encapsulate the feeling of peacefulness at the fresh air, being outside, and the joy that it can bring.
What would you say to Oxford students (quite a number of them rowers!) wishing to pursue all aspects of their passion?
You’ve got to be so organised and keep on top of things. Plan well in advance, but that also means planning on taking time for yourself, and learning when the right time is to say no. It’s definitely a very hard thing to learn to do, but also very beneficial.
