Crafting Identity: The Development of Professional Fine Craft in Canada

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

The 10 years from approximately 1964 to 1974 were important in the
coming of age of the professional crafts field in Canada. This academic
study reviews the key factors influencing the shift from handicrafts, or
technically skilled amateur crafts, to professional status. These
factors include the basic issue of terminology (fine crafts?
professional crafts? artist–crafter?), standards,
organizations/associations, American influences, formal education at the
post-secondary level, shows, exhibitions, and awards.

Other works recognize some of the leading artisans of the era; this
book adds to the picture by providing information on the administrators
and organizers who played an important role in establishing national
crafts associations, organizing major exhibits, and influencing the
development of applicable degree programs at Canadian colleges and
universities. Alfoldy makes clear the value of this behind-the-scenes
work in the evolution of an “ideology of craft.”

The book chronicles the work to “push the crafts up the hierarchy of
the fine arts,” and the ongoing tension between crafts that meet the
fine-arts standards for conceptual content and the need to respond to
the more practical demands of industrial design and marketability. The
development of infrastructures to facilitate professional crafts is
detailed in both Native and Euro-Canadian streams.

The strength of the book is the scope of the author’s research and
documentation of sources. Unfortunately, the writing is flat, and the
few token illustrations are ineffectual in relieving the stylistic
monotony.