Page 122 - Constructing Craft

Art/Craft World Participants

Becker identified four types of artists who inhabit art worlds: integrated

professionals, mavericks, naïve artists and folk artists. Craftspeople came from a
wide variety of backgrounds, and manifested many different skills and levels of

dedication to their craft but they exhibited characteristics similar to the artists that
Becker identified. It was within and between these types of craftspeople that debate

began about who might call themselves a professional and who would always be

classed an amateur.

The Integrated Professional

Integrated professionals are people who are so familiar with the conventions of the
world they inhabit that their work is accepted as the canon of art or craft. This is the

work that is greatly admired and accepted by most people as the standard work.

These people do not produce the same work over and over again but the variations
and innovations are small and within the accepted conventions. Their work is

sometimes called traditional and their world, the ordinary art/craft world. Becker
suggests that most artists sit within this world. An example of this is the

potter/ceramic artist using a potter’s wheel to make many items that look similar.

The work of integrated professionals in studio craft experienced a burst of popularity
that grew steadily throughout the period this book is concerned with.

Constructing Craft