Page 115 - Constructing Craft

from craft or one did not. By the early 1990s however, the degree to which craft was

considered art as discussed earlier had added a dimension that made the defining
of professionalism much more difficult. Within four years of the 1988 meeting the

CCNZ had gone into liquidation, in part precipitated by its alienation of the vast
majority of craftspeople in New Zealand – the amateurs, but also by the divisions

that had developed between different types of professionals.

What is an Amateur? What is a Professional?

Defining the terms ‘amateur’ and ‘professional’, as they were understood during the

time of the studio craft movement, is problematic. This is not a problem limited to

the history of craft however; historians, across a number of fields have wrestled with
applying definitions to terms that carry some sort of appraisal. At first, in the field of

studio craft, an ‘amateur’ was someone who was involved purely for pleasure,
without seeking a financial reward, while a ‘professional’ in the craft world was

linked to the idea of professionalism in the trades, which involved apprenticeships
and membership of a trade organisation such as a guild or the ability to earn a

livelihood from their craft. ‘Fulltime’ became something of a euphemism within the

movement, implying that a ‘fulltime’ craftsperson was a professional. In this sense
the CCNZ defined professionals as those craftspeople who worked on their craft for

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over thirty hours a week, even though many craftspeople devoted long hours to
their craft for a very small financial return. An added complication was the feeling
amongst some craftspeople that professionalism was linked to the quality and type

of work produced or that some craftwork was associated with women – and so
regarded as amateur – while other areas of craft were ‘men’s work.’

During the early period of the movement, between the late 1940s and mid-1970s

when functional objects were the domain of craftspeople and before craft artists
gained a higher profile, very little distinction was made in exhibition reviews, or in

the publications that craftspeople read, between hobbyists and professionals. None
of the craftspeople who exhibited at the Helen Hitchings Gallery in 1949 were

professionals in the economic sense for example, but neither would they have

Constructing Craft