Page 180 - Constructing Craft

attitude to home industries is a refreshing change which craftspeople will welcome
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and which other Hawke’s Bay local bodies could follow.’ The newspaper went on
to add that ‘official blessing for the backyard potter, toymaker, weaver and others

would remove a number of annoying and unnecessary restrictions from the lives of
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creative people.’

It was, of course, much easier for newspapers (and craftspeople) to paint the

officials in a bad light, but the town planners were strictly controlled by schemes that

had been devised by councillors, and in the case of rural areas these were often
farmers, who viewed urban development with scepticism, but who also had to

contend with outdated legislation. The CCNZ had an opportunity to increase its

membership by appearing to be leading the demand for change but its priorities had
changed and ‘backyard’ potters were no longer important in the late 1970s and

early 1980s – unlike craft artists they possessed little cultural capital.

The Arts Council and Locals take the Initiative

In 1981 the Arts Council produced a guide on town planning for artists and

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craftspeople. The guide was designed to assist craftspeople to understand the
planning rules and work within them. It also outlined how the rules could be
changed. The initiative remained with individual craftspeople to lobby for change at

the local level or the CCNZ to lobby central government. Locally, some groups were

already actively seeking change. In a July 1982 article in the New Zealand Crafts,
Graham Linwood, the President of the Hawke’s Bay Association of Potters ‒ the

only organisation that the Gregorys could have turned to had they been members
outlined the process they had experienced in their attempts to influence councils in

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their region. Linwood explained that a committee composed of local craftspeople
formed to deal with the four councils in the region had ‘adopted a mild mannered

but firm approach with the Town Planners and Councils and from the outset offered

them a set of clauses to insert in their ordinances that was a compromise we felt we
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could live with.’ He admitted that individual craftspeople might find the prospect of
dealing with the regulations daunting but he also noted that his group had ‘become
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very close knit’ because of the process. Groups such as the Hawke’s Bay
Association of Potters believed that these issues often drew craftspeople together.

Constructing Craft