BRATTLEBORO — As part of American Crafts Week, Brattleboro-West Arts and Brooks Memorial Library will present a forum on “Craftsmanship in the 21st Century,” on Tuesday, Oct. 11 from 7:30 to 9 p.m., at the library.
The forum will explore the nature and state of craftsmanship in southeastern Vermont today, the challenges and opportunities craftspeople face, and the place of craftsmanship and craft traditions in the emerging new economy.
The panel will include Michael Weitzner, dry stone waller; Kris McDermet, fiber artist, Walter Slowinski, ceramicist, and Marta Bernbaum, glass artist. Doug Cox, violinmaker, will serve as moderator.
The forum will feature a diverse panel of craftspeople from Brattleboro-West Arts and will include ample time for audience input and discussion. It will be of interest for those involved in making, collecting, or admiring traditional and contemporary crafts and fine handwork, and also those interested in new economic models for our society.
In his recent book The Craftsman, Richard Sennett observes that craftspeople learn intuitively from long practice with their tools and materials, and for them, learning moves from the hands to the head, rather than from head to hands. He points out that this kind of learning has been valuable in the past, and can continue to provide creative solutions for problems the world will face in the future.
For more information, contact Cox by email or 802-257-1024.