Carmel Haugh recounts the story of Queensland’s craft and design organisation as it renews its membership strategy to afford opportunities.
Where we have come from
As artisan approaches its 55th anniversary in 2025, five cultural leaders—Liz Shaw, Kevin Wilson, Jacqueline Armitstead, Ann-Maree Reaney, and Kevin Murray—have chronicled its evolution from the Crafts Association of Australia, Queensland (CAQ), to Craft Queensland, and the current form, artisan. These soon-to-be-published essays weave a narrative of connection and advocacy for sustainability that has defined artisan’s role in Queensland’s craft and design ecosystem for over half a century.
Established in 1970, artisan emerged as a nexus for information sharing, quality standard-setting, exhibition curation, and opportunities for creation. From early advocacy wins, like sponsoring the legalising of night-time craft exhibition openings in 1973, which were incredulously banned by the Joh Bjelke-Petersen Government, to rapidly pivoting to digital exhibitions and workshops in the pandemic era in 2020. artisan’s core purpose of connecting and supporting makers and presenting their work widely has remained constant.
Over the decades, artisan like many small to medium organisations has been a contortionist, balancing ever-shifting cultural, political, social, economic, and technological landscapes. It has continually redefined the boundaries between craft, art, and design, embracing new technologies while honouring traditional practices.
Previous artisan curator, Kevin Wilson, reflects that the 1980s saw the organisation move from a more traditional craft base to one of craft and design. Jacqueline Armitstead affirms this move observing “the 1990s saw Queensland rise as the home of strong contemporary craft and design practices.” While Ann-Maree Reaney reminds us in “A New Millenium for Craft Queensland” the organisation played a significant role as a key driver in the pioneering Art Build-in Policy 1999-2007, assisting with public art and refurbishment projects aimed at supporting the art, craft and design sector in Queensland. The new trends towards e-commerce and the strengthening of ties with the design sector, saw the disassembly of the Craft Queensland membership model and the advent of a new trading entity artisan in 2007. This reinvigorated model saw a major uplift in Queensland’s profile.
For arts practitioners and academics, artisan‘s story offers valuable insights into institutional resilience in the creative sector. It demonstrates the importance of adaptive leadership, community engagement, and a willingness to evolve while maintaining a clear vision consistent with goals of connection and sustainability. While no longer relying on the “telephone tree” of the 70s to pass on information, our driver to share important sector information and connect craft and design practitioners, with audience, opportunities and collectors remains equally important to our purpose today.
Where are we now? artisan in 2024
artisan stands at a pivotal moment in Queensland’s vibrant arts landscape, a sector renowned internationally for its excellence and innovation. The recent Venice Biennale Golden Lion awarded to Queensland-educated and based Archie Moore (artist) and Ellie Buttrose (curator) exemplifies this recognition. Contemporary Craft and Design, while perhaps more modest in profile, is no less accomplished than its visual arts, performing arts, music, and literary counterparts. Our recently renewed board is committed to artisan’s role to amplify our sector’s excellence.
The artisan alumni boast some of Australia’s most esteemed practitioners across all fields of craft and design. Our current efforts to revitalise alumni records reveal a wealth of internationally accredited, published, and collected artists. The roster includes luminaries such as the late Robert Dunlop, furniture designer, ceramicists Thanakupi and Gwyn Hanssen Piggott, alongside living legends such as Delvene Cockatoo-Collins (fashion designer/printmaker/craft artist), Barbara Heath, Sheridan Kennedy and Ari Athans (jewellery design), Marc Harrison (object designer), Alexander Lotersztain (furniture design), Jill Kinnear (printed textile and surface design), Nicollette Johnson (ceramicist) and Anna Varendorff (jewellery/small objects) among many others.
Regionally, Queensland’s cultural landscape has long expanded beyond Brisbane and the Gold Coast, Rockhampton, Townsville, and Cairns are vital hubs, connecting communities across vast areas including the Torres Strait Islands, incorporating the prosperous tourism industry. Within this ecosystem, artisan‘s network of craft and design practitioners holds a unique position, requiring a nuanced approach to engagement and support. We are forging our relationships with other state-based small to medium organisations such as Northsite Cairns, the Institute of Modern Art and the Indigenous Art Centre Alliance, while reinforcing our national relationships with the Australian Tapestry Workshop, Canberra Glassworks, The Jam Factory and Craft Victoria.
Evidence of our relationships is seen in the 2024 UNLEASHED Biennial, which continues to spotlight Queensland’s emerging talent. Now in its third decade, this year’s exhibition features innovative works by jewellers Alicia Allan and EB Jewellery, furniture designers Ash and Kirralee Robinson and Rick Hayward, weaver Anita Wano-Sumner, Bunda Art’s craft arts, and ceramicists Aurora Elwell and Julya Hegarty. This talent was sourced by mobilising our regional connections to overcome geographical and fiscal challenges and to showcase the state’s artistic innovation and excellence.
With the 2028 Cultural Olympiad on the mid-horizon and Queensland’s general cultural maturation deepening, artisan is positioning for a milestone moment. Our new approach to membership and partnerships will rely on a shared information framework including local, national and global exchanges of expertise and career-nurturing opportunities. We are committed to a future of transformational collaborations with our partners and peers.
Our small multidisciplinary and collaborative team is led by Simone Linssen, Program Director building mutual value for creators, curators, collectors, and consumers of Contemporary Craft and Design. The board’s expertise, a curatorium, ambassadors, industry specialists, and community input are propelling us forward.
Where are we going? artisan’s future vision
artisan board table
artisan, as a purpose-driven, social enterprise, like many small to medium organisations, we face the challenge of balancing government funding with feasible revenue streams and making meaningful impact.
The Visual Arts and Crafts Funding established in 2003, while groundbreaking in its time, is increasingly strained at the state level to meet the evolving needs of our sector. Our unique position in the craft and design sector places us in fierce competition for public funding alongside contemporary visual arts, performing arts, literary, and music organisations. This increasingly competitive funding landscape, both a blessing and a curse, motivates us entrepreneurially.In 2024, with the valued support of the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation, we can augment Creative Australia and Arts Queensland core funding to invest in our future impact. Our rich history and current outreach and engagement with an entrepreneurial lens is preparing us for a pipeline rich with opportunities for our unique sector.
Reflecting on the 1980s, when Queensland recorded over 18,000 practitioners, we are reuniting our network. In consultation with experts like Paul Andrew and his ARI Remix project, we plan to create a digital community archive that will allow our alumni and friends to reconnect, contribute records, and images and help us reinforce artisan‘s future. To thrive we desire a plan that transcends political and economic conditions, this can only be achieved with our strong relationships with our community. Core to our strategy is the development of a well-designed and mutually beneficial membership and engagement program. One that connects our diverse community of practitioners with opportunities, collectors and other complementary networks.
“artisan takes pride in the quality of relationships they have built and maintained”. Anne-Maree Reaney.
The strength of our enduring connections will determine artisan’s continued vitality as a force in Queensland’s craft and design ecosystem for generations to come. As we navigate future challenges and opportunities, our social capital, a community of like-minded people, remains our most valued asset and the core of our existence.
References
We extend our deepest gratitude to the dedicated authors who have contributed to the artisan essays by decade soon to be published. Their meticulous research and insightful writing have brought together artisan’s history and impact on Queensland’s craft and design landscape.
- Shaw, Elizabeth. 2024. Beginnings: The emergence of the Crafts Association of Australia, Queensland, 1970–1979.
- Wilson, Kevin, 2024. The 80s – A Time of Change.
- Armitstead, Jacqueline, 2024. Craft Council of Queensland 1990-1999: A Decade of Advocacy and Engagement, Growth and Cultural Development.
- Reaney, Ann-Maree, 2024. A New Millennium for Craft Queensland. 2000-2009.
- Murray, Kevin, 2024. Artisan in the 2010s.
About Carmel Haugh
Carmel joined the artisan board in May 2023 with over two decades of creative industries experience in Queensland. She is now chairperson. Based in Meanjin, Brisbane, her strategic and business roles have spanned visual arts, craft and design, cultural tourism, government and the not-for-profit sector. Her passion lies with craft and design, and she has a long relationship with artisan commencing in the mid-90s where she sourced craft and design practitioners to commission through the Craft Queensland network for her award-winning interior design collaborations.
