Page 277 - Constructing Craft

second danger: ‘[J]oining a society may commit us to the support of “standards”

which we do not necessarily subscribe to, but the status of membership is such that
we feel we must give lip-service to the official standpoint; and this ... is construed as
3
committed support.’ He believed that the ‘standards’ that such organisations would
defend would be the ‘standards’ formed by the personal concerns of those people

‘who initially formed the societies’ and that, over time ‘[t]hey are likely ... to become
4
reactionary and regressive.’ In Cape’s opinion, the integrated professionals
demanded that everyone should conform to their standards. Cape also seemed to

believe that the professionalization of groups was a device to exclude those who did
not possess the correct cultural background.

A feature that distinguished the post-Second World War craft movement from pre-
war developments was the formation of numerous craft associations. Whereas the

earlier craftspeople generally worked alone and were unsupported by any forms of
association, the later craftspeople enthusiastically formed an array of clubs, groups,

societies and national organisations. These organisations might consist
predominantly of one type of craftsperson, but national organisations tended to

encourage a wider membership to ensure they had sufficient numbers to fund their

operations. The more diverse the membership the more difficult it became to meet
their needs and the easier it became to exclude those who lacked the correct cultural

profile.

The Crafts Council of New Zealand

Supposedly at the top of the craft organisational structure in New Zealand was the
Crafts Council of New Zealand (CCNZ). The CCNZ emerged from the interest shown

by a group of (mainly) women in the World Crafts Council (WCC). The WCC was
founded in 1964 in New York principally, in the words of its founder, Aileen Vanderbilt

5
Webb, to achieve recognition for ‘the handcrafter’ as ‘a national asset’. The New
Zealand Chapter of the World Crafts Council (NZWCC) was formed in 1965 by Nan
Berkeley, the President of the New Zealand Society of Potters (NZSP), who had

attended the inaugural meeting in New York. While working together had always
been a characteristic of post-war craft, the formation of an international organisation

Constructing Craft