It was at an unGodly hour this morning that I found myself heading out to Owen Sound's Tom Thomson Gallery for the Making Matters: Sustainability and Craft Practice symposium. (Being up for a 6am departure was always going to be a tad painful, and sure enough I was frantically running to the TTC having barely dragged a brush through my tousled hair - only in Canada would the train be pulling into the station as I arrived!)
Thankfully my bleary mind was greeted with a lively and inspiring debate around the issue of sustainability and craft, which was well worth the winter white-out which the car had to suffer on the way.
The event was programmed to coincide with the Makers Return exhibition - a show documenting the activity of Makers, an craft co-operative run by local artists and craftspeople between 1981 and 1985 in downtown Owen Sound, who upheld the philosophy of handmade production. A small, but lovingly curated show, it brought together the suprisingly undated ceramic, silver and cloth work of the 14 members, of which only two continue as full time craftspeople.
Most interesting was how it was not only the favoured eco footprint buzz words which came into play, but issues surrounding how to sustain a craft business/co-op, craft as a form of resistance and how craft can bring together the earth and art and inspiring and inventive ways.
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