A Trip to a Craft Show, To Find Art
One of a Kind Toronto (Photo: OOAK Toronto (c))
Alexandra Holness enjoys visiting the One of a Kind Show, an annual exhibition of creative crafts presented in Toronto. Yet this experience leads her to questions regarding the distinctions made between art and craft. Craft has a useful function and is often created with the intention of selling, and because of these two facts many have placed it in a place somewhere below true “art.” As Holness writes, “So, as it seems, if a piece of art serves some utilitarian purpose or is designed primarily to reap financial profits, it no longer quite deserves that coveted “art” title. This bothers me.”
In this article, Holness takes up the challenge and argues that craft represents the product of imagination and creativity, and so possesses the hallmarks of art — and does not deserve the subordinate position that it is often given. Follow her reflections in “A Trip to a Craft Show, To Find Art” (click here for the full article).
Virgil once wrote, “Practice and thought might gradually form many an art.” Indeed one wonders how much of artmaking can be attributed to questions of craft, that is, to those things that one can practice and improve with dedication and commitment. Yet how much of art is in the craft? When does the focus on craft impede the expression of the art?
