Jennifer Boyer on mon 7 may 07
Hi All,
I co-run a craft gallery (we've had to come up with jury guidelines
over the last 28 years) and also have been on some craft organization
boards that have discussed jury guidelines. This is the ultimate
exercise in filling a can with worms!!
The print issue
Anyway, in the gallery we've always taken photography and prints in
which the process was done by the individual. There were a few
Vermont printmakers and photographers back in the 70's who aligned
themselves with the craft community and applied to craft galleries
and shows. They set the tone in this state and prints are included in
the craft world here. However, in my NCECA travels I've seen some
areas where the norm for what is considered craft is totally
different. Oregon is one example. There is NO wall art in that Oregon
Craft Center in Portland other than pieces that are made from
traditional craft materials like fiber, metal, clay, wood.
This whole photography/print thing is now even more complicated by
the digital age. Big can. Diversity of worms.
Slip casting
At one point our Vermont state craft centers accepted a potter(?) who
bought her forms from Gare, the biskware wholesaler. She glazed them
and fired them but they were horrible, and the potters in the
community hit the roof!
It spurred me to help with the process of writing jury guidelines for
each medium. Here's the section we wrote on the subject of production
techniques(we started with the League of NH craftsmen guidelines from
their web site, which were written by committees of member
craftspeople):
"Commercial Production Techniques: The Center's focus is on work
made by hand by individual craftspeople. Commercial production
methods used solely for high volume are not acceptable for our
standards, though exceptions may be made, especially if the following
criteria are met.
1. The finished product is best made by this particular method, with
a higher aesthetic and technical quality resulting than if made by hand.
2. The work has an extremely high level of originality and
expressiveness in design.
3. The model for the master mold is made by the state juried
craftsperson.
4. All guidelines for thrown and hand built work apply. " (a complete
description of high standards of clay work is skipped here)
Granted this is all muddy, but at least we got something on paper
that 5 potters could agree with. I was defending the validity of
accepting slipcast work, since I've seen some wonderful examples of it.
SO now I'm about to join a committee tasked with the responsibility
of defining a "Vermont State Craft Center", designing guidelines
and an application process. Lucky us!! We will have to address the
concept of Art vs Craft since we don't feel we can allow a gallery
with wall art and sculpture to be defined as a craft gallery. So we
have to define art and craft and then say how much craft must be
represented in order for the gallery to be a State Craft Center.
There will be an educational component too, with some Craft Centers
being education only. This will basically create a network of
galleries and teaching facilities that will pool resources to promote
the network. It should be quite a challenge....anyone out there
dealing with a similar project?
Jennifer
On May 7, 2007, at 1:26 PM, Brian Besch wrote:
> So, I am curious to hear people's opinions on printmaking and it's
> "handmade" status, which I see as analogous to the process to
> slipcasting.
> I'd also like those who are confident that they can define
> "handmade" to lay
> out exactly, at what point, does something cross the boundary into
> being
> not-handmade. Of course, it is much easier to provide negative
> arguments
> than positive ones. Ruling such and such out as "not handmade" is
> much
> easier than giving an exhaustive definition of what "is handmade."
> Unfortunately, I feel due to the shifting nature of language, a good
> characterization of "handmade" will either be impossible or be
> dissected to
> the point of absurdity. Thanks for the lively discussion on this
> topic thus
> far; it's been enjoyable.
>
> All the best,
>
> Brian Besch
*****************************
Jennifer Boyer
Thistle Hill Pottery
Montpelier, VT
http://thistlehillpottery.com
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