Page 160 - Constructing Craft

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on.’ It appeared that academic training was not going to produce professional
craftspeople. This was a remarkable shift in emphasis from when Carin Wilson had
stated, seven years earlier, that the philosophy of the programme was to ‘always

have a strong orientation towards the practical. Crafts is [sic], after all, 80 – 90%
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practice.’ Most craftspeople reading this statement would have assumed that
practical meant working as a practising craftsperson.

By 1992 the craft graduates appeared to have broken free from the restrictions of

earlier craft traditions and were challenging the art world. Michael Smythe, himself a

graduate of a polytechnic design course, asked the question: ‘Should we expect
art/craft/design school graduate shows [exhibitions] to point the way to New

Zealand’s future? Or are we happy (and less threatened) if graduates are
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represented as partly formed replicas of today’s practitioners?’ Smythe supported
the former and later added: ‘The university art schools [in contrast to the
Polytechnics where the craft programmes were located] seem satisfied with the

status quo and (arrogantly?) indifferent to the fact that they may be outclassed by

their ex-trade based cousins.’ The move away from craft education based on skills
training to craft as a type of art education could not have been clearer. Peter Gibbs,

by now editor of Craft New Zealand, summarised Smythe’s argument as a choice

between graduates who could demonstrate, in Smythe’s words, “authentic
innovation and the ability to surprise and delight” and those who might learn ‘a solid
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core of skills from which to build.’ He favoured the second option explaining that:
‘After fifteen years at the clay face, making a living exclusively as a fulltime potter, I

know the importance I placed on acquiring skills and the difficulty of doing so while
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under financial pressure to produce.’

By 1992 the three-tier system consisting of amateurs and the two confusing

professional categories based on quality and economic success was in place.
Craftspeople were amateurs, ‘old craft’ professionals or ‘new craft’ professionals.

The work of amateurs and some ‘old craft’ professionals was labelled ‘roadside stall
handicrafts’. ‘[O]ld crafts’ were professional but, according to Douglas Lloyd-

Jenkins, had ‘become introspective and isolated’ while ‘new craft’ was ‘bold and

Constructing Craft