Vol. 12 No. 1
Spring / Summer 2017
For a while now at Studio we’ve been thinking about education in craft and design. Some of our closest advisors and contributors are academics, so the issues of students and research and guided growth often come into our more general conversations about the processes and purposes of making.
But that’s only a part of the discussion. Education, in its richest sense, can be quite separate from the academies and institutions and can be deeply personal, unstructured experiences.
Unravelling in your workshop or studio, walking through a show or reading a text, smelling something good coming from the kitchen, hearing those spring birds – educating moments can refract off all those surfaces too – and a million others.
In the same way, a nation can be a grand, institutional idea that can have a 150th birthday. Or, just as nebulously, nationhood can have nothing to do with a flag, boundaries on a historic map or words in a document.
In this issue we set about prodding these ideas, seeing what we can learn about our shared experiences in Canada. We discover a common thread in this issue’s articles: that nation-making, like education, is a most natural thing but it is unlikely to happen in a meaningful way without effort and commitment; just like object making. Moreover, craft and design seem to teach us that learning and growing mean continuing to place our experiences into the continuum of our history – the entire horizon of our heritage. In so doing, we grow without the fog of nostalgia but rather with bright historical self-awareness.
REGULARS:
Editors’ Note
Slice
Congratulations and announcements
Under the Radar
Spotting lesser known talent with guest editor Ray Cronin
Portfolio
Eight makers, all Bronfman Award winners, discuss the role of the reward in their careers
Did you Know?
Michael Prokopow considers Truth and Reconciliation
Review: You are Me
Victoria Henry Reviews Paula Murray in Ottawa
Review: Digital Handmade AND PostDigital Artisans
Janna Hiemstra reviews 2 new books
inStudio
Introducing a new feature
FRESH:
Making Relationships
Clayton Windatt takes us through the importance of words and the barriers they can erect.
Pamela Ritchie – 2017 Bronfman Winner
Maegen Black celebrates the intimate intricacy of Pamela Ritchie’s jewellery.
Past Present and Future
Seven design and craft experts contemplate various themes that coalesce in today’s objects and practices.
ReWriting or Writing History
Ellyn Walker compares Nadia Myre and Joleen Gordon who are both interested in preserving or recovering traditions.
Illuminating 150 with Silver
Laura Brandon introduces her project to shine light on an often neglected seam in Canada’s cultural history.
Politics of Visual Language
The blue maple leaf at Expo ’67 is only the beginning of a national identity story in glass. Bruno Andrus tells us the tale.
Retiring but never shy
The Executive Directors of two Provincial craft councils are both retiring in 2017. We sat down with them to discuss the state of craft today.
