Across time, people have tried to make the case
there is a significant difference between craft and
fine art.
Craft, they argued, is a learned ability or activity
involving a skill, technique, or experience that
produces a tangible object which fulfills a particular
utilitarian purpose such as decoration or use. In that
sense, craft ‘denotes a form of work’ involving one’s
‘hands and brain’ using tools and materials that
'serve human objectives’ and can be replicated. It is for this reason people think of craft as involving the making of things like chairs, woven baskets, embroidery, blankets, handbags, candles, jewelry, pottery, glass work, etc.1 And while craft is indeed about making things, it is also within craft that cultural identity and history are embedded.
By contrast, the same people argued art is “an expression and application of imagination, feelings, thoughts, ideas or any other human creativity, in a visual form, having aesthetic and emotional value that cannot be replicated." It is for this reason people think of art as involving the creation of one-off things like paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs,
etc.2 which, though replicable, do not diminish the original intent or purpose for producing the object.
Above:
Crafts Magazine,
Photo Courtesy of:
Crafts Council.
Opposite
Crafts Council Gallery,
Islington, London
Photos Courtesy of:
David Grandorge & Crafts Council
Page 2 of 3
LEARNING
Make Your Future
workshop at Central
Saint Martins
Photograph: courtesy
of UK Craft Council
Make:Shift:Do 2017 at
Institute of Making.
Image by Institute of
Making
Pupils from a Leeds
secondary school,
presenting work at a
Make Your Future
celebration event.
Photo: Caroline Heron
Page 3 of 3
Crafts Council Gallery
in Islington, London.
Photo: David
Grandorge
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