The term 'craft' has countless definitions and interpretations – many of them even contradictory – espoused by artists, writers, curators and critics. As part of our mission to promote craft and its cultural value in the region, Bellevue Arts Museum would like to take part in this dialogue and lead an open and vital conversation about craft's evolving meaning and relevance in the contemporary world.

Gathered from various sources and authors, the following selection of quotes deals with the nature and role of craft today. There is no right answer to the question, and through this collection of voices we hope to inspire you to consider the question: what is craft to you?

Send your ideas and comments to WhatIsCraft@bellevuearts.org. We will share select responses with you and our community in the next newsletter and online. (Please indicate in your email, should you not wish to have your writing published.)

 

1 craft n  an occupation, trade, or pursuit requiring manual dexterity or the application of artistic skill.
2 craft vt  to make or produce with care, skill, or ingenuity.

American Craft Council Online, April 5, 2011
Definitions from Webster's Third International Dictionary and Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed.

 

'Here in the first decade of the twenty-first century, we find craft at a high-water mark. Perhaps it is a need to find and hold on to tradition and comfort and trust in a world turned upside down. Perhaps it is that many people today have the means to acquire the finest examples of the craft tradition. But whatever the cause, the effect is clear: Craft is recognized, perhaps as never before, as an important part of our national heritage and psyche.'

Jo Lauria and Steve Fenton
Introduction, Craft in America: Celebrating Two Centuries of Artists and Objects

 

'Craft is not a neat package with defined edges. It overlaps with design, fashion, art, and industrial and folk practices. That breadth may be taken, however, as a sign of its vitality and relevance, as can the fact that a great number of people who do not think of themselves as craftspeople are currently using craft materials, processes, or attitudes to create both art and design. Today artists build furniture, create laborious installations, or talk of bringing their work closer to life. Craft is already there.'

Janet Koplos and Bruce Metcalf
Preface, Makers: A History of American Studio Craft

 

'It is the physicality of the crafts that pleases me; I learn through my hands and my eyes and my skin what I could never learn through my brain.'

M. C. Richards, 1964
American Craft, 50th anniversary issue, August/September 1993

 

'We think about craft as if it were objects, forgetting [that] it's people, and pretending that we are not people reacting to them.'

M. C. Richards, 1965
Craft Horizons magazine

 

'Art is anything that adds something new to the sum total of human aesthetic experience. Craft is a means to art, craft is merely the craft of making something. It is making something that has no more to do with art than it does with wagons. You have to be a craftsman to do either one, but they serve totally different functions, and to call something a craft, to make a noun out of a craft I think is ridiculous; it isn't – it's a verb as far as I'm concerned.'

Robert Sperry
Interview by Lamar Harrington
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institute

 

'Craft is remembering that art is seen, felt and heard as well as understood, knowing that not all ideas start with words, thinking with hands as well as head.'

Mark Jones
Director, Victoria & Albert Museum

 

'If there is a name I would like to copyright, it is 'craftsman.' It is a name that places a tremendous responsibility on those who claim it.... And believe me, in our world and in our time, we are deeply in need of the values which come under the head of 'craftsmanship.''

Charles Eames, 1957
American Craft, 50th anniversary issue, August/September 1993

 

'Craft has changed its meaning fundamentally at least three times in the last two centuries, and it means fundamentally different things from nation to nation even in the Western world. So there can be no one-liner that identifies larger single meanings, as it doesn't have one. If it is of use in the current context, it is to recognize the significance of genre-based practice in the arts. It should also be a useful category in a global cultural environment. It might even have meaning as a signifier of a socio-political outlook. But it should have nothing to do with aesthetics, and less to do with negative approaches to technology.'

Paul Greenhalgh
Director, Corcoran Museum, Washington DC, and editor of The Persistence of Craft

 

'The separation of craft from art and design is one of the phenomena of late-twentieth-century Western culture. The consequences of this split have been quite startling. It has led to the separation of 'having ideas' from 'making objects.' It has also led to the idea that there exists some sort of mental attribute known as 'creativity' that precedes or can be divorced from a knowledge of how to make things. This has led to art without craft.'

Peter Dormer
The Culture of Craft

 

'... There is an inherent pleasure in making. We might call this joie de faire (like joie de vivre) to indicate that there is something important, even urgent, to be said about the sheer enjoyment of making something exist that didn't exist before, of using one's own agency, dexterity, feelings and judgment to mold, form, touch, hold and craft physical materials, apart from anticipating the fact of its eventual beauty, uniqueness or usefulness.'

Ellen Dissanayake, "The Pleasure and Meaning of Making"
American Craft, April/May 1995

 

'Craft is what I do all day, art is what I have at the end of it.'

Harlan House
Potter

 

'Craft is no more difficult to pin down than art is – which is to say, nearly impossible. We have operated using a blend of definitions, some historical and some current. One is based on materials: today the word generally applies to work in clay, fiber, glass, metal, and wood. Sometimes handmade paper and bookbinding are associated with the term.... Craft can also be defined by the use of certain techniques, such as throwing, turning, forging, or felting. It is also possible to follow self-definition: if jewelers think of themselves as craftspeople, then they are. One understanding of craft today is: a self-defined community oriented to specific materials and techniques, usually with an attitude of respect for both, and reliant upon handwork.
Unfortunately, none of these definitions is adequate. '

Janet Koplos and Bruce Metcalf
Preface, Makers: A History of American Studio Craft

 

'Craft is artwork broght [sic] to life.'

Mateo, Age 9
Talbott Hill Elementary, Bellevue Art Museum Tour Group, April 2011