Page 295 - Constructing Craft

to turn to. Over time however, expectations of what the CCNZ role was expanded

and the organisation was expected to represent an increasingly diverse craft
community whilst having a membership of less than one thousand. It had acquired a

quasi-official facade that could not be supported from within its membership
structure. In its new role it became more like the BCC, but unlike its British

counterpart, its membership could be counted and in the new economic environment
of the 1980s those numbers formed a measure of the organisation’s success or

failure.

By the late 1980s it was becoming clear to some that the CCNZ had to narrow its

focus – to follow the BCC and bring the craft artist to the fore. However, the CCNZ

did not have the status that comes with a long history and a Royal Charter. While it
had the sympathy of politicians and other influential people, art was not a high priority

in political circles in New Zealand and craft even less so. Furthermore, by promoting
the craft artist it appeared to be merging with the art world which looked to another

authority, the Arts Council, for guidance and support. Albert Stafford’s report
confirmed for the Arts Council that if artists were to be promoted and supported they

might as well all become members of the same world – the art world.The CCNZ had

succumbed to the danger that Peter Cape advised societies to be wary of. It had
ceased to exist for the common support and assistance of its members and had

become concerned principally with the maintenance of ‘standards’ and the one
supreme organisation that maintained standards in the art world was the Arts

Council. Attempts were made to retain a national craft organisation after the collapse
of the CCNZ, including the short-lived Craft New Zealand/Mahi A Ringa O Aotearoa

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Inc. (Craft Aotearoa), but the craft world had become too divided. Craftspeople who
thought of themselves in the traditional sense as makers of utilitarian objects
remained members of their own craft-specific organisations, if they had one, while

craft artists looked to the Arts Council for support.

Constructing Craft