Page 150 - Constructing Craft

shores.’ And added: ‘The craft industry is a multi-million dollar business. The need
16
for well trained artists and craftspeople is urgent.’ Thorburn’s concluding
statement however, failed to demonstrate the link between the economics of the

craft business and the aesthetic training the student craft artists would receive.
Professionals in Thorburn’s account were largely defined by the aesthetic quality of

their work and their formal qualification – not the ability to earn a living.

In the same issue Carin Wilson, former President of the CCNZ and a woodworker,

detailed the extended background to the courses dating back to the founding of the
CCNZ in 1977. He recalled a conference in Hastings in 1980 where an Australian

jeweller, Norman Creighton, advocated ‘a sound education foundation as a
17
springboard for the dissemination of skills and aesthetic appreciations’. By 1984 a
number of guiding principles had been established including, ‘staffing by practising

professionals, who would bring an explicit master/apprentice relationship to the
process’ and

an intention to have a two-tiered structure established … This
would recognise that craft is practised at a level that has mainly
to do with making as a repetitive and mechanical process on
the one hand, and also at a highly creative and innovative level
18
on the other.

This statement emphasised the confused debate that was taking place in the

background.

A review of the craft courses in polytechnics in 1989 demonstrated that in many
courses the training needed to become self-employed was not available. In a

revealing statement in the review it was noted: ‘These skills [management and

marketing of craft products] could not be taught very successfully in the polytechnic
setting where the tutors involved did not always have an understanding of the craft

19
world, and craftspeople.’ Students were also aware of the deficiencies of the
polytechnic system of training.

Many students indicated that they learned most about
professional attitudes from practising craftspeople – either by
observing them “in action” in their working context, or by having
them come into the course and talk about the ways in which
20
they managed production and marketing.

Constructing Craft