Page 121 - Constructing Craft

The art philosopher, Arthur C. Danto, also believed that ‘worlds’ existed within which
artists strived to locate positions based on what was considered art. Danto, who

subscribed to the premise that anything could be art, noted however, that art could
indeed be anything, ‘but only if a loosely organised community of artists, art

professionals and interested bystanders ... called the “artworld”, recognised it as
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such.’ The formation of an art world, or indeed a craft world, requires those taking
part to reach an agreement, even if it is largely unspoken, that such a world exists.

However, once formed, such a world can exert great influence on how individuals
decide on matters of status – for instance whether a craftsperson is deemed a

professional or not. In New Zealand, between the 1950s and the mid-1960s, craft,

as a rule, could not be ‘anything’ – craftspeople generally agreed that the production
of craft required a degree of skill in the use of hands and tools; it was largely

functional in that it was based on traditional concepts of craft which linked craft with
functionality: and it was usually made for someone else (a client) rather than as a

means of self-expression. This general agreement encouraged the formation of
craft-specific clubs, regional groups and national organisations that provided

services to members but usually did not question the concept of what craft was. The

platform for that would come later as the movement took on a multi-craft, national
identity.

It is impossible to say exactly when this ‘world’ formed but the emergence of the

World Craft Council (WCC) in 1965 appeared to set the parameters for a craft world
to develop. And from the mid-1970s, as some craftspeople increasingly sought

entry into the world of art and the WCC turned into the CCNZ, the boundaries that

surrounded craft were pushed out and divisions appeared. The divisions made it
more difficult for amateur craftspeople, professional craftspeople and interested

bystanders to work together and by the early 1990s, as we shall see, the studio

craft movement began to unravel.

Constructing Craft