| The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design 20012002 | |
| Policy Board for UNC Institution | Nonprofit Board |
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Elaine Fox, Director Special Academic Programs UNC Asheville David N. Hutto, Dean Office for Technology and Development Blue Ridge Community College Hendersonville, N.C Daniel Millspaugh, Professor and Sculptor Art Department, UNC Asheville Matt Liddle, Interim Chair Art Department, Western Carolina University Cullowhee, N.C. Lisa Stinson, Professor, Ceramics Art Department, Appalachian State University |
Margaret Adams, Writer Asheville, N.C. Becky Anderson, Director HandMade in America, Asheville, N.C. Sondra Dorn, Fiber Artist Penland, N.C. Ken Gaylord, Architect Hendersonville, N.C. Andrew Glasgow, Director The Furniture Society, Asheville, N.C. Stoney Lamar, Wood Sculptor Saluda, N.C. Ted Lappas, Attorney Clyde, N.C. Clark Olsen, Management Consultant Asheville, N.C. Ruth Summers, Director Southern Highlands Craft Guild, Asheville, N.C. |
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Next Step In Attendance Glenn Adamson, Curator, Chipstone Foundation, Milwaukee Art Museum, Wis. Scheduled but unable to attend Garth Clark, author and owner, Garth Clark Gallery, New York |
The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design (CCCD), www.craftcreativitydesign.org, is a regional, inter-institutional center of The University of North Carolina, located on the 50-acre UNC Asheville Kellogg Retreat Center, near the Blue Ridge Parkway. Although there are members of the Center's policy and nonprofit boards who are considered national leaders in the field of craft, the board chose to convene rather than participate in the retreat to better enable CCCD to advance the developed strategies. CCCD received a small foundation grant that provided transportation and lodging for participants, but all participants gave their valuable time recognizing the importance of this issue. |
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Step Three What tactics are necessary for 1) creators/makers, 2) museums and 3) academics to place craft in a larger cultural context?
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Tactics were prioritized as to those that would have the greatest impact on the field to develop specific strategies.
The group broke into two groups to create strategies for each of the four areas. They presented their recommendations to the full group for response and suggestions. What follows is the final list of strategies as recommended by the entire group. What strategies are needed to make the four main projects happen?
Need: Central to establishing a craft studies program is that a textbook be created to use throughout various universities.
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Working Title: American Studio Craft Movement Purpose: History of Studio Craft Movement
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Need: In academia, where peer review and publication of research is so important to advancement and tenure, there is no vehicle for craft history and criticism. There is oral history in the field about the contribution of makers but no vehicle to capture and publish this history. Although there are medium-specific publications like the conference proceeding by the Glass Art Society and more in-depth articles by The Furniture Society, there is no one scholarly journal for craft. |
There are few university art history programs that encourage graduate research in craft. Most museum curators have an M.A. in art history or decorative arts, and there are few Art History Ph.D.s at the university level who have completed research in the field of craft. An interdisciplinary Craft Studies Program, led by an endowed chair at a supportive university, would have an impact on both museums and universities of the future. |
There is no inventory of existing craft material in museum collections. Key to this is the lack of language to catalog craft that may appear as decorative arts, crafts, sculpture, folk art. There is no scan of the health of the fieldwhy are some museums reducing emphasis on craft while new craft museums are opening? Few museum curators have a background in craft, or if they do, it is narrowly defined to one medium. There are a number of major collections that will become available in the near future. Where could they be best placed for the development of the field? The first priority should be a survey of the state of craft and development of a database with images of work in collections. Save Outdoor Sculpture is an example of a process that led to |
the development of The Inventory of American Sculpture at the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, on the Internet. A small group of craft curators and registrars at craft, natural history and history museums should meet and develop language to catalog craft in collections. The strategies that would best support craft in museum collec-tions involve: 1) acquisition support; 2) traveling exhibition support and 3) educational department support. To assist with acquisition: |
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Outcome After the group had completed brainstorming, the summit/retreat concluded with a schedule for the next level of work. It was decided that an executive summary (White Paper) of the findings would be completed and mailed to each participant for feedback. After incorporating this feedback into the White Paper, the document was sent to a wider audience for comments. Participants developed a list of more than 80 leaders in the field to craft who should receive the White Paper so that their comments and responses might be included in the final publication. Following the conference, initial estimates on the cost of realizing the strategies recommended were researched to be included in the final publication of the proceedings. The document will appear on the Web site of the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design (www.craftcreativitydesign.org) with the opportunity to discuss online any part of the publication. Next Steps In addition to the online availability of the Proceedings, printed copies will be distributed to craft collectors, organizations, publications, schools, universities and museums. The American Craft Council provided support for the editing of the journal and will receive a copy for review in their publication. Each of the four strategies will require further research and planning retreats, expanding participation beyond those who attended the North Carolina Summit Retreat. National conferences such as the College Art Association and the American Museum Association will be asked to include panels discussing these recommendations. The document can serve to support grant applications and/or the department recommendations of museums and universities, which will also promote these strategies for advancing craft in academia and the curatorial world. Edited by Lynn Jones Ennis |
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Robert Ebendorf, Belk Distinguished Professor in Metal, East Carolina University Robert Ebendorf earned a MFA degree from the University of Kansas with additional study in Norway through a Fulbright Scholarship and Louis Comfort Tiffany grant. He has taught around the world and spent more than 20 years helping to develop the now internationally recognized program at the State University of New York at New Paltz. Ebendorf has taught at the Seoul National University School of Art in Korea and presented workshops at Southwest, Arrowmont and Penland, the nation's leading craft schools. He is the Belk Distinguished Professor in Art at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. Ebendorf has served as president of the Society of North American Goldsmiths and was its youngest founding member. Additional recognition for his works includes an extensive list of exhibitions, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and inclusion in collections of the American Craft Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Renwick Gallery, Yale University Art Gallery, and the Brooklyn, Metropolitan, Boston, Oakland and Victoria and Albert Museums of Art. His work has been exhibited at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; Cooper-Hewitt Museum; Museum of Applied Arts, Norway; Isetan Art Museum, Tokyo; and the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto. Janet Koplos, Senior Editor, Art in America, New York Janet Koplos, a senior editor at Art in America magazine and lecturer, critic and consultant, has written nearly 2,000 reviews, articles and essays over the past 25 years. She is the author of Contemporary Japanese Sculpture (1991) and has contributed to Fiberarts, Metalsmith, American Ceramics, American Craft, Surface Design Journal and other art and general-circulation periodicals. She received a B.A. in journalism from the University of Minnesota and M.A. in Art History from Illinois State University. The first editing job for Koplos was Craft Connection, a publication of the Minnesota Crafts Council. During her career, Koplos has written artist catalog essays in textiles (Jane Sauer, Gaza Bowen, Renie Breskin Adams, Diane Itter), ceramics (Ruth Duckworth, Scott Chamberlin, Judy Moonelis, Bruno LaVerdiere), metals (Albert Paley), furniture (Wendell Castle), and glass (Laura de Santillana, Joel Philip Meyers, David Huchthausen). |
Martha Drexler Lynn Martha Drexler Lynn was the curator-in-charge of the 20th-century decorative arts collections at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for 10 years. In that capacity, she conceptualized and implemented an aggressive acquisition and exhibition program featuring worldwide, 20th-century works made of clay, glass, metal and wood. Dr. Lynn also developed the only endowment resident in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Decorative Arts department, curated over 25 exhibitions and served on numerous panels and exhibition juries. She is the author of Clay Today: Contemporary Ceramists and Their Work (1990), The Clay Art of Adrian Saxe (1994), Masters of Contemporary Glass: Selections from the Glick Collection and the forthcoming Super Cool Liquid: An Interpretive History of the American Studio Glass Movement (2002), and she contributed to a number of other publications. Currently, she is writing a book about glass sculpture in American museum collections. She holds two bachelor's degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, a master's degree in art history and museum studies, and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. She lives in Carmel, Calif., with her husband. Bruce Pepich, Director, Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, Wisconsin Bruce W. Pepich is Executive Director and Curator of Collections at the Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts in Racine, Wis., a position he has held since 1981. In the past 10 years, he has assembled one of the most significant contemporary craft collections of any fine arts museum in the nation. In addition, he maintains the museum's original focus in contemporary works on paper. Pepich curates exhibitions of contemporary art, is a published writer on art and artists, and has served as juror for nearly 50 national and regional art competitions and fine arts festivals. Since the late 1980s, he has concentrated his efforts on building the museum's crafts collection and writing on craft. In recent years this has included essays in exhibition catalogs for Jane Sauer and Toshiko Takaezu and an article on Boris Bally for Metalsmith magazine. Pepich has composed shorter essays for exhibitions of recent works by Jay Musler, Joel Philip Meyers and Paul Stankard. His current major project is building and opening the new Racine Art Museum (RAM) in spring 2003 as a home for the museum's growing collection and temporary art exhibitions that combine craft media with painting and sculpture. |
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James Tanner, Professor of Art, Minnesota State University at Mankato James Tanner received his MFA from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and since 1968 has been a professor of art in ceramics at Minnesota State University at Mankato. He has taught at Penland School of Crafts, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and he has conducted ceramic workshops at many institutions across the United States. He was awarded the McKnight Foundation Fellowship and Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship and twice received the Visual Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His work has been shown widely in invitationals, one-person shows and traveling exhibitions and is included in the collections of the Weisman Art Museum, Everson Museum of Art, Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charles Wustum Museum of Fine Arts and the Waterloo Art Museum. Kenneth Trapp, Curator-in-Charge, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Museum, Washingto Kenneth R. Trapp is the curator-in-charge of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery. Prior to 1995, when he assumed his current position, he was curator of decorative arts at the Oakland Museum of California for 11 years. Trapp holds a B.S. in industrial design from the University of Cincinnati, an M.A. in art history from Tulane University, and has completed doctoral work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Trapp was project director and one of the authors for The Arts and Crafts Movement in California: Living the Good Life,1993, a major exhibition that traveled to the Renwick and Cincinnati Art Museum. He co-authored Skilled Work: American Craft in the Renwick Gallery, 1998. At the Renwick, he has organized several exhibitions: The Renwick at 25, 1997; Glorious Glass! 1999; The Renwick Invitational: Five Women in Craft, 2000; and USA Clay, 2001. Trapp is currently organizing the second Renwick Invitational, to open in June 2002, and Silver on the High Seas: United States Navy Presentation Silver Services, the first exhibition to survey the tradition of commissioning special silver services for ships named for American cities and states. |
Consuelo Jimenez Underwood, Professor of Art, San Jose State University Fiber artist and weaver Consuelo Jimenez Underwood is the daughter of a Chicana mother and a father of Huicho Indian descent. She has degrees in religious studies and art, and is a tenured professor at San Jose State University in California. In her richly textured creations, she weaves common threads of history and cultural resistance and affirmation. She has been nominated for the Eureka Fellowship from the Fleishacker Foundation, as well as the Louise Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award. Her work has been shown throughout the United States and internationally in Spain and Mexico. Her work is in the permanent collections of the American Craft Museum of New York, the Oakland Museum of Art in California and the Smithsonian Institution of the National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C. She currently resides in Cuptertino, Calif. Howard Risatti, Chair of the Department of Crafts, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Garth Clark, author and owner of Garth Clark Gallery, New York, were scheduled to participate but were unable to attend. Proceedings editor: Lynn Jones Ennis Lynn Jones Ennis is curator of the Collection at the Gallery of Art and Design, North Carolina State University. She has written and lectured extensively on the early years of the Penland School of Crafts. Her focus is to place Penland's history in the larger context of craft history while exploring the issues of class, race and gender as they relate to the making and selling of objects. She works to include craft as a part of the larger conversation of art through her teaching in the Adult Degree Program at North Carolina Wesleyan College and by leading workshops offered through Duke University Continuing Education that take place at the Penland School. She received her B.A. with a major in history from Meredith College, a M.S. in Liberal Studies from Duke University and a Ph.D. in American Studies from the Union Institute and University. In 1993 she received the Smithsonian American Art Museum's James Renwick Fellowship in American Craft. Her research and interests include 20th century American craft history. |
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Retreat Facilitator: Randy Siegel Randy Siegel is a former executive vice president and partner with Fleishman-Hillard International Communications. Voted one of Atlanta's top marketing-driven public relations executives and "Big Idea People" by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, he is considered one of the region's top experts in the field of personal communications. Over the past 15 years, he has conducted numerous workshops in media training, sales presentation and public speaking for companies, professional associations and nonprofit organizations, including the Nonprofit Resource Center, Dell Computers, Earthlink/Mindspring and the Penland School of Crafts. Dian Magie, Executive Director, Center for Craft, Creativity and Design Dian Magie became director of the UNC Center for Craft, Creativity and Design in 2000 after 18 years as executive director of local arts agencies in three communities which included curating exhibitions for each facility. She is the research author of the National Endowment for the Arts' Web-based resource Cultural Funding: Federal Opportunities (www.arts.gov/federal.html). Other publications she has written or edited include: Arts Funding into the 21st Century (1997 President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities); Art Works! Prevention Programs for Youth and Communities (1997, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and the National Endowment for the Arts); and Untapped Public Funding for the Arts (1995, National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies). She has organized and directed numerous arts conferences including: "Cultural Tourism," 1999, and "Public and Private Funding for the Arts," 1995, for Americans for the Arts; Arts Management Seminars, University of Northern Arizona, 1993; and Arts Festival Management Conferences, 1988 and 1989. She holds a M.A. in American History with an equal number of credit hours in studio crafts. | |
| STRATEGY 1.
A Book on the History of Craft | |
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Title: The American Studio Craft Movement. This survey text is overwhelmingly considered the most important charge. Some of the specifics are as follows:
The author can be one editor who works with a number of writers and who would have the authority to rewrite all text to present a unified voice. Alternatively a single author who can analyze and keep content fresh could be hired. The audience includes those in cultural studies, art history, studio work, American studies, makers not enrolled in university programs, collectors, dealers, museums and libraries. | |
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Responses James Melchert "I, too, would welcome a book on the history of crafts as you describe it. I would favor one that was as beautiful and richly illustrated as Robert Shaw's America's Traditional Crafts, the sort of publication you can't resist picking up. The Duke and Harding America's Glorious Quilts is just as appealing. A book can be academically respectable and visually persuasive at the same time; when it is, it's bound to reach a far larger audience." |
Gyongy Laky "The proposed book, The American Studio Craft Movement, is an excellent major focus resulting from the discussions of the retreat. It is widely agreed in the field that there has been far too little scholarly writing and documentation about the studio craft movement and that the field would have greater audience and following if more writing existed to describe it and if more writing were taking placeThe book is important to present the history and development of crafts, establishing their relevance and placement in the broader art world, but ongoing critical writing regarding studio crafts is extremely scarcealmost non-existent." North Carolina Summit Retreat on Craft |
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Alan Du Bois "While I concur that there is a real need for more histories involving the studio craft movement, I am not so sure that one book will do it. My thinking is that the studio craft movement grew out of the Modernist impulse, where each medium had its own distinct history. Integration of mediums is only a recent phenomenon. I think before we get one book to synthesize all mediums with fine arts on a chronological basis, we need good basic histories first. With the possible exception of clay, few exist. Even those might need to be cobbled together with articles before we might get a good overall view. The audience is the curator, the collector and the college student (craft history major, art history major, art appreciation)." Jean W. McLaughlin "The order of priorities seems just right. The book will be a useful foundation text for university art history courses and an important reference document for researchMy only question has to do with the focus on North America or the American Studio Craft Movement. Perhaps the narrow focus is the best way to start. My question really is thishow would one draw a line between craft produced in American that is influenced by African or Asian or English or European cultural artifacts or theories? And there is the reverse influence that is also intriguing how American material culture or craft in particular is influencing other artists around the world. In so many ways I see craft as a universal language that links cultures throughout the world and across time so the North American boundary might prove to be arbitrary or limiting." |
Arline M. Fisch "A book on the history of craft in America would be very useful providing it is sufficiently comprehensive and covers all aspects of the craft movement. There is an excellent book titled The Craft Movement in Australia: A History by Grace Cochrane which focuses on the 20th Century but with a heavy emphasis on craft practitioners from 1940 to the 1980s. It is worth looking at as a model. I would prefer a single author if one can be found, perhaps using research assistants to gather material. Separate writers under a single editor leads to a great deal of inconsistency in both emphasis and writing style." Lou Cabeen "the needs for one (or more) basic texts on the history of the Studio Craft Movement and a scholarly journal to advance current research/thought/critique are clearly overdue. These kinds of vehicles serve to educate those in other cultural institutions while at the same time fostering more lively discussion within the field. In addition, such publications provide vehicles for effective teaching on the university level. In the absence of such publications, students are condemned to spend precious time reinventing the wheel, that is, repeating the work done by earlier artists in the field. When this is done out of homage, or as a need to learn kinetically, that is fine. But too often such reinvention is done from ignorance. The teaching to Textile History within the context of contemporary art has been greatly enhanced in the past few years by the publication of two anthologies, one Canadian and the other from Britain...It would be a great help to academic programs if the basic text proposed in the White Paper be accompanied by a slide setimages from the text available as a set for individuals and slide libraries to purchase. Or, if selected images from the work were available online." |
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Davira S. Taragin "I also read with interest your comments on a proposed history of craft publication. While I completely support such an endeavor, I was surprised to see that one possibility being considered was inviting several authors to write with the proviso that the editor would 'have the authority to rewrite all text so that the book represents a unifying voice.' Maybe the meaning of this phrase is unclear, but I wanted to say that I have championed a number of publications which involve multiple authors and have used a strong editor to make sure that the publication is cohesive and that each essay addresses the issues. In each case, however, I have enjoyed the voice of the different authors who bring fresh and different perspectives to the project. I would hope that this would not be lost in the publication you are suggesting." Jane Sauer "I am very impressed by the scope of strategies proposed at the Summit Retreat and by the clarity of the proposals put forth in the summary. I would rearrange the priorities in the following manner for the following reasons: 1. Book on the History of Craftfeel this would reach the broadest audienceexcellent approach. This also seems as if it would be the most likely to attract funding, as we all know without funding there is no project." |
Paul J. Smith "Having been active in the expansion of the craft field for over 40 years, I am very interested in seeing more accurate documentation of history. Since becoming director emeritus in 1957 I have focused my time on sharing my years of experience and I have been involved with several projects. In the mid-'90s, I did an extensive study for the Archives of American Art which resulted in a half-million-dollar grant to do 100 oral interviews over a five-year period. At present I am working on my own personal reflections of the craft field." Warren MacKenzie "To start with a book on the history of the crafts is to duplicate many books that have already been written. I would mention only those that I know from my involvement in the pottery field but the following are books in print that deal with the field from the ceramic side of it...I am sure that there are books on all of the crafts, and the studio craft movement as a whole that deal with all the details you mention. To have an overall history may be valuable as a single source of information but I cannot see how this book will advance the cause of crafts in the world at large, academia or the museum curatorial world. Here we come to the crux of the matter. Who is this survey aimed at? What is it trying to accomplish? What can it do for the entire field of crafts in America? I hate to be a wet blanket, but it seems to me that books on the history of crafts have been done again and again with each author or group addressing their particular agenda without advancing the cause of crafts in America in any way that I can see." North Carolina Summit Retreat on Craft |
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Lloyd E. Herman "Thank you for sending me the white paper resulting from the March retreat in Hendersonville. Certainly the topics discussed have been talked about for years, but this may be the first time anyone has convened a group to develop a priority action plan. Now to implement a plan, if possible! "I am only sorry that you did not benefit from the experience of professionals from the craft field who were more active in the 1960s and since. Though it is true that there has been no consistent effort to develop a more academic approach to craft history, the field is not as much of a wasteland as you may think! I think especially of Rose Slivka and Paul Smith, who were already involved full time in the American craft field when I was named director of the Renwick Gallery in 1971But the point of that is to say that to compile a history of American craft in the last century took me to various library and other sources to piece together what I could, encompassing schools, movements, the WPA, the revived interest in Native American crafts in the |
1920s, wartime shortages and the decline of metalsmithing, etc. Because the record of our craft history is so fragmented, I proposed in an NEA grant application to undertake a region-by-region examination of it supported by interviews with older craftspeople and others who worked in the field. However valuable it was deemed to be, the NEA felt that the Smithsonian should do it since I worked there. But because the Renwick was and continues to be the stepchild of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, no money was available there, eitherMy interest in documentation has also resulted in my conducting oral history interviews with elder craftspeople for the Nanette Laitman Project at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art. Some of my fellow members of the advisory committee for that project might also be helpful to youespecially Jack Lenor Larsen and Arline Fisch, who provide strong insights into fiber arts and metalsmithing, respectivelya series of books undertaken by Janet Kardon when she was director of the American Craft Museum in the early 1990s. The records of seminars she sponsored there to address the same craft history you're delving into today would certainly be worth reviewing." |
| STRATEGY 2.
Scholarly Journal | |
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A scholarly biannual Craft Studies: History and Criticism is needed that will have an interdisciplinary approach focusing on the aesthetic and including technical analysis only as it applies to the aesthetic. Standard features include:
This journal is without restriction to media, cultural environment, historical era or geographical region. The primary focus, however, is North America. An editorial board will be put in place with a paid managing editor. Authors will be compensated for their contributions. | |
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Responses Gyongy Laky "A scholarly journal would energize the field. My impression is that there are many individuals who would be interested in writing valuable and informative articles and serious criticism given a dedicated, academic vehicle for publication. Lively criticism would focus attention on exhibition activity and would encourage and motivate artists as well. Regarding the journal, I think it is important to include theory in the title. I would suggest also reordering the title though the running sound of the words becomes a problempossibly, Craft Studies: Criticism, History and Theory, or Studio Crafts: Critical Studies, Theory and History." |
Anna Fariello "With regard to producing a scholarly journal, I would suggest that we first look carefully at what is already out there. As a curator and writer, I definitely think there is a lack of venue for serious published writing. Some individual media journals are approaching such scholarship, maybe Metalsmith and Ceramics, Art and Perception. But an all-craft-media journal is sorely missing. Serious historical and/or analytical writing about craft is a hard sell to all but a few existing journals. Two of the best are connected with collections...The Wolfsonian in Florida published the Journal of Decorative Arts and Winterthur often compiles papers presented at their annual conferencesthe Bard Center also publishes an annual decorative arts journal. Occasionally, American Quarterlythe publication arm of the American Studies Associationand the Journal of Popular Culturecoming out of the American Cultural Associationpublish scholarly essays on craft...Style 1900, the quarterly publication of the Arts and Crafts Societymight be a viable compromise between the widely read commercial magazine and the purely academic journal with a very narrow readership."
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Warren MacKenzie "We in the ceramic field are overwhelmed with monthly, quarterly or biannual journals. Most are of little interest to the professional in the field. They range from self serving puffery, written by a friend of the artist (?), to diffuse surveys that pur-port to show what is going on in the country but which are really simply a survey of who is working, without any attempt at critical discussion of what is being done or shown. I believe that some of the best critical reviews are in American Ceramics, but even those are a far cry from the music, theater, film, visual arts and dance criticism that appear every week in the major papers of the country. Until we in the craft world are willing to address the intellectual and social importance of what we are trying to do and how it is being done, I see no reason to extend the pages of print that are already there." Jean W. McLaughlin "The journal will enable ongoing research to be published and for colleagues to respond to each others' thoughts." James Melchert "A scholarly journal has possibilities, but it would be useful to ask the folks at the College Art Association on how effective they find the College Art Journal. It went through many changes 10 or 15 years ago when they found that few members were reading it." Alan Du Bois "Perhaps this may be mincing words, but I think there is more of a need for exhibition catalogs and bulletins than there is for a scholarly journal. I really think this should be a responsibility of |
museums with craft collections. I am not sure there are enough scholars at this time to support the journal idea. Also, I have seen what has happened to the College Art Journal over the years and that gives me reason to pause and wonder if that is the best route to go. I think critical reviews of exhibitions, exhibition catalogs, certainly would help to put those in the profession on their toes and perhaps help to elevate their products. What might be more important at this time would be to have a central clearinghouse for all publications dealing with contemporary craft. At SOFA Chicago, for instance, it is only possible to see commercial books and soft-back publications. There are no exhibition catalogs offered. During the Year of American Craft in 1993, I tried without success to get the Renwick Gallery to act as a clearinghouse for the publications that would have been produced that year...There still is a need for such a clearinghouse. Some museums do exchange catalogs. We need a network among craft museums for an exchange of publications." Jane Sauer "Scholarly journal: "I think this would reach a more limited audience. I question how broad would the audience be? Isn't this being done in many of the media magazines? I wonder if another approach might be to make a concerted effort to have articles of the nature indicated published in already existing publications. Perhaps desired articles could be funded and then published in other publications." Arline M. Fisch "A scholarly journal seems less important since there are already so many publications struggling for an audience. A better solution might be to provide funds for serious critical and scholarly writing to be placed in existing scholarly and craft related journals. Developing writers is a more urgent need than a separate publication." |
| STRATEGY 3. A University Craft Studies Program with an Endowed Chair | |
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This might be an interdisciplinary program leading to a degree, or alternately a concentration within an existing degree program. This type of program to be placed in a university that:
A director will be named an endowed chair placed in a department (most likely art history department). This position will entail both the administrative and professorial aspects of running the program. The chair should have knowledge or experience in studio craft (e.g., MFA) and/or have a Ph.D. in American studies or art history. | |
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Responses Nancy Selvin "My priorities would lie with the University Craft Studies program. This would generate a diversity of approaches within the field and insure a lineage of craft critics and historians. The journal, the craft history text and of course the collecting of work by museums...are essential support structures for the University Craft History programs. "In order to strengthen the field of craft history and criticism, we need to produce a steady stream of future critical thinkers, curators and historians. Around the nation, the field of studio ceramics, glass, fiber, metal, etc., is integrated into the core curriculum at universities and colleges, and so too should the field of craft history and critical thinking be integrated into art history programs at those same universities. It is my experience that ceramic history or fiber history, glass history, etc., are taught on the side by studio faculty or guest instructors within each discipline. Whereas, ancient and contemporary art history are departments unto themselves, taught by full professors dedicated to and researching their topic. Craft history needs a parallel track. |
"As a craft community, we must consistently produce students who are historically knowledgeable in all craft areas. This will give us not only future writers and historians but an educated audience as well." Warren MacKenzie "Why should we believe that any school or university would or could address the idea of a contemporary craft history position that would have an effect on the craft scene as a whole? Even in the so-called fine art areas of drawing, painting, sculpture and printmaking, the historians and critics are generally self serving, each pushing their own agenda and not really trying to assess the field. I see little hope that suddenly we will find one person who can forget personal bias and look at what is happening in the crafts with an open mind. Frankly, I feel that an attempt to improve the critical writing that is now being done must precede the establishment of a hierarchy that purports to have answers to the problems that beset us. |
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"If you pursue an endowed chair, my wife, who is a fiber artist, has reminded me of something that the University of Minnesota did with many of their endowed chairs. They called them 'folding chairs' and these positions were granted for limited terms of three or five years. This served two objectives: to permit the attraction of the best people who might not want to commit themselves for a long time, and also to assure that the position is not locked into a single attitude or viewpoint. Three or five years gives a person a chance to set goals and develop programs but does not carry indefinite tenure. If desired, such an appointment could be renewed." James Melchert "As for an endowed chair, I am currently on two committees that are working to endow a couple at the University of California, Berkeley: one in Art in the Humanities Division, the other in Design (formerly the Decorative Arts Department) in the College of Environmental Design. We have had little encouragement for research in traditional mediums from the deans in the two administrations. Computers have proved to be such useful tools that now it's thought that they eliminate the need to understand materials through hands-on experience. The idea of an endowed chair is attractive because the administration is obliged to respect it once it's in place, but who will be found to sink hundreds of thousands of dollars into one for which there is no enthusiasm?" Jane Sauer "This would enhance the way crafts were regarded within the field of art history and hopefully one program would be imitated by other universities." |
Alan Du Bois "What seems to be asked for is a university or college with the desire to make a commitment to contemporary crafts. This takes leadership from the top. I suppose the endowment would help to focus the university's attention. "I have often been amazed that college art departments will not let their studio teachers teach a history of crafts, even though it is a given that no art historian has even been introduced to the subject in the course of his or her formal training. It is a serious barrier that needs to be overcome. In speaking to Jamie Bennett at New Paltz, I was pleased to learn that they had gotten to the point where a new faculty appointment in art history was made with the provision that the new person would organize and teach a history of craft course. I wonder how many other colleges in the country have gotten this far? Wouldn't you like to see their syllabus? Maybe they should be the focus of your next summit retreat." Arline M. Fisch "A single university Craft Studies Program with an endowed chair would not have a significant impact on the way the field is considered. There are already strong craft programs which might be encouraged to add courses in history, theory and critical thinking about the crafts. The development of a sample curricula and the preparation of a few skilled lecturers who might be 'traveling scholars' to provide greater depth to existing programs would be far more effective than a single endowed chair in a single institution." Jean W. McLaughlin "I was intrigued to learn that a position had been established for a craft historian at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design starting in July 2002. Sandra Alfoldy will be their first craft historian in the position." |
| STRATEGY 4.
Placement of Craft within Museum Collections | |
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There needs to be an inventory of craft material currently located in museum collections. Museums need to be surveyed to track the expansions and contraction of the field, such as new museums concentrating in crafts. A survey and database with images of work in collections should assist in the study of craft. A fund should be established to which museums could apply for support in the acquisition of craft objects for permanent collections. Grants would be available for educational programs and participation fees provided for traveling exhibits. The acquisition assistance would be targeted at all museums, while the education and traveling exhibitions monies would be intended for general museums that do not specialize in craft. Additional strategies that support craft in museum collections involve acquisition support, traveling exhibition support and educational department support. | |
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Responses Davira S. Taragin "The recommendations of the White Paper are excellent. The only area where I would suggest further definition of direction is the section that addresses craft within museum collections. At this time, many museums are collecting crafts. While funding to continue these acquisitions is important, I feel it is equally important for museums to utilize and interpret these objects once they are accessioned as part of the collection as a whole. Therefore, I would hope that a consortium of institutions building significant craft collections could be developed. This consortium could make available, through technology, infor-mation about their holdings, leading to the development of shared programs among those participating. An active traveling exhibition program where several museums combine their collections and staff expertise to explore in an exhibition and accompanying publication a particular theme or moment in craft history might lead to significant scholarship in the field and attract and educate new and diverse audiences in various parts of the country. Naturally, the prospect of funding available to cover both start-up and come portion of the total cost of such ventures would be particularly helpful." |
James Melchert "Museum collections are important. The University of Minnesota Art Museum in Minneapolis has a department for ceramics to which Warren MacKenzie gave his collection. In addition to the gallery exhibitions, students are given access to the work in storage. The response has been so positive that an extension is being added to the building to house the growing collection. The School of Ceramics at Alfred University, too, has a gallery and a newsletter, as you know. Students should have bodies of work at hand for research as well as for the sheer enjoyment of it. People like myself who have acquired artwork over the years now know there are small but active museums to which we can leave our collections, where the work will be on view more often than in storage. A worthwhile project for a student would be to research museums around the country and see which ones give adequate attention to craft work. It could serve as a useful guide to those of us who care about placing our collections where the work will continue to enrich people's lives." |
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Jane Sauer "Contemporary crafts are so often left out of this important venue for documenting importance and reaching a broad audience. Collectors need confirmation of value and without collectors, many makers are forced to find other modes of financial support. "I have known more than a few very talented makers who have left the field because of lack of support. This is a loss to the entire field." Lloyd E. Herman "David served on the committee of the Smithsonian museums' curators that I chaired in the early 1980s to address the issue of a finders' guide to the study of decorative arts in Smithsonian collections. It was an attempt to identify objects worthy of aesthetic study in the national collections, whether held in collections of ethnology, contemporary sculpture, decorative arts, material culture or craft. The white paper's mention of an inventory of craft material in museum collections brought that project to mind, but also another one prior to the Year of American Craft in 1993. Before the Year was brought under the American Craft Council's wing, I served with Paul Smith and a curator from the Shelburne Museumto develop a questionnaire to be sent to all museum members of the American Association of Museums to identify their holdings that might be classified as 'craft,' and how it was identified in those collections. We also wanted to know whether they originated such 'craft' exhibitions, or showed other such traveling exhibitions. Funding even to buy the AAM mailing list and produce the mailing was a low priority when the ACC took leadership of the Year, however, and nothing was ever done. I decided that I would try to develop a database of exhibitors I knew to be interested in one or more craft media, and have incorporated not only museums that have booked the traveling craft exhibitions that I've curated since I |
Gyongy Laky "When discussing writing for the field there is a direct tie-in with the fourth point, that of encouraging greater museum activity in crafts. Curators and museum personnel rely heavily on the literature of a field to understand it and to place objects and artists in the context of the development of ideas as they curate exhibitions and augment their permanent collections. Some excellent 'books' have resulted from major exhibitions so I wonder if a way to get to point No. 1 might not be achieved by finding an established well-known museum to make a commitment to a large scale studio crafts exhibition with a catalog/book to be published for it. I would guess that this kind of thinking and much more took place in the extensive work and discussions of the Retreat attendees." Anna Fariell "one of the major stumbling blocks to craft collections stems from the aesthetic division we've inherited from the Museum of Modern Art in the establishment of its 20th-century design collection...Somehow, studio craft is overlooked as the collection moves from hand-made objects of the 19th century to industrially produced objects of the 20th and 21st centuries. This is the framework devised by the MOMA and followed by many other museums. The Virginia Museum does have a Robert Arneson sculpture, but that is in the contemporary art section. While this appears to be a good thing, there are few, if any, other "craft" artists represented in the contemporary art collection and definitely no works that display a perceivable function." |
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left the Smithsonian in 1986, but have regularly added names of others gleaned from the calendar section of American Craft magazine and other sources." Alan Du Bois "The Friends of Fiber Art International has made an inventory of fiber arts in museum collections recently and have conducted some excellent programs based on their research. In fact one of your panel members was asked to author a book on the subject. Surveys are possible especially when museum collection databases become fully computerized. More collections are becoming accessible through the Web. I still think there is a need for catalog of museum craft collections. The Everson Museum catalog of their ceramic collection is a model. Even handbooks of collections would be useful. The acquisition fund idea in today's political and economic climate seems a little pie in the sky. I suppose this is directed at the National Endowment for the Arts. Who else would have such a program? I must say I am regularly precluded from applying for NEA grants because my institution's primary mission and reputation are directed toward drawingsworks on paper. Since each institution is only entitled to one grant application per granting cycle, my depart-ment usually takes a back seat. Another opportunity to write for NEA grants is allowed for museums acting as a consortium. I have tried on numerous instances to pull a group together, but without success. The main reason being that our various museums have widely differing facilities and it would be difficult to plan an exhibition that would fit all needs. I think it has more to do with turf and glory and perhaps because curators are not able to call all of the shots." Warren MacKenzie "I believe that this is one of the most important parts of your proposal but I am not sure what the acquisition of craft works |
will do unless the museum personnel, and particularly the directors, are committed to showing their craft collections on an equal footing with the other arts. This has been done very well by the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh as well as the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, where all arts are shown together in the galleries, displayed by chronological order or sometimes by geographic location. I believe this is becoming more common and should be encouraged as opposed to having a separate museum of crafts. If this integration is realized it should not be necessary to have a special fund that museums could apply to in order to purchase crafts. I know of no special fund that museums apply for to purchase paintings or sculpture. Rather, benefactors will donate works or establish endowments for the purchase of art works. This should be encouraged on a local basis so that communities are involved in supporting museum collections. In the University of Minnesota's Weisman Art Museum such an endowment fund for the purchase of ceramics was established on a very modest basis. It has grown yearly, not only through investment but by attracting additional moneys from the community, once the existence of such a collection and fund was known. It might be pointed out that to develop a strong craft collection is much less expensive than to build a collection from scratch. It is certainly within the means of most museums if the desire is there." Arline M. Fisch "Placement of craft objects in museum collections should be an important priority. Most museum collections have very little in the way of contemporary craft material, and acquisition committees do not always consider such objects sufficiently worthy. As museums turn more attention to contextual presentations, there could be a stronger presence possible for objects next to painting and sculpture of a period or place, but museums need encouragement. Having funds available for the purchase and placement of craft objects in comprehensive local, regional and national museums could make a difference." |
| Topics Presented in Addition to Responses to Four Strategies | |
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Language/Defining Craft Howard Risatti Chair, Department of Craft, Virginia Commonwealth University "I am not sure what I would add, except to suggest that something be done with aesthetics/theory of craft. The lack of a strong theoretical grounding for craft, I believe, is one of the major problems in the field. Fine artists argue that craft isn't art; this argument needs to be countered; once it is, the museum situation and other things will be easier to change." Paula Owen "I would concur with the findings of the committee, though I think it might be important (sooner rather than later) to spell out the difficulties of articulating the definition of craft. This is one of the hazards of codifying craft (especially through books and collections) at this particular time when craft is a kaleidoscopic term. Perhaps an issue of the journal focused on this theme should come first? For me, it is not necessary to reach consensus, but it is important to flush out (and flesh out) the theoretical positions." International View Paul Greenhalgh "The document will provide interesting debate, and in some respects is a reasonable reflection of the current scene. However, there are clearly problems with it. My main observation, I have to say, is that the document read as though it had been written in 1985 or so. Surely America is not so spectacularly behind Europe, Australia and Canada in this regard? My next book, The Persistence of Craft, due out at the end of this year, has a very large bibliography; there are already numerous journals that receive craft theory and practice, and in universities all over the world, Craft History is routinely taught. While it is obvious that |
much work is still needed, it seems to me at least that your document misrepresents the situation we are in. I suggest that you look to the international scene first, and then formulate an appropriate strategic plan of action. I for one am not convinced that the courses of action suggested here are necessarily useful." Video Documentation Lloyd E. Herman "Danny Wilson, the filmmaker who made the craft documentary With These Hands for Johnsons Wax to compliment the international traveling exhibition Objects USA in the late 1960s Freehand Gallery owner Carol Sauvion in Los Angeles is moving ahead to make a series of videos on American craft and I have shared my outlines with her. The Rosen Group is reportedly working on a television project on American craft, tooNorthwest Designer Craftsmen undertook raising money to sponsor professionally produced video portraits of craft elders in this region. I serve on the oversight committee for the project and chair the advisory committee which recommends subject artists for the videos. Five have now been produced, and work is under way for the sixth and planning for the seventh has begun." James Melchert "Donald Kuspit contributed to the five-part documentary on California Ceramics that Queens Row produced a few years ago." |
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Training of Art Writers James Melchert "Of the writers whose articles appear in art magazines and in the art section of newspapers, comparatively few have looked at craft work often enough to speak knowledgeably about it...The training of art writers needs to be addressed. The ones I've mentioned and others like them could contribute to workshops or writing programs that focused on craft. As it is, most craft writing tends to be descriptive rather than analytical. Rose Slivka, for example has intelligently chronicled the life and career of Peter Voulkos in several books, but what is needed is a critical study of Voulkos' work showing how it fits in the larger scheme of things." Davira S. Taragin "I was so pleased to receive the draft of the White Paper. It arrived shortly after my return from the award ceremony of an internationally recognized arts organization that honors and provides financial support to all the arts. I was saddened to realize that this important body has only yet honored traditional painters, sculptors and architects, never craftsmen nor designers. I do hope that our efforts can somehow either in the long or short term ameliorate this situation." |
K12 Craft Education
Alan Du Bois "I have long lamented the fact that there is little or no literature that can be directed to grade and high school students. Scholars in the field of art education seem to me to be preoccupied with social, cultural and diversity issues. Few try to explain the nature of objects."
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An endowment of $3 million invested with 5% annual return would provide $150,000 for this proposal. This would provide for salary and benefits for a chair (a $70,000 salary plus benefits could reach $100,000 annually). This would leave an estimated $50,000 for the recommended support for research fellowships to assist in developing the student pool for the program. Many universities also have a partial matching program for endowments that could be taken into consideration for the initial endowment or to increase the impact of that endowment. Examples of some recent endowments (it is not known if there is a university match in these examples) include:
There are several possible components of this program. The granting program for purchase of craft for collections, the granting program for craft exhibitions at generalist museums, and the underlying need for an inventory of craft in exhibiting museum collections. Any granting program needs to be administered and documented. This could be handled by an endowment to an existing granting agency with guidelines on how the funds would be awarded and the maximum amount that could be used for administration. The granting agency would need to be neutral and not affiliated with any of the recipient agencies, and panel members reviewing requests would have to comply with strict conflict-of-interest requirements. Although not discussed at the Retreat, the goal of "placing craft in the larger cultural context" might be a basis for placing an |
endowment with the National Endowment for the Arts, which had such a program at one time. The American Museum Association is another option. Placing an endowment or granting program with an agency that offers existing staff administering similar programs might reduce the administration expense. This could be a five-year grant program with an amount awarded each year. If a generally accepted 15% administration cost is applied to $200,000 in grants, the annual contribution would need to be $230,000. This could provide eight $25,000 grants. Over five years the total cost of a program of this scale would be $1,150,000. The issue of developing an inventory of craft in existing museum collections needs to be preceded with a meeting of museum curators and registrars to agree on terminology for work which now is cataloged as folk art, craft, sculpture, 20th century, etc. A meeting of this type could be organized as a pre-conference at the American Museum Association annual conference. The process of developing an inventory could be modeled after Save Outdoor Sculpture! Susan Nichols, director of SOS, coordinated this effort that also involved 7,000 volunteers. A survey instrument was created and tested in seven cities with 100 sculptures followed by a pilot study in three states. Following this the survey instrument was changed somewhat in format. In Phase I of the full survey, 6,000 volunteers reported 30,000 publicly accessible outdoor sculpture, with condition reports, to the Smithsonian Institution's Art Inventories database. Phase I involved grants and training. States were awarded $25,000 to participate in the survey and city awards were $800 for assessing the condition of the sculpture. In Phase II of the program, called SOS! 2000, volunteers and students worked to preserve 10,000 sculptures and monuments. This involved training and funding with 125 communities awarded funding for conservation efforts. As a result there is a current database of 32,000 outdoor and 40,000 indoor sculptures. The portal for the Web-based inventory will be an important decision both for the issue of "placing craft in the broader cultural context" and server capacity for an organic rather than static database. In any discussion of an inventory it would be important to include individuals with experience in the creation of inventories for the arts with technical expertise. North Carolina Summit Retreat on Craft |