The American Craft Council’s biennial leadership conference occurred this past weekend in Minneapolis, and its theme was “Creating a New Craft Culture.” I attended it largely because of an article printed in American Craft magazine by Richard Sennet, author, sociologist, and co-founder of the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University. In it, Sennet outlines the premise of his book The Craftsman, which identifies the fundamental human desire to do a job well for its own sake, whether handcrafting an art object, writing elegant software code, or conducting medical research. This broader definition of craft—discussed within the context of traditional studio craft disciplines—resonated strongly with me, as it is a subject I have been engaged with since purchasing a small crafts gallery in 2008 and merging it with my marketing communications practice.
Dick Huss Glass Minneapolis
Sennet’s discussion of craft attracted a curiously diverse group of academics; curators; graphic, interior, and industrial designers; architects; studio craftspeople; entrepreneurs; indie crafters; gallery-owners; and political advocates who are ready to grapple with issues relating to the economy, culture, social responsibility, sustainability, and design. In his keynote, he defined craft as a sustainable set of practices that accommodate not just product-driven development, but also research, experimentation, and the reflection of the maker. Sennet reminded us that many of our systems are designed to focus on delivering short-term economic benefits in lieu of quality, and that this is neither sustainable nor desirable—as clearly seen in our recent global economic meltdown. There have been highly influential, open source coding languages like Linux that came into being through experimentation and the pursuit of quality as opposed to the monolithic, obligatory 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 software releases driven by profit incentives. In the academic realm, Sennet also pointed to the reliance upon standardized tests, which reward students who get the correct answers within limited periods of time. “Can you imagine what would happen to a student who was thinking, ‘B is the right answer, but C is the more interesting answer’?” he asked. Without a culture that supports open-ended exploration, experimentation, and innovation, said Sennet, “we are facing quite a damning state of affairs indeed.”
Other speakers extended this line of thinking. Elissa Auther, assistant professor of contemporary art at the University of Colorado, gave a talk entitled “Lifestyle and Livelihood in Craft Culture,” which illustrated lifestyles that historically integrated values such as quality and craftsmanship, and in doing so, succeeded at a higher level than those functioning merely in the service of capital. Lydia Matthews, academic dean and professor of visual culture at Parsons, The New School for Design in New York City, discussed emerging economic models of studio practice, creative research, and entrepreneurship that not only value financial capital, but also social, cultural, ecological, and physical capital. She quoted from Joseph E. Stiglitz and Amartya Sen’s work on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, reiterating that what we measure indicates what we value, and is subsequently what gets our attention and resources.
Several compelling case studies of highly profitable businesses based on these broader definitions of craft, quality, sustainability, and social responsibility were presented during the conference. For example:
- Kristin Marie Tombers, owner of Clancey’s Meats & Fish, sources her beef, pork, and chicken locally, and has elevated the craft of raising, butchering, and distributing foods to an entirely new form. Animals are raised without cruelty, and are roaming freely on farms. Local farmers are employed, and the carbon footprint is minimized.
- Natalie Chanin, co-founder of the American couture line Project Alabama, has started a revival of Depression-era quilting and stitching techniques with her hand-sewn couture garments. Crafted with recycled and organic materials, her clothing has been covered in prestigious international fashion publications including Vogue, Women’s Wear Daily, and Elle. Her company, Alabama Chanin, employs a substantial network of cottage industry workers in the rural South that might have otherwise had to rely upon government assistance.
- Robin Petravic of Heath Ceramics revitalized a sixty-year-old dinnerware and tile company with his wife, Catherine Bailey. As former designers for Nike and Lightsurf, they knew how introduce modern, marketable designs into their product line while retaining the craftsmanship, experience, and knowledge of Heath’s employees—some of whom have worked at Heath for over forty years. Heath models responsible business practices as a means to achieving long-term economic vitality and viability. The company experienced sizable growth in 2009 and is adding jobs.
Minnesota Center for Book Arts
Despite the profound optimism illustrated in these case studies, however, the conference offered a reasonable counterbalance of information regarding the state of affairs of craft in America. In particular, Rob Walker, a consumer behaviorist, contributing writer and columnist for the New York Times Magazine, and author of Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are, encouraged the group to view commentary on trends with a grain of salt. While he acknowledged the movement toward handcraft—spotlighting in particular the success of Renegade craft fairs filled with homegrown indie-crafters and the media attention given to Faythe Levine’s documentary Handmade Nation—he was careful to remind us that for every data point that might suggest consumers are ready to embrace homemade goods, there are equally valid examples, such as the proliferation of iPhones, that show they are not remotely interested in giving up mass-produced products. The most meaningful way to look at this data, said Walker, is as a natural tension that exists between our conflicting desires as both consumers and humans. We want mass-produced stuff when it makes sense and we want unique products and experiences that satisfy our need for independence and authenticity.
This notion of balancing tension between seeming opposites was a consistent undercurrent at the conference. There, the old guard of seasoned, highly educated national museum curators and academics mixed with iPod-carrying, cozy-crocheting, DIY indie-crafters and Martha Stewart supporters. Even Garth Clark, writer, commentator, former gallery owner, curator, and author of nearly fifty books on ceramic art, gave a come-to-Jesus presentation, criticizing the American Crafts Council for being out of touch and confessing his own regrets over his lack of leadership during the art world’s “Palace Period” from 1980 to 1995. Clark described his recent creative epiphany at Burning Man, which had the young believers lining up to the microphone in adulation during an extended Q&A, and the old guard lining up to denounce his heresy.
Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis
Adam Lerner, founder of the highly experimental Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar, presented random topics like Kristin Marie Tomber’s Meat Fabrication talk juxtaposed against formal art and design subjects such as Prairie School Architecture, in order to expand our awareness of how art relates to life. He likened the folding of his organization into Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art and his subsequent appointment as museum director to “the class clown turning into the class president.”
As Rob Walker explained, in order to truly analyze behavior, especially the tensions between conflicting behaviors, we must create some kind of resolution to expand the conversation and our understanding of craft. Only then we can consider how all the different views expressed during the conference contribute to the vibrant patchwork of this vivid new craft culture—a craft culture that will ultimately give a society built on the wobbly foundation of short-term gain greater meaning and stability.
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