Page 161 - Constructing Craft

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confident’. None of these descriptions fitted neatly into the economic definition
used earlier in the craft movement and neither did they give a true picture of the
economic viability of individual craftspeople. In the same article that Lloyd-Jenkins

defined the new structure of craft he noted: ‘Craft has been given a new profile, and
the new artists are keen to distance themselves from the roadside stall standards of

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handcraft.’ Furthermore, he saw the new craftspeople selling their work in the
same way that artists did. Condemning the then common practice of holding

exhibitions in the same location where normal craft sales occurred, he advised the

new craftspeople not to accept the old standards, but inadvertently hinted that some
craft sold better than others.

Why should any artist accept gallery stock by other artists being
shown alongside exhibition work? No top contemporary art
gallery owner would admit to stocking pieces they themselves
describe as “junk” because “after all it sells”. Yet a group of
young jewellers are currently at the point of withdrawing their
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support of a major craft gallery over this very issue.

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This article appeared in the final issue of Craft New Zealand. We cannot know
how craft gallery owners would have responded to this challenge, but undoubtedly
some would have found Lloyd-Jenkins’ directions exasperating, as they often

depended on day-to-day sales to support less profitable exhibitions.

By 1992, not only had amateurs been firmly placed within a particular framework,

the ‘old craft’ professionals, despite their economic success, were being pressured

to step aside for the new professionals – the tertiary-trained craft artists. The
changing definition of professionalism was, in part, a response to economic

changes that were making the sale of the craftwork from the late 1970s more

difficult. The lifting of import restrictions, discussed in more detail later, often did not
distinguish between factory-produced items and those made by studio craftspeople

– their loss of sales was an unfortunate side effect. However, the economic
argument for change remained largely absent from the pages of Craft New Zealand

– the magazine most clearly associated with ‘new crafts’ ‒ although economic
issues relating to professionalism continued to be discussed in craft-specific

magazines, such as the New Zealand Potter. Some craftspeople may have chosen

Constructing Craft