Identity crisis? Naming craft museums proves difficult; some embrace the word "crafts," while others have dropped it from their names

Art Business News, Jan, 2005 by Debbie Hagan

Who would argue over displaying Dale Chihuly glass chandeliers, Helena Hernmarck woven tapestries or Judy Kensley McKie sculpted furniture in a museum? Today, it's hard to imagine anyone attempting such a debate. In fact, the way the public turns out in droves to see such art objects, it's clear that accessible, handmade, nontraditional art, generally known as "crafts," are not only highly desired, but a growing draw for museums.

Some museum directors and curators continue to debate exactly what to call such high-level weavings, woodworking, glass, and ceramics. Should they be called "crafts," when the same word describes tatted doilies and decoupage plaques? Maybe "decorative arts, or "fine crafts," or contemporary crafts, or even simply "arts" would be better. Two years ago, the American Craft Museum, in New York, dropped "craft" from its name, taking on the new title: Museum of Arts & Design. Soon, the California College of Arts and Crafts picked up the idea and became the California College of the Arts.

"If you think it's difficult to define "craft," think about "art and design"--now that's a broad term," says Andrew Maydoney, who is on the board of directors for the Fuller Crafts Museum, in Brockton, MA. In April, the museum changed its name from the Fuller Museum of Art.

Less than 10 years ago, you could count all of the craft museums on one hand with a finger or two to spare. But within the last six months, three museums have made a serious commitment to crafts. One is brand new. The other two have revamped and changed their focus.

All three museums had to weigh whether to use "craft" in their new names. Each museum also considered how this decision would impact the public, in addition to the craft field at large.

Fuller Craft Museum

In the fall of 2002, just as the American Craft Museum dropped "craft" from its name, the Fuller Museum of Art saw an opportunity to make a statement.

The Fuller Museum's board had just voted to give the museum a greater focus on crafts. Maydoney saw some irony in this, "[The American Craft Museum] was walking away from the word, while we were walking towards it."

According to Maydoney, the American Craft Museum worked hard at convincing the public that it wasn't running away from the term "craft," but expanding its platform. But, he adds, "the change didn't go over well. The design magazine, Metropolis, wrote a scathing article about the name change." The headline of that article read: "When did Craft Become a Dirty Word?"

The Fuller Craft Museum began as the Brockton Arts Center in 1969, and was launched by an endowment left by geologist Myron L. Fuller. It wasn't a collecting institute at first, but once it began collecting, the center changed to the Fuller Museum of Art.

The museum faced one huge obstacle. It was overshadowed by Boston area titans such as the Museum of Fine Arts, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Harvard University Museums.

"It was necessary for us to look at how we could be a destination over other destinations," says Maydoney, who is also vice president of Sametz Blackstone Associates, a communications consulting firm in Boston. "Why would someone want to come to us? How could we bring something new to the discourse?"

When the Fuller's board looked at the museum's collection, which included many fine crafts, and then surveyed the New England museums that existed, it was "a slam dunk," says Maydoney. New England did not have a center for contemporary crafts, and Fuller could fill that void.

"We saw all of these half commitments to it, and people really wanted it. It's such an accessible art form," says Maydoney. Five months after the museum's rededication and name change, membership increased by 44 percent and attendance surpassed anything the museum had seen in recent years.

As for the "c" word, Maydoney says that the museum refers to crafts as crafts. "It's okay to get confused," he says, noting that the word "craft" also refers to handmade tchotchkes. "What we are hoping to do is to show people there's a level of craft-making that's remarkable. Just because you're creating pompoms and beaded eyeballs, it's not a bad thing. It's a point of departure."

In the near future, Maydoney hopes to offer "please touch" stations. His plan is to give visitors gloves, so that they can open drawers and pick up certain objects. He says, "We still have staff training and insurance issues to deal with yet, but when those are fully realized, that will be a defining moment."

San Francisco Museum of Craft Design

JoAnn Edwards and Seb Hamamjian, a brother and sister team, opened the San Francisco Museum of Craft Design last month in the city's Union Square. The two have been operating three Tercera Galleries in the Bay area for 20 years, and their passion for handmade art led them to open a museum dedicated to contemporary crafts and design.

"We deliberated about the name quite a lot," says Edwards, the museum's executive director. "It was a unanimous decision to include the word 'craft.' We could have left it as 'art; because we consider it all art."