Page 162 - Constructing Craft

to ignore economic factors in their search for professional status, but it remained an

important ingredient ‒ to receive grants and commissions the craft artists relied on
their reputation and the cultural capital they had accumulated to bolster their

chances. Symbols of higher value were where work was promoted and sold, prizes
won in craft competitions and a recognised tertiary qualification specific to the craft

artist’s specialty.

None of the exhibitors at the Helen Hitchings Gallery in 1949 had formal

qualifications related to their craft and few would have expected to pursue a

professional career in the crafts in the future. By 1992 however, thousands of New
Zealanders were, in the economic sense, professional craftspeople. They had in

many cases achieved professional status in the craft world through the sale of their
work. But the traditional economic support that had sustained the movement was

being eroded and craftspeople needed to find new ways to support themselves
whilst still calling themselves professionals. Some attempted to retain the prestige

that the term ‘professional’ implied by placing more emphasis on the quality of work

produced and formal qualifications awarded. Younger craftspeople ‒ the graduates
of the new craft courses ‒ had expectations that often did not include working in

studio crafts in the traditional sense. They used the title ‘craft artist’ or worked in

related fields. Inevitably this led to a separation of some craftspeople from their
traditional roots – the amateurs, the trades and traditional studio crafts.

In 1978 Marguerite Scott, the Honorary Secretary of the CCNZ, wrote to Allan

Highet, the Minister for Recreation and Sport, seeking a grant to employ a Resource

Officer and for general administration costs. In the letter she was proud that the
membership of the CCNZ had increased from 3225 members in 1976 to 8600 in

1978. Many who joined the CCNZ were former WCC members and amateurs. By
1989 the CCNZ membership was down to 1400 and, as Peter Gibbs noted, the

CCNZ was probably collecting ‘subscriptions from less than five percent of the
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people it represent[ed]’. Furthermore, he suggested the CCNZ’s ‘most visible
activities are seen to benefit only the top few creative people whose work features

in the council’s magazine, its gallery on the Terrace in Wellington, and on the
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controversial index of craftspeople.’ Gibbs was acknowledging that not only had
Constructing Craft