The 2017 summer conference at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine, was titled The thing that makes the thing: Conversations on craft and community. Haystack has held summer conferences since 2007 and although I had never been to one, this theme intrigued me. What is the thing that makes the thing, I wondered, and how did it relate to craft and community?
The four-day conference brought eight presenters and fifty participants together to consider issues related to socially-conscious craft practices. In his opening talk, Haystack Director Paul Sacaridiz told us that Haystack has “a tradition of radical craft education,” dating from the school’s formation in the wake of the closing of Black Mountain College in 1956. As the conference proceeded, presenters (makers, educators, and scholars) shared not only how their life experiences inform their craft, but also how they all, in varied and dynamic ways, react to social and political events locally, nationally, and globally through their craft practices. Afternoons were dedicated to small, hands-on workshops in which we learned each presenter’s techniques, and how they think about what they do. Every day of the conference one presenter gave a morning talk prefaced by a personal narrative that provided common ground for the presenters and audience. The entire conference was a bounty of conversation, with excellent food sprinkled in as added flavor.
