Page 155 - Constructing Craft

In 1985 Edith Ryan, the Craft Programme Manager for the Queen Elizabeth II Arts
Council, wrote in the New Zealand Crafts ‘Soapbox’ that no dealer galleries

marketing craft existed in Wellington. In advocating such a gallery, and clearly not
believing that the Craft Council Gallery fitted the role, she stated that ‘as one

achieves great skill, resulting in beauty of design, and a unique and clearly

identifiable style and approach one needs to give up amateur behaviour and join the
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ranks of the professionals.’ The amateur behaviour Ryan was referring to was
‘house door sales, [and] putting one’s work up for sale in a craft shop to be
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displayed alongside all standards of work.’ Ryan, who appeared to be more
concerned with the cultural location of craft than the economic circumstance of

individual craftspeople, claimed that ‘craft workers [would never] “come of age”, be
completely professional until their business [was] handled in a professional way by

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dealer galleries.’ In Wellington by the mid-1980s it appeared that professional, in
some circles, equated with promotion and standards rather than economic viability.

In Dunedin, when the local chapter of the CCNZ set up a gallery in 1986,
professionalism was linked to quality. John Reid, writing about the new gallery,

stated:
Quality in craft work is of vital importance. The contrast to the
throw-away world must be complete. And the successful work
will have something of the makers [sic] personality in it as well;
individuality. … Production and sale of quality crafts implies
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professional control.

But it was clear that being able to support oneself through the sale of work

remained a defining aspect of professionalism in his mind. Suggesting that craft

tutors needed to make their students aware of the necessity of understanding the
business side of craft, Reid, in a somewhat unsubtle fashion, questioned the tutors’

understanding of the ‘real’ craft professional – those making their living

predominantly from their craft. Reflecting the divisions that still existed between
professionals (in the economic sense) and academics, he stated: ‘Tutors in

institutions can attempt to help students to understand the pitfalls and problems on
the way to a secure professional life. Unfortunately, it is difficult to be realistic while

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insulated from the harsh light of day by the umbrella of a state salary.’

Constructing Craft