Tunnel Vision: Notes from the Director’s Chair
By Vonda Givens, Executive Director
“We urge handicrafts as a mean of physical and spiritual development ….when you buy a table or a chair you cannot buy with it the exhilaration of exercising your own creative faculties, the physical development, the peculiar mental discipline and the joy which comes to the maker of things when his work is…inspired by the love of it. And you can never buy…the satisfying pleasure which is an inherent quality of the creation of your own hand and brain….Our practical lessons in handicrafts are designed to point the way to a means of healthful and joyous development….
“Als Ik Kan,” The Craftsman, Vol 13, October 1907.
Sometimes good ideas are right in front of you, but you cannot see them. I think this especially happens with work you’ve been doing for a while. Tunnel vision sets in.
When I was hired to be the Education Director at the museum in 2008, one of my directives was to plan children’s programs. An easy place to start was to expand children’s craft activities at Holiday Open Houses. We did this for years. And they were successful. We made paper chains, paper snowflakes, and paper trees (back then activities were in the Log House so we had to have tidy, clean activities!). We tried out a children’s version of tin punch, and more, but until recently, I didn’t understand that it was a mistake to call those activities “children’s crafts.” They should have been crafts for all ages.
I was aware that some of our children’s activities appealed as much or more to their parents. For instance, when we had a woodworking activity at Family Days, children loved using a saw or hammering a nail under the kindly, protective oversight of John Marinovich, who led the activity. But parents liked it just as much, and they lingered to talk with John and ask him questions. (Sadly, John, pictured, passed away a few years back. We still miss him. He was recruited to his post by his wife Kathy, a long-time docent and an extraordinarily talented seamstress, who also had led many popular craft activities. Kathy’s high level of skill makes her the kind of person you’d ask to, for instance, help you tuft a cushion. [For the record, Kathy and Jonathan Clancy made a great tufting team!] I always thought that, as a couple, Kathy and John embodied Stickley’s ideas about a lifetime commitment to handicraft).
Though perhaps it should be obvious, after all of The Craftsman articles I’ve read, it took years for me to understand that adults yearn for opportunities to work with their hands. That early directive to create programs for children got me into a cycle of thinking that crafts were a “kid’s thing.”
The idea that on-site crafts should be for all came into sharp focus at last year’s Fall Open House, when all attendees were welcomed to make a tile with Peggy Davo (Peggy is an artist and another long-time docent). Every time I stopped by the Education Center during the event, adults were crowded around the craft table carefully embossing leaves into their clay tiles and meticulously adding details. And it happened again in December when adults delighted in making clay ornaments with Peggy, and again in February, when our adult guests eagerly settled in to make vintage valentines at our Valentine’s Open House (left).
To be honest, it seems I’m the last person to recognize this yearning. I regularly spot studios for drop-in pottery glazing and “paint and sip” gatherings and maker events are all over the place. Associate Director Parker Sanchez has made paintings at birthday parties and mentioned a local brewery that was hosting a beer stein painting event. I feel like I’m catching up to the rest of the world but seeing it for myself has helped. Seeing it for myself helped dispel my tunnel vision and understand that the museum’s craft activities need to be open to everyone.
The enthusiasm for every craft table at our recent Open Houses inspired the staff to put together our upcoming Maker Day on Saturday, May 10, from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m.—a day devoted to making things by hand. In fact, we’ve decided to make May the museum’s Maker Month. After all, what better place is there to roll up your sleeves and try a new handicraft than Craftsman Farms? It’s so obvious!
We’ve invited three local artists to lead the festivities. Attendees can plan to be here for the entire afternoon or come and go as their schedules allow. They can make all three crafts, stab bound book making, Pysanky egg dying, and ornamental cement sculptures, or they can focus on their favorites. In between, they can also visit the Log House for short talks on objects in the museum’s collections and insights into how and where they were made. For example, this lovely Fulper Pottery Company glazed stoneware vase was produced in nearby Flemington, NJ, just an hour away from the museum.
After we planned a Maker Day event at Craftsman Farms, we knew we didn’t want to leave out our Members who would enjoy doing an activity with their hands even though they happened to live in California or Washington state. So, we’ve added two free online Basic Drawing classes. Many artistic endeavors begin with a drawing, and of course, drawing can be done with the simplest of materials, which makes it perfect for a Zoom program.
Members will begin with a class on still lifes on Saturday, May 3. We’ll put together a still life using collections objects for everyone to sketch and learn about composition, scale, and proportion. On Saturday, May 17, we’ll look at furniture in the museum’s collections and focus on simple drafting techniques. The idea for the class is to expand or reinvigorate drawing skills or if, like me, you’ve never done much drawing, it’s an opportunity to try it with very low stakes (none of you will be able to see that my sketch is not a Picasso!).
We invite you to participate in Maker Month. Like Stickley, I “urge it as a means of physical and spiritual development” for all of us. I, for one, am eager to experience “the joy which comes to the maker of things.” I wish this for you too. Now that my vision is clear, I hope you’ll join me!