emiko-o reware

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 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.