The Craft Transition Team OR Quotes from Wise Old White Guys

"If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain."

-Winston Churchill

His words have been weighing heavily on my mind lately. Who am I to disagree with Winston Churchill? But, a follow up question; if you're a liberal at twenty do you have no brain, and if you are a conservative at forty do you have no heart?

For the past few months I have been working on launching a new publication called the National Student Craft Zine (for more details follow the link).The mission of the National Student Craft Zine is to cultivate critical dialogue among students engaged in formal craft training throughout the United States (and abroad - the eventual goal is for the publication to be called International Student Craft Zine). Featuring diverse work and writing from fresh voices, the Zine will reflect ideas and trends in the field while providing students with a platform for professional development.

It has always been my implicit belief that all young metalsmiths and craftspeople are as eager and ambitious as I am. As the March 1st deadline for submissions draws near, and the response has been somewhat less overwhelming than what I thought it would be, I have been doing some real soul searching. Last week I talked at length with metals educator Daniella Kerner who offered the opinion that most students, in her experience, do not go above and beyond course or program requirements (I hope I am representing this comment accurately). If this is true then I wonder how the rising generation will take on the challenges facing our field in the years to come (among these challenges are rebranding, sustainability, a shrinking domestic craft market, rising cost of education, etc.) Also, I have heard it reported, from a marginally reliable source, that less than 10% of people who earn metals degrees stay in the field as professionals. I wonder if a business program had a 10% success rate, how long would it be before it was shut it down? Certainly Brandeis would axe it. Lastly, my feelings of despair were compounded when I finally got around to listening to the podcast of the Garth Clark lecture at the Museum of Contemporary Craft entitled How Envy Killed the Crafts Movement: An Autopsy in Two Parts. These small experiences compounded to deliver a crushing blow to my unwavering idealism. Shit.

But do not lose faith, while idealism can be suppressed it only dies when you stop believing. And after a lengthy introduction I want to delve into deconstructing the culture of apathy among America's youth and reconstructing the new culture of enthusiasm, even if it is only in my mind and on my blog.

"If you will it, it is no dream." -Theodore Herzl

A Culture of Hope?

Since the age of 18, when I was granted my voting rights, all I have ever known was the Bush administration. Under such a regime it was hard to feel, personally, that I could change anything. Despair and apathy seemed to limit the scope of my ambition for anything other than my career and personal life.

The most recent Gallup Poll shows that Barack Obama's approval rating is 67%. It has hovered between 60 and 70% since he took office just two weeks ago. If the election of Obama and the inauguration media bonanza accurately reflects how America feels right now, then I would say we are like mountaineers confidently preparing for an alpine ascent. And in seeing imminent change at the highest level of power, I cannot help but feel some reflection of that promise. I had forgotten what it was like to be proud of my government. And though I often have feelings of shame about the field in which I practice, generally speaking, it is my hope that this reflected hope will pervade every part of American - and international - life, business, and culture. I can't help but feel that anything is possible. Now is the time for change. So it a strange mix of feelings to feel so energized and inspired by President Obama and at the same time feel so empty about the academic craft youth culture. Maybe I just need to be patient. Surely there are many people who are feeling inspired now. Surely there are many people whose idealism and pragmatism has laid dormant for the past decade, and who will now take up the mantle of being craft critics, leaders, and activists. I have not lost faith in my generation yet.

Michael Moore’s 2008 film Slacker Uprising was dedicated to exploring the growing sense of urgency in societal participation and activism among America’s youth (mind you this was filmed long before Obama, during the 2004 Bush Vs. Kerry election). Even then Moore was convinced that the potential and power for change resided in America's institutions of higher learning. Even the title took account of the fact that society indeed viewed youth culture as apathetic. Now, the 2008 presidential election has certainly helped dispel the previously held perception of generation Y as apathetic slackers.

Applying the argument from my previous post (about online communities and intellectual property), in America in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s technology and information sharing spurred trend dissemination and the development of a me-centric youth culture that built its identity around consumption. The prominent application of semiotic theory in craft can attest to the power of choice (or the act of choosing) in defining both the individual and the collector. More recently, the ease of information sharing in the late 2000’s and web 2.0 applications (such as blogs, facebook , and myspace) has facilitated digital communities, and me-centric has now become we-centric. This is a point I owe partially to Tom Friedman, who uses it in describing how The World is Flat. Coming back to Moore, the fact that Slacker Uprising was released for free on the internet alludes to the power of the internet as a platform for the dissemination of ideas and community engagement, something that Moore was no doubt aware of. Activism, rather than apathy now best describes the climate of youth culture. Young people are connected and they have access to tools that empower them to make a difference.

To contrast this macro view of youth culture with the micro view of the academic craft youth culture there seems to be a disconnect (Indie craft is obviously a huge and notable exception here). Take a look at the powerful communication tool that is the Society of North American Goldsmiths online discussion board (under members area - you have to be a member). It is a ghost town. It is completely underutilized, conspicuously by students. The academic metal crafts discussion group (ACMET-L) is sponsored by metals/jewelry/cad-cam program at Tyler School of Art and goes out to approximately 300 people, though in regular posting it seems more like the same 30-50 people posting many of them not even students, shout out Phil Carrizzi! Don't forget that some of those people are required to post. There are quite a few other online forums which seem a little bit healthier (ganoksin, crafthaus, on facebook, and myspace), but I am not sure what percentage of participation can be ascribed to students. The blog scene seems to be the healthiest. But as a blogger myself, I have to say that blogs are a good one way communication tool. Despite inviting comments at the end of each post, it is rare to get more than 10 comments. In all honesty a discussion board is a better tool to have a conversation than the backwater comments page on a blog. I am forced to the conclusion that we have some catch up to do in comparison to the culture at large.

Moving Forward

I can't help but wonder what is the role of the craft/ metals academy? With a 90% failure rate (allegedly) why aren't there more students working to fix the system? If there was ever a time to be inspired, or to work for the future of metalsmithing (and craft) surely that time is now. Now is a time of hopeful poverty in craft. The commercial craft market is the smallest it has been since the advent of the studio craft movement. I agree with Garth Clark to a point that studio craft is dead, but dead only in the sense that the institutional models and infrastructure of the current craft world is not sustainable. What could be more American than rising from the proverbial ghetto to achieve fortune and fame. If you'll allow me to wryly ask, isn't that the American dream? We NEED change, we need new ideas, new models, and they will come, I am sure, mostly from new voices.

I just want to make a list here of things that could be changed or worked on in case anyone else is feeling inspired too:

-Increasing the audience for studio craft
-Expanding the definition of craft/ creating an inclusive atmosphere
-Increasing the success rate of craft school alumni
-Creating more equitable and efficient work dissemination mechanisms...making galleries work for crafters, not the other way around
-Reforming craft organizations to better serve members - both makers and non-makers
-Create dynamic forums for dialogue and exchange...that people actually use!
-Lobby for more public funding of crafts
-Establish craft as an ethical and moral alternative to industrial consumerism
-Reclaim the word craft...its not a fucking dirty word damn it

I understand only too well the difficulty in trying to accomplish any one of these goals. We are now so fiercely individualistic (perhaps necessarily so in order to be creative) that we seem to have forgotten how to work towards a common goal that is in our mutual interest. The strength of craft is the highly individual and opinionated people who make up the field. To get such people to agree and work together to achieve any sort of goal seems nearly impossible, and yet for studio craft to be vital, this is what we must do...agree and work together.

There is nothing stopping anyone from volunteering for craft organizations - save perhaps ego - and indeed many people do. But when we shun the organizations that exist to further our field, then we lose an opportunity to commune and to collaborate. For instance, I have heard many people don't join SNAG because it is not relevant to them. It is a fair point. Why waste the money? However, SNAG is a member run organization, and if its programs don't appeal to you, volunteer and start a program that does. The quote that runs on the banner to the right is slightly ironic, but the call to action has sat there for some time, "It's not what metalsmithing can do for you, its what you can do for metalsmithing." If enough people decide to dedicate themselves to making our field better then it will be. If the people running an organization are doing a bad job, then you have the opportunity to run for that office to replace them. If the board is filled with people who holds positions only because they need tenure, then you may have a better reason than them to run. *Disclaimer* I am not thinking of anyone specific here, only repeating things I have heard.

I wonder aloud, how long can a culture of apathy persist in craft if that apathy is not reflected in the general culture? So I guess this is a call to young people (old people too), to have the heart Churchill talks about, at least for now. I would like to end with another quote, this time from a life-long liberal:

"Association instead of competition, social order instead of individualist anarchy. These are the only ways to free creativity from commerce and return it to the working man."
-William Morris

Comments Welcome,

-Gabriel