Page 143 - Constructing Craft

Chapter Seven: Craft Education

The philosophical debate about learning that took place in Britain after the Second

World War through to the 1970s played a part in the way that craft professionals

defined themselves in the 1980s and early 1990s in New Zealand. The dividing
issue was the workshop method of passing on skills versus the art school teaching

of design. ‘Design’, to some extent, became the catchword that distinguished
between new and old pedagogical methods and between ‘new’ and ‘old’ craft.

‘Design’ was linked with industrial production ‒ with ‘brands, promotion, and
1
identity’, but also with the art world. New Zealand craftspeople rarely had any
training in industrial design and many had only a limited amount of craft education.

Therefore, the linking of design and training was viewed with suspicion.

From the mid-1960s, the preferred learning environment in New Zealand for
professional craftspeople lacked any formal structure at all. In most cases future

craftspeople joined a club or attended a night class. When they gained some

rudimentary skills a fortunate few gained employment in a small studio workshop

where learners worked with more experienced craftspeople similar to the
traditional British model. However, in New Zealand, most craftspeople taught
themselves in home workshops. All these locations carried associations with ‘blue-

collar’ occupations or leisure – the trade workshop or hobbies. Not all British

craftspeople however, supported this method. Norman Potter, a furniture maker,
believed that craftspeople were in limbo between old craft methods and new design

education so that ‘many small workshops [were] cut off from the intellectual currents
of their time producing work that was self-contained, sentimental and backward-

2
looking’. His criticism suggested that craftspeople needed to be stimulated by a
variety of influences.

The new ‘design’ courses that developed in Britain held the promise of ‘white-collar’
3
professional status ‒ although it was not clear where that would be recognised if
they were introduced in the less structured New Zealand craft environment. In
addition, in Britain, some of the courses did not appear to be preparing craftspeople

4
for self-employment, and in New Zealand, where the opportunities for teaching
Constructing Craft