emiko-o reware

Well that’s it on my end blogging for the American Craft Council 2009 Conference, Creating A New Craft Council. Much thanks to SNAG for trusting Harriete Estel Berman and I in reporting via blog fashion for the SNAG membership and community at large. Also thanks to Object Fetish for promoting our endeavors.

TIP: Listen to interview with SNAG’s Executive Director, Dana Singer on blogtalkradio.com TODAY, Thursday Oct 22 @ 3pm.

Quote by Faythe Levine

This was an energized crowd that has a lot more to talk about now! I urge all attendees to bring these conversations home to your own communities, physical and virtual,  and continue the dialogue about Craft in the 21st century. Ask the hard questions, practice Tough Love.

What do you want to see happen in Craft’s near future?
What actions can we start to take to affect change?

PSST…Want to get in on the conference buzz? Wait no longer and sign up for SNAG’s 2010 Conference, Going to Extremes, March 10-13 in Houston TX.

Creating A New Craft Culture SAT 4:30 PM
Conference Conclusion: Craft as Subject, Verb, and Object
Panel discussion: moderator Sonya Clark (chair, Virginia Commonwealth University); panelists (in order of appearance, below): Stephano Catalani (curator, Bellevue Art Museum), Jean McLaughlin (director, Penland School of Crafts), Lacy Jane Roberts (fiber artist {amazing knit pink barbed wire}, writer), Andy Brayman (founder, Matter Factory), Garth Johnson (teacher, blogger, Extreme Craft, artist), Brent Skidmore (director, UNC Asheville Craft Campus Initiative, artist)

Conclusion Panel

This presentation was an unexpected highlight and perfect end to the weekend’s events, surprising in that it turned out to be a panel discussion (instead of just Sonya Clark) on how the conference went overall and people’s wish for the advancement of craft.

Sonya Clark

Earlier in the conference, Sonya handed out green Survey forms to all attendees, a yes/no questionaire of 35 questions aimed at understanding the current Direction and Definition of Craft. She collected the surveys (over half the attendees completed surveys) at the end of Friday’s sessions, tabulated the percentages, and in this panel presented us with the results, finding the questions with nearly tied yes/no answers to be the more telling.

Here are the questions voted Most Important by the attendees:
-Is the interface between craft, design, and art moving in a positive direction? Yes: 89%   No: 11%
-Should craft become the example of critical-making (parallel to critical-thinking) in our culture? Yes: 84%   No: 16%
-Do you value craft that embraces its history and then challenges it?
Yes: 72%  No: 18%
-Does craft need to expand its definition to be more inclusive?
Yes: 58%  No: 42%

Here are the questions where there was “slippage” and would be worth investigating further:
-Is the ubiquity of the craft media in the world a hindrance to its market value? Yes: 41%  No: 59%
-Has the academic craft community abandoned the traditionally educated craft community Yes: 50%  No: 50%
-Do you value the contributions of traditionally or non-academically trained artists in the field? Yes: 50%  No: 50%
-Do you see the  preservation of craft traditions as a forward-looking strategy? Yes: 45%  No: 55%
-Do you describe something as “craft” depending on the narrative of the object? Yes: 52%  No: 48%
-Does craft mean too many things to be useful? Yes: 46%  No: 54%

THE PANEL’S VIEWS
Sonya did well in choosing panel members who represented craft across many realms from museums, academia, writers, DIY and traditional crafters. She asked the panel to answer a couple of questions based on how they felt about craft now at the conference’s conclusion. Here is what they said (panelists’ remarks are labeled by their initials):

What are 2 wishes that each of you have for the Future of Craft?

SC: 1. Have more discussions..without feeling Passive/Aggressive. 2. Be more grounded in the Present, not so focused on the Future.

JM: 1. How do we have debate as a group.
2. …desire for more time for reflection, for making with wonder

LJR: Expand craft into the Humanities in schools…have it inform your making.

AB: 1. To allow & celebrate the Diversity in the field.
2. Pair Sustainability with Material Science.

GJ: 1. More engagement with Design (as seen in Europe currently).
2. Hope that craft doesn’t get defined more strictly.

BS: 1. Never entertaining the thought of craft being dead.
2. An active and engaged ACC.

What question do we need to address for the future?

SC: Keep working on this idea of Community & how it expresses the time in which we are living.

JM: More research & understanding the pulse of the artists, and what’s going to happen to artists’ estates.

LJR: How is what you’re making engaging others and how is it living these multiple lives?

AB: Reflect on how we’re spending our time and what’s really important.

GJ: Inclusivity with DIY

BS: Will future ACC conferences become a group of regional conferences? How do we build a Bridge to the Next Generation?

Creating a New Craft Culture SAT 3 PM
The Case for Conservatism with Garth Clark

I apologize for skipping over some of the weekend’s presenters; you can catch more on Natalie Chanin, Robin Petravic, Julie Lasky, and Lydia Matthews on Harriete’s blog. I may do a sound-bites post at the very end of my ACC conference reporting to include some of these folks.

Garth Clark

But time is of the essence and I’m sure you’re all chomping at the bit to hear the dirt on Garth Clark‘s presentation, the title of which is elusive and a bit dull. He admitted to being a bit confused as to why he chose “The Case for Conservatism” title 9 months ago.

If you’ve done your homework in listening to (or attended) Garth’s previous controversial talk at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, OR, “How Envy Killed the Crafts Movement” (hear the podcast on MCC‘s site in 2 parts, or order the transcription online through MCC), then you will have already heard the paper he read to us, “Palace and Cottage”. In the paper he urges craft makers to return to a cottage industry/grass roots model, to rebuild it from the bottom up and address social issues. He called out the classism and elitism that has been brewing between ACC and the “Craft Nation” as he refers to it. And calls out ACC on the conference’s theme, bemoaning, “Why are we looking for a NEW craft culture?” that it’s “ludicrous to be looking for something over the hill” or to “create a new Bubble” in today’s ecomony. No holds barred on accusing ACC of floundering purposeless and missionless for the last decade. I’ll admit that up until now I didn’t consider ACC anything more than a magazine, an archive, and craft shows; but there are glimmers now that it can have a new life and purpose if the desire and drive are there.

ON BURNING MAN

Burning Man

Garth cracked me up when he opened his talk about his trip to Burning Man and how he lost 10 lbs. of discarded cynicism towards craft. How incredible it was be there and experience the endless amount of amazing craft being made without [financial] agenda, from fire-breathing dragon cars to structures made from repurposed materials  (my favs have always been the Temples made from wooden puzzle refuse, see below). “I believe in a Craft Nation“, he said, but admitted that an idealized, anti-money, communal lifestyle is of course not realistic in a market-driven, capitalistic economy. He did relate BM to the DIY culture (naturally there are many cross-over groups in this comparison) in how both “take us back to the rituals of daily life; a life experience…we’ve turned craft into a gallery experience (he admits to playing a role in that during the 80s bubble).” Best to “keep the boundaries open and not be hostile“, for the DIY movement is “transient, a youth expression and certainly not a threat to the craft community at large“. Yes, maybe if we say this enough times, it will finally sink in….

Temple of Joy (photo: Maurice Fitzpatrick

THE SOLUTION
What is the next step, what can we do to Save Craft? Garth suggests Art Advocacy at the Federal level, and sooner rather than later before the federal monies are bled dry. Yes, lobbying is messy, expensive, and takes lots of organization and commitment, but we have to ask ourselves the greater question of “Can we afford to [continue to] go unrepresented [in government]?” Not only getting funding for organizations and communities, but for more protective legal rights, tax issues and ways to make running a craft studio a more viable lifestyle.

An effective advocacy model to study is what Western North Carolina and the Center for Craft, Creativity, & Design did to help save craft in that region and give craft a voice in state government. The power of the collective does work. A leader at CCCD suggest we “challenge others to step out of their studios and get involved in community.”

The great thing about Garth’s talks is that they get people riled up about something enough to continue the discussion in the outside world.  I’m a big believer in Tough Love; criticism may be painful while it’s happening, but if it’s coming from a place of genuine concern it is often just what the doctor ordered: a catalyst for change.

Creating a New Craft Culture SAT 9:45 AM
Round Table Discussion: “Riding the Long Tail”: Marketing Craft on the Internet
Namita Gupta Wiggers, moderator; Maria Thomas, Lisa Bayne, Amy Shaw, panelists

The moment was ripe for this discussion–Namita Gupta Wiggers (Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, OR) had brought together the CEO of Etsy–Maria Thomas, CEO of Artful.home (owned by Guild.com)–Lisa Bayne, and owner of the former Greenjeans store and webstore–Amy Shaw. Now we could get to down to the nitty gritty and hear from figureheads of 2 factions of craft. Unfortunately since Amy’s business was defunct, the questions and interest was more or less focused on the 2 CEOs. Honestly, it was a shame that this panel wasn’t given more time. None of the panels had been slotted enough time; one hour doesn’t cut it when there are 3+ voices to be heard plus audience interaction.

What the heck is a “Long Tail”, you ask? It really is a business term, referring to the curve of goods sold in a company. In the big retailers, 80% of their sales are from only 20% of goods in the store, which represents the high end of the curve. The goods that sell in lower quantities, at the low end of the curve is referred to as the “long tail”. Brick and mortar stores don’t have enough room to stock all of the long tail products, unlike websites. Research has shown that for online stores, the the total sales of these long tail products far exceeds the sales from the traditional top 20% of the curve. And what products are at this long tail end: Craft.

Maria Thomas

A few months ago I had attended an Esty Meet-up in SF, where Maria and heads of her staff invited local Etsy sellers to gather for a Q&A session. The turnout was impressive and the crowd was eager and hungry for the inside scoop. It felt like a family reunion of sorts. I was super impressed by the level of transparency in the company and especially how attentive Maria was to each question and person.

Here there wasn’t time for a proper Q&A, and now I see just how crucial it is for these craft factions to understand each other better and be properly introduced under neutral circumstances. (INSIDER TIP: the Metal Arts Guild San Francisco will be holding a one-day symposium in fall 2011 on the theme “Community”, and this may just be the springboard for such a meeting of the minds, especially since I’m in on the planning.)

I didn’t learn anything new and ground-breaking with what turned out to be a general explanation of how each company runs, but this is a hot topic right now, and it will be interesting to see how selling craft on the web evolves over the next few years.

Below are quotes by the panelists that sum up the hour:
Maria: “Esty never set out to be an expert filter [on the issue of Quality] but to help people make a living…connecting makers and buyers.”
Lisa: “DIY has been a lightening rod in the media. It’s not the only thing in craft happening today.”
Amy echoes Rob’s advice: “We all need to work together, collectively as we’re all working towards the same goals.”

Word loudly heard from the audience:”AMEN.”

Creating a New Craft Culture SAT 8:45 AM
Morning Keynote: Handmade 2.0 with Rob Walker

Rob Walker brooch by Harriete Berman

Another major reason why I plunked down serious $$$ to come to this conference: to meet Rob Walker, author of Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are (2008), and a contributing writer and columnist of Consumed for The New York Times Magazine. I had imagined him to be a hearty, super forthcoming older New York type man, but boy was I way off course. A wiry, quiet guy, much more Portland Oregon. He and Harriete Estel Berman have been in discourse (he interviewed her for his murketing.com blog–check the post; she also made his nametag in the image above), so we had the pleasure of sitting with him in the back of the room for the Friday morning presentations.

Harriete Berman & Rob Walker

His lecture was introduced as being about How Craft fit into this New Marketplace and the Broader Consumer Culture. His first remark was “I’m not sure there is a SINGLE craft culture, but craft CULTURES…the broad idea of craft is up for grabs, which is not a bad thing, it’s a good thing.” He went on to talk about his interest in the tensions of the marketplace and contradictions in consumers, like how people want to feel unique yet be a part of something bigger, and that the consumer demands the very best when they really demand the cheapest. What it really boils down to is “Am I getting my money’s worth?”

Again the issue of Quality, except in this economy quality has been trumped by Thrift and Frugality, as stated by the trend industry. Rob is quite the comedian and the mediator, as he knew from the Friday talks that we can be a touchy crowd, he often put up the slide of his super cute dog since “dogs put people in better moods” (strangely enough, this move was done by a few other presenters later on). Really though, speaking to his mediator role, his talk was perfect to start us all on the right foot for the day, as he presented a solution: it’s “good to avoid hard and fast definitions of craft, because otherwise it moves toward Exclusivity. Thus it’s a Good Time to be INCLUSIVE.” Insert ripple of applause.

ON NEW WAVE 2.0
I like this term for Indie Craft, New Wave 2.0 (reminds me of my favorite rock bands)–Rob brought to light a great observation of how supportive the indie community is towards each other, breaking the tension of Urge to Compete and Urge to Cooperate. This is something that has always struck me as well, the general open arms welcome of the makers I meet at MakerFaire and Renegade Craft Fair. But I don’t see that much of a difference in the metals community in the terms of inclusivity and sharing of information. I have remarked to students and emerging artists of how lucky we are to be a part of a creative community that helps each other for greater good of the field. It’s not cut-throat like advertising or high fashion.

THE IDEA OF STORY
Turns out that while Friday’s theme was Quality, Saturday’s theme is Story. Story is what differentiates mass produced products from craft. People value the story of the maker, the process, the concept of a piece and that’s why they shell out a little extra dough and energy to own craft. However, Rob gives it a new spin by saying, “the mistake people [i.e. makers] make is thinking the most important story is their own story but it isn’t…best when your story is relevant to others’ lives“, the story of the person you’re selling to. True, as artists we get a little tunneled visioned in our making and thinking it’s all about us, but I’ve found that my most successful pieces, whether it’s production work or exhibition pieces are the ones in which springboarded peoples’ personal experiences and nostaglia. And it’s this engaged feedback from people that motivates me to continue to make with this idea of story in mind.

Rob urges us to consider accepting multiple versions of Craft, and in doing so, become a bigger voice in the marketplace. To strive to understand each other and find common ground, and not expect the public to accept a “proper” definition of craft. Insert loud applause.

See Rob’s follow-up post here.
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

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.