What is happening to textile arts?
It has taken years and years to get textile arts recognized as a serious art form. There is only one place in Vancouver that has dedicated itself to a program for the exclusive study of the fabric arts. Our three universities and government funded art school have neglected the serious study of textile arts for years and it has been relegated to a two year college program. Anyone wanting a BFA in Fibres has to go away from here to Alberta, Quebec or Nova Scotia.
The textile art courses taught at one of our universities has been relegated to some place in Home Economics or the Agricultural Science Department. Dedication by educators like Johanna Staniskis has preserved what there is.
Last night I was asked as a board member of our guild to decide whether or not I would agree that we needed to attend the farm fair. How charming! How about a church basement tea for grannies?
Professional members of our guild who are leaving because of the over involvement of hobbyists. They need a more serious venue to discuss work, techniques, and challenges faced by textile artists. Instead they are being faced with cutie pie crafty sales and products.
When dedicated professionals are faced with this they flee because time is a very precious thing to waste. When the dedicated professionals don't attend or become discouraged by the more nightmarish and commercial aspects of textiles the whole guild suffers. Standards really collapse and we then become surrounded by images of halluciously coloured, flying cliches that are made as kits and duplication without analysis.
Don't get me wrong. I consider myself a farm kid. I honour the work of my great- grandmothers. I love sheep and pumpkins. I just don't want textile art to become an anachronism where we are only allowed, once again, to show in church halls and elementary school fundraising sales.
Textile art is a serious art form. The question is how do we become inclusive and involved in sharing without falling down this slippery slope?
I need the professionals and consider myself an artist but I am delighted by the enthusiasm and skills the hobbyists bring. I just don't think they should run the whole agenda.
3 comments:
I'm with you, trouble is the hobbists outnumber the artists, & have more time/energy for the social piece of creating guilds. The guilds set up by and for artists are not numerous, and are often fairly elitist for those starting out in the art.... Sigh.
It is funny that in the old guild system everyone expected to learn a set of skills that would allow them membership.
I wonder what that would be in a contemporary sense?
An MFA or a City and Guilds designation or a few community courses?
I only have a college certificate and 3/4 of a BFA so maybe I just need to shut up until I can put credentials before arrogance!
You are dead right about the hobbyists keeping many of the guilds going in a social sense but does the need for all the extras just demand a whole lot more energy?
The Surface Design Association has run smoothly for years. The president is Jennifer Love and she just seems to keep things relevant and flowing. The group in B.C. is made up almost exclusively of people who function at a really high level and the meetings are only a few times a year instead of a monthly social.
Agenda is show and tell, a speaker and a few decisions about shows and workshops and reports from the Central Committee. Very Casual but efficient.
I'd subscribe to the "take what you like and leave the rest" adage, except that where i am there *is* no *other* group that is for the "dedicated" artist..... I think it's up to the SDA to keep the quality high, and the guild to (hopefully) nurture the rise of quality so the serious practitioner can move to the SDA standards. A lot of guilds are nothing more than a social network, skillsets meaning not much. but enthusiasm counting for all.
As for the schools, it all comes back to our society's idea that sports is more important than the arts.....
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