emiko-o reware

Creating a New Craft Culture FRI 2 PM

Mixed Taste: Tag Team Lectures with Adam Lerner
“Meat Fabrication and Prairie School Architecture”
Sounds pretty weird and not at all related, right? When I read the program description for this one, I was considering skipping it (being a vegetarian and all), but it turned out to be one of my favorite programs of the day–especially the meat part (no, I do not suddenly crave roast beef). Thinking of craft outside the box, finding a crossroads between academia and traditional/historical craft (prairie school architecture) with everyday life (slow food and community) is what this panel was about in a nutshell. I can tell you’re still not convinced.

Mixed Taste flyer

Adam Lerner

I’ll back up a bit. Adam Lerner (photo, left), director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver and chief animator in the department of structures and fictions, had been organizing Mixed Taste events for many years through the Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar, a place where he was the director and founder. The way Mixed Taste works, is that 2 (or more) experts in  non-related fields are paired, each speaks about their topic, followed by a Q&A session from the audience during which both experts answer each question asked. The goal being to make the public more comfortable and unafraid of topics/things that are unknown to them. The flyer image above was from a previous session in Colorado and I couldn’t resist posting something that had the Kittens Kittens Kittens listed as a art lecture.

Robie House, Frank Lloyd Wright

So for our session he paired a owner of a local butcher store, Kristin Tombers of Clancy’s Meat & Fish, with Jennifer Komar Olivarez, Associate Curator of the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Jennifer gave us an overview of Prairie School Architecture–the concept of Unified Design that would resonate with Americans at the turn of the 20th century. Ground-breaking architects such as Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, William Gray Purcell; their organic approach and social responsibility in architecture.

pigs for clancey's meats

Kristin showed us what it was like to run a locally sourced meat store and the relationships she had with her farmers and customers. Her passion for her business born out of a strong belief that we need to change the food system and be more educated about our food and where it comes from. Looking at the beauty in the raw materials straight from the farmers and the craft of cutting meat. She admitted to calling some of the meat cuts “cute” and they kind of were.

cute meat

Watching the Q&A unfold was quite enjoyable; both parties were extremely thoughtful in answering the questions, attentive listeners, drawing parallels between each other’s topics while weaving in some of the recurrent themes from the conference. A lot of this weekend’s speakers did this as well, albeit most of the audience questions during other lectures were poorly phrased or weren’t even questions. I have to admit I was skeptical at first at how a butcher was going to keep up with a craft scholar, but by the end I was more compelled by what Kristin had to say, maybe because she was an outsider bringing a fresh perspective to familiar issues. Or maybe I recognized a Northern CA mentality to her conviction and felt a tie there.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE Q&A

jennifer & kristin

Regarding Innovation originating in the Midwest: Jennifer remarked that “perhaps we have more time for contemplation (as opposed to living in the big cities) drawing it [innovation] from the lives around us”.  Hence, Midwesterners are generally regarded as problem solvers and known to have a sensibleness about them.

Regarding this Regional way of living being accessible only to certain socio-economic classes: Kristin suggests that “having more discussions [including a broader public] about the Quality of our materials” will no longer make this a class issue. TIP: see the new documentary film, “Fresh“, about food and raising kids.

What they have learned about the marketplace?: Kristin has observed that “People are hungry for what is hand-crafted,” that success is directly tied to your level of commitment, passion, and trust. And Jennifer agreed that there are people out there “who are willing to support an artistic vision”, especially if the 3 aforementioned qualities have a strong presence. SEEING CRAFT AS A SOCIAL PRACTICE just to reiterate Ms. Keelin Burrows from a few posts back.

See what Harriete had to say here.

Finally Lunchtime, and I must say, aside from the fact I do enjoy food, in-house Lunch has been another highlight of the conference (read as TIP for future SNAG conferences, hello Seattle folks…). When it comes down to it, 1.5 hours for lunch goes by pretty fast, especially if you have to leave the building and figure your way around a new city. You grab who you know and your body and mind break from the flow of morning. However, in this case, we all just moved to the floor below and had round-table discussions riding on the amped-up energy from the previous Open Conversations, among not only people we know, but being able to include new and different faces just by nature of the room’s set up. So if you came alone or were a bit late, you could sit down with any random group without being intrusive. INCLUSIVITY–this theme pops up later…

The food was surprisingly delightful (for hotel catering) and fancy (at least on Friday, Saturday was more casual), even providing a vegetarian option (as long as you pre-requested it in your registration). Lunch served a dual purpose in being a Recognition Luncheon for the 2008 and 2009 College of Fellows and Aileen Osborn Webb Award Winners. A much more respectful way to honor recipients (as compared to when SNAG’s does it during SAT night banquets and everyone is all in party mode and distracted/ing). People paid attention, speakers were heard and acknowledged with well-deserved applause and standing ovations. True, these lunches cost money ($35 from what I gathered), but give me 2 lunches over a mediocre banquet dinner any time.

Stoney Lamar

Stoney Lamar, Awards Sub-Committee Chair, presented the awards for 2008 & 2009 (winners are featured in the Oct/Nov and Dec/Jan issues of American Craft). Cheers to Lois Moran for being awarded as an Honorary Fellow for her 43 years of service to the magazine.

LIST OF AWARDEES:

Aileen Osborn Webb Award for Philanthropy: Robyn & John Horn (2008), Paul J. Smith (2009)

Paul J. Smith

Award of Distinction for Contributions to the Field of Craft:
Helen W. Drutt English (08), Michael Monroe (09)

Gold Medalists: Paul Soldner (08), Katherine Westphal (09)

College of Fellows Inductees (08): Adela Akers, Glenda Arentzen, Tony Hepburn, Gyongy Laky, Wendy Maruyama, Toots Zynsky, Lois Moran

College of Fellows Inductees (09): Jamie Bennett, Bernard Bernstein, Louis Marak, Benjamin Moore, Carol Shaw-Sutton, Rosanne Somerson, Robert Pfannebecker

Lois Moran, right

Creating a New Craft Culture Friday PM
30 minutes until lunch–but to wrap up the morning’s whirling dirvish events, ACC has done a smart thing to set up Open Conversations (pay attention SNAG conference planners–we could use this too), a 30-min informal Q&A/commenting session where the audience can ask questions of any of the morning’s presenters. This was great, as it often takes awhile for presentations to sink in and really process, so this is a perfect opportunity to ask the really hard questions.

The morning’s lectures surprisingly had some synchronistic threads, which I suppose you could wish to happen as a conference planner, but often you have to stretch your imagination to see how lectures relates to the conference theme and to each other. The unifying thread here has been the long lying elephant in the room of “What is Craft?” how do we define craft and who do we deem worthy of the title, craftsman? And again, as I mentioned last post, the DIY movement and Martha Stewart has thrown a wrench in our traditional understandings of what craft is, exciting some folks and inciting others.

This debate is the new Art vs. Craft debate, which I’m sure will resurface with Garth Clark’s talk Saturday, but has taken a back seat at the moment.

Reflecting on the day, there were two especially poignant and insightful comments, really definitions of Craft made by audience members with whom I was fortunate enough to catch up with later and talk to. I’ll share them with you:

David Trunbridge

David Trunbridge, New Zealand artist (he spoke later Fri night at Design Within Reach), said aloud what I personally have always thought about the Art vs. Craft issue: We cannot separate Art, Craft, and Design; they are all an equally important part of what we do as makers. “Just Make It” he exclaimed. Stop over analyzing it and make already, I agree. Cheers to you, David!

Keelin Burrows

Then coming from a craft historian background is Keelin Burrows, curatorial  fellows at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, is what she gleans from all this as to what craft is: “Craft is made up of many layers–the static object, the creative process, the social activity–all of which provides critical reflection and hopefully logical solutions to contemporary needs and issues.”

MARTHA STEWART DOESN’T BELONG
Part of the What is Craft discussion is the love/hate tension regarding Martha Stewart (and by association DIY). The debate is really more prevalent than anyone probably anticipated here (Garth Johnson later bemoans that Design wasn’t given as much as face time). What is becoming apparent with each Q&A is how diverse the audience here is. But there is a bit of hashing it out between the older school of craft academia and the newer-to-the-scene crafter moms. And it came out quite pronounced at the lunch banquet directly following the Open Session from Helen Drutt English as came up to thank the ACC for awarding her the Award of Distinction for Contributions to the Field of Craft. She was passionate in exclaiming that “Martha does not have any place of importance in this craft conference” and why were we talking about her so much. No really, tell us how you really feel. She did continue on a more positive note, thanking  artists for “trusting me and allowing me into their lives”, and that “the survival of the hand in our mechanized society keeps craft alive.” But then touching on yet another thread of this conference in that “we have come a long way baby, but we have a long way to go.” Turns out this was only the beginning of a very interesting weekend…..

Helen Drutt English

Creating a New Craft Culture–Friday 11 AM, Part 3
Round Table Discussion: Craft in the 21st Century: Identity, Choice, Meaning. Sandra Alfoldy, moderator. Panelists: Claudia Crisan, Thomas Patti, and Michael Sherrill

Alfoldy, Patti, Crisan, Sherrill

It’s about brain explosion time right about now, and the conference leaders are really on top of their game keeping presenters to task on time. For different perspectives on these presentations, don’t forget to check in with Harriete’s blog: ask harriete.
For those who remember watching Pee Wee’s Playhouse, remember that Word of the Day, that whenever the Word of the Day was uttered throughout the course of the show, you’d have to yell and make a lot of noise? Well, the words of the day here seem to be: Quality, Martha Stewart, and D.I.Y. The latter two mostly as a point of contention between what seems to be two very divided schools of makers (and perhaps generational, and very much represented here).

Moderator Sandra Alfoldy (associate professor of craft history at NSCAD University and associate curator of fine craft at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax) set up the discussion by posing her “TOP 5 Assumptions [of Craft]” and having the the panel members speak a total of 8 minutes on each issue. Here are the TOP 5 ASSUMPTIONS:
#5. You don’t need to use traditional craft materials to be a craftsperson
#4. Craft is an environmental, sustainable set of practices
#3. Functional craft is less important than one-of-a-kind work
#2. Making it by hand makes it craft
#1. The craft field is dying and DIY (insert Pee Wee scream here) will save it!

First, a brief background on the artist panel:

Tom Patti

Thomas Patti–industrial designer and sculptor, known for his innovative use of glass and plastics to create visionary architectural systems, small-scale sculptures and large architectural commissions.

Claudia Crisan

Claudia Crisan–an artist trained in metals and fibers, she owns and operates (with her husband) a small bakery and edible art gallery called Crisan in Albany, New York.

Michael Sherrill–self-taught ceramicist and inventor of a line of tools for potters and sculptors, called Mudtools®

As far as answers to the above questions, numbers 5 through 3 didn’t really bring to light anything new, esp to the makers in the group. I mean, alternative materials have been pretty hip and more in the forefront of exhibitions these days (hence, why I’ve had to create a spreadsheet of where all my recycled work is this fall so i don’t double-commit work). Craft doesn’t inherently have environmentally sustainable practices-it’s only been recently brought to light as something we should do, as seen with Ethical Metalsmiths. And Function vs One-of-a-kind isn’t about either/or, for many of makers we embrace both; perhaps we enjoy mixing it up, or one funds the other.

The real heat came in #2 & #1. In #2 arose the CAD/CAM-is-it-evil issue, in which either you get it (meaning CAD) or you don’t. Is it a mere tool, means to an end, or is it a craft in itself like ceramics or metal. Is the hand still connected to the mind–going back to Dr. Sennett’s earlier talk, the importance of an all-body engaging the mind type of craft. For Claudia, she wholeheartedly agreed that working on the computer was no different than hammering metal. And for Thomas, he disagreed and believes a tool should never be made more important than the work.
Another Pee Wee squeal here–Either you love her or you hate her, Martha Stewart, that is. Bottom line: she’s made crafting accessible to everyone, from moms to kids, and in doing so, perhaps has sparked the desire to pursue a more serious investigation into craft for the younger generation. ‘Cause as long as you’re making that’s what really important, right? And for some of us we’re living by doing this. As Thomas says, take it to the next step and push boundaries, make meaningful, well-crafted work.

claudia's edible brooch

Jana Evans wearing Crisan brooch

attendees wearing Crisan brooches (claudia 3rd in)

Creating a New Craft Culture–Friday AM, Part 2

Elissa Auther

9:45 AM Elissa Auther on “Lifestyle an Livelihood in Craft Culture”
Background: Elissa Auther is assistant professor of contemporary art in the visual and performing arts department at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Her book String, Felt,Thread and the Hierarchy of Art and Craft, 1960-1980 (to be released Dec 09), focuses on the innovative use of fiber in American art.

Integration of Art and Life
Elissa’s presentation was a historical overview of counterculture art lifestyles of the 20th century, starting with the Arts & Crafts Movement of the UK–”The Love you liberate in your work is the love you keep” to postwar US –Craft as Conscious Choice.

Pond Farm

Then focusing on California (go CA!) from the 50′s-70′s, such as Marquerite Wildenhaim’s Pond Farm Experience (summer ceramics commune with a focus on process: idea that if students could master the process of being a craftsman, then the mastery of their “objects” would follow); Tom D’Onofrio’s Baulines Craftsmen Guild and the book the Craftsman Lifestyle: The Gentle Revolution by Olivia H. Emery–”All of life is artistic expression.”

Craft as Critique of Culture
Moving on to present day, Auther presented the emergence of the D.I.Y. movement and the rejection of the art world. As the group Pottery Liberation Front puts it: “Lifestyle defined by objects is hollow.” And of course a conversation about craft wouldn’t be complete (or controversial, apparently) these days without mentioning Etsy, and how it is bringing many new faces to the craft scene as people are discovering they too can achieve economic independence from the mainstream market by selling their handmade goods.

In the Q&A segment, the point of geography having something to do with art lifestyles flourishing in the 70′s, esp in the West Coast makes me think that it is happening again not only in CA but in Oregon and WA , this time with the burgeoning of Indie Craft. The coming together of a community, all around the joy of making. Reminding me why I love living in the Mission in SF in all its grungy, edgy, albeit pricey glory.

Friday Schedule

DAY 1
7:45 AM Friday: The early bird catches the worm and a whole lot of presentations here in the Radisson Plaza Hotel, Minneapolis MN. Arrived LATE last night (my need to take public transit everywhere) and signed in way too early this morning, thermos in hand. Harriete Estel Berman and I are Ready for action, and it didn’t take long for the atrium to be buzzing with anticipation (for the Thursday tours and pre-conference scoop, check  out Harriete’s blog). Used to the cattle rush of SNAG conferences, it is refreshing to be a part of a smaller group here at this conference (imagine half as many or less); surprising, actually since Craft embodies so many more fields of interest than just metals. Perhaps it’s the recession, time of year, or location, but I have a feeling that after people hear about this year’s conference, the next one will have a much larger attendance. (Yes, that is an img of today’s schedule: 9+ events, not including the evening craft tours!)

Many familiar faces in the crowd, many from the Philadelphia SNAG conference that for a moment I forgot what conference I was really at, and as Harriete and I were mentally preparing ourselves, a few stopped by to say hi and wish us luck: Sienna Patti, Namita Gupta Wiggers (who will be presenting a panel tomorrow about internet marketing for which I’m SO excited), and Lena Vigna (she co-authored with Namita the recent Metalsmith article, Ornamentalism Revisited, and is curating an upcoming exhibition with a similiar feel at Miami University Art Museum).
Lena tells me that she was part of one of 7 Convenings dialogues, small gatherings of specialized groups such as curators, educators, writers, of which the participants were specially invited by ACC. Forums for people to get to know one another and begin to raise questions. This arose due to feedback from the 2006 ACC Conference. Some of the issues that came out of Lena’s curators’ forum:
-What happens when artists don’t identify themselves as craftspeople?
-Recognizing that 20th Century Craft should be regarded as a Historical movement (and move forward with 21st Century craft as a new one).

8:30 AM: ACC Board Chair, Leilani Lattin Duke, opened this years conference speaking of the themes to Creating a Craft Culture:
-Thinking about Craft and the Individual, the Community, and the Marketplace
-The Idea of Making: how it address the rapidly changing world and Crafts place in it

Dr. Richard Sennet, Keynote

8:45 AM: Keynote Speaker: Dr. Richard Sennett. A little background: Sociologist and writer,  the most recently published book is The Craftsman. He founded, with Susan Sontag and Joseph Brodsky, The New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University, was an advisor to UNESCO & president of the American Council on Work; teaches at New York University and the London School of Economics.
The Craftsman argues that the craftsman’s realm is far broader than skilled manual labor; the computer programmer, the doctor, the parent, and the citizen need to learn the values of good craftsmanship today.

OK, enough background, let’s get down to it–I was glad the Dr. prefaced his talk with “You’ll have to excuse me, but I’m a Night Person” (so am I, Richard; trying to speak before 10 am IS challenging)–so I forgave him for the sluggish, somewhat philosophical sputterings at the beginning, comparing computer engineers to craftsmen, and Linux as public craft. I mean, I get it since my fiancé is a techie, but many artists glaze over after more than a few minutes of techie speak.

The question of the hour (and theme for the day) is: Why is it that Mediocracy tends to dominate over Quality in our society? In the modern workplace, delivering Quality is regarded/rewarded less than delivering Results. Thus we don’t reward craftsmanship since we don’t reward quality. How do we maintain the balance of Quality and Democracy?

Craft is exploratory; in craftsmen, there is a deep relationship between problem solving and problem finding–good craftsmen want to see what opens up when solving problems. It’s about the craftsmanship in learning, in stopping to dwell on things and find out what’s interesting and possible.  Unfortunately our society doesn’t look kindly upon learning at this pace.

What’s the solution?–Remove craftsmen from the need to produce Products and return importance to Process.

See what Harriete has to say on her blog here.

LEGO blog pin for conference

Well, almost Live from Minneapolis; heads up reware fans, it’s time for me to blog another amazing craft conference for SNAG starting this Friday for the American Craft Council’s “Creating a New Craft Culture.” A much shorter, but still as intensely packed line-up of speakers from Oct 16-17, culminating in a Saturday night banquet (we’ll see if the  ACC attendees are as fun as the SNAG conference folks….).

SNAG home page

Check out the SNAG home page and on the right hand column in “Announcements” is a link to the ACC Bloggers, meaning me and Harriete Estel Berman. We’ll try to keep it as live as possible, so stay tuned!

So what’s the big deal about the ACC conference, you ask? Well here’s just a few names in the lineup and see for yourself:
Garth Clark (craft critic and curator), Rob Walker (NY Times columnist & author of “Buying In”), Faythe Levine (director of “A Handmade Nation”), Panel discussion led by Namita Gupta Wiggers (Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland) on internet marketing, featuring CEOs Lisa Bayne of Artful Home and Maria Thomas of Etsy. Plus many more, but those are the ones that convinced me that flying to MN at the start of winter was a good idea. And this from a gal who’s sworn off snow…. Read more about the speakers, program and blog articles related to on the ACC site.

Just finished unpacking and repacking, having returned from a whirlwind month in NYC, London, and Greece. More next week about the cool UK jewelers, London exhibitions, as well as my talks at Syracuse University (my Top Ten Tips for Post Grad Success will be expanded upon here soon, promise) and at Museum of Arts & Design, NYC. I’m such a tease, I know.

Must go and pack my face mask for today’s many airplanes, and maybe nap….

Friday, May 22–Day 3, 9am. Crafting Ecology by Neri Oxman

Material Ecology

Material Ecology

Probably the most fitting lecture to the theme of Revolution and the future of craft, was this lecture by Neri  Oxman, PhD candidate at MIT. In 2008 she exhibited extensive design research in Design and the Elastic Mind, commissioned by MoMA, NY. Her work in Material Computation, “Material Ecology” as she calls it,  investigates and pioneers how well-designed Form can optimize Performance. She lists 4 Movements of Craft Ecology:
Adaptive Components–how small parts affect the design of the whole; Adaptive Materials–capturing material behaviors via computers; Adaptive Form & Environment; Adaptive Material & Environment–what tools you use to build form.

She touched on Green Fabrication, finding a relationship between how badly industry treats material efficiency today, and how well nature knows how to optimize materials. Looking into how one material can be used to cater to multiple performances. Quoting Brian Eno, “The problem with computers is that there is not enough Africa in them.” Basically, a synergetic approach to achieving generative design; looking back to the source, to Nature.

Camille Paglia

11:30am, Art and Sex by Camille Paglia
By far the Most Entertaining of all the lectures was Art and Sex by scholar and culture critic, Camille Paglia. What a riot; imagine half a semester of Art History class in less than an hour, including personal quips and hilarious commentary. I did learn a few things that I missed the first time around in college, such as with Donatello’s David.

Donatello's David

Besides being a fruity looking guy, check out how the feather in the severed head’s helmut seems to caress David’s inner thigh, dangerously close to his parts…Can you see it? How about here:

In Ingres’ Grand Odalisk, not only is this woman of the harem a bit doped up on her hookah, but the exposed, perfect soles of her feet give rise to an unexpected erotism of feet. 

1:30pm, Anti/icono/clastic by Myra Mimlitsch-Gray
After an equally speedy lunch, we returned for an artist lecture by Myra Mimlitsch-Gray, who gave us a tour of her Arts/Industry residency at Kohler Co., working in the foundry to create utilitarian ware and abstract sculptures. Inspired by the movie, The Future of Food, and the regional culinary culture (Kohler is based in Wisconsin), Myra tweaked the familiar and created sculptures based on the genetic modification of food. We were lucky enough to see these works in person at the Wexler Gallery on Friday night. Here are a few images from that show.

Braut pans

Mitosis by Myra Mimlitsch-Gray

2:45pm, Notes: Postal Art & Musical Instruments by Bobby Hannson

Bobby Hannson

What started out as a curious project by Tim McCreight to collect artistic, custom envelopes that Bobby Hannson had sent to friends and family over the years, turned into a 13 minute DVD movie of Bobby’s art and musical instruments, featuring the eclectic, lovable character himself. We got a sneak peak at the film, and even were encouraged to take home a complimentary copy to share with the world. You too can have a copy ($20), available soon on Tim’s Brynmorgen Press website.

Have a look at the Youtube clip yourself:

Metalsmith Magazine has a brand new look to kick-off 2009, a more compact, intimate design–and to top it off, the Studio Visit segment in the front features Harriete Estel Berman‘s studio, written by Jennifer Cross Gans. Lucky me, I was included in the photo shoot. A cherry on top of a decade’s work alongside a phenomenal craft/recycling artist. The photo was recently posted on Objectfetish last month.

Lovely Shana alerted me this afternoon of yet another Etsy Front page siting of my lego bracelets! I am on the E-tip train here with etsy. Missed seeing it on the front page myself, as now it has elusively moved to Treasury West. Very mysterious, this etsy stuff; hopefully someday they will archive the front pages (the etsy people told me they were considering this for the future). Anyhow, Linda, a fellow Piscean otherwise known as “alamodestuff” featured my violette femme bracelet on her “Off the Cuff” treasury. She has a great design eye, love her bags. Check out the treasury before it expires tuesday.