Re-cap of ACC conference | “Patterson Cottage” or Mad As Hell and Not Gonna Take It Anymore
This is a draft of one of the blog posts I am going to submit to the ACC blog about the conference. I thought I would post it here along with some info that may not be relevant to their website. I have so much to say and have seen so many interesting projects and met a lot of great artists that I think I will be posting about this for many moons to come.
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I want to preface my post by saying that I was thoroughly surprised by the emotional energy that came from the conference this weekend in defense of the different factions of crafters. As a newbie to the crafting world, I didn’t not anticipate the heated debate over Martha Stewart, DIY or the after-math of the Garth Clark lecture.
I had some trouble following the scope of Clark’s argument but he outlined his main points as follows:
The crafting world is structured like a palace in the sense that there is a hierarchy among crafters reflected by the way funding is distributed. Rather than fund and reward only a few successful artists through organizations like the American Craft Council (ACC), we should be focused on reinforcing and supporting the Cottage Craftspeople that are making work in small, tourist towns in the Midwest that better represent the tradition of crafting. This could be done, in part, by having a lobbyist for the ACC in Washington DC making the case for more money and more governmental support for the small town crafters.
After his short speech, a storm of comments ensued. Many argued that he unfairly criticized the ACC because he had occupied the same institutional hierarchy as the dealer of a blue chip gallery in New York until only a couple years ago. Others were gratefully for his instigation of a new dialogue and were no doubt charmed by his humor and passionate delivery.
I personally lost interest when he started gushing about his cynicism-melting experience at Burning Man. I could see the stars in his eyes from where I sat in the back as he spoke about how amazing it was to see these people making work without any of the constraints of the marketplace or the Art world. His talk had the tone of a person who believed he had spent precious years of his life making a living in the cut-throat and capitalist world of New York art dealers. And now in his later years he is trying to make up for it by attaching himself to something “pure.” Both his interest in Burning Man and his anger at the ACC seemed simplified and almost naïve considering his experience and long term place within the craft community. He is definitely a romantic at heart and rather than solve problems and build up new beginnings in an understanding and moderated way, he would rather burn bridges and hail insults in a dramatic fiery explosion. No wonder Burning Man appeals to him.
