Living Treasures

Now that I have floated the concept of the living treasure we have in our oldest craftspeople, it’s time to craft some clearer proposals so people can discuss them. I plan to make two separate ones, for my two organizations, Oregon Country Fair and Saturday Market, which have different policies and forms of operation and committee structures, but many artisans in common.

My thinking is that for now, we just agree to the concept, that there could be a “Master of the Crafts” designation. That might be an awkward name. Grandmother and Grandfather is close to what I imagine, but of course they would be too casual and vague to use for titles. Call it “Accomplished Artist of a Certain Age,” then, or “Old Hippie with Skills.” A designation.

Just kidding, but the name will be one thing to settle on first. I think it should focus on accomplishment and mastery, while honoring the creative individual who manifested it all out of thin air day after day, decade after decade. A lifetime of creative action that is still ongoing and open ended in our artist's minds. Most of us don't stop being creative. Ever.

Then each organization would need to assess the population of such people. How many of us are there? What would be the criteria? I’m thinking forty years of artistry (could be in all media) and an age of 65 or 70. There would have to be other descriptors as well, although not necessarily a judgment of quality, more of dedication. It just seems to me that someone who has put in a lifetime of work within an organization should get some form of a nonliteral gold watch. If we were employed, we would, along with getting our pension funds robbed and our benefits cut. We don’t get any pensions or benefits, but the point is that our chosen lifestyle leaves us rather vulnerable as our ages advance. There isn't anything in place in current policy, though in regard to Saturday Market, accommodations are often made case-by-case. This becomes an imperfect process that can be subject to too many variables and requires too many thoughtful but similar decisions, and none of them are easy. Honor dedication.

That’s all for now, I want to concentrate on the designation. I want to set aside any attached awards or accommodations or what might be seen as privileges or entitlements. Keep in mind that I want this designation to be earned, and clear in its criteria. Since there would have to be some evaluative body, I recognize that there is going to have to be policy created and set, and that is a big task with either organization, and it has to be done over time, with great thoughtfulness. But I think people can get behind the designation. We could give an award, like the Peach thing that food booths get, some visible badge or plaque of some kind.

This is a marketing bonanza for the organizations. Each designated artisan could have a pictorial display of their history, craft expertise, and the range of products and accomplishments in their lifetime so far, and if these had a uniform look, the customers would learn to recognize and look for them. It shows the roots of what the organizations are now, how the subculture came to be, and how it extends into the present and the future.I think customers would find this fascinating and we would all benefit. I want this to enhance revenue for all concerned, not take income away from either the organizations or any part of the vendor population. Enhance.

The artisan, in my imagined scenario, would enter into a trust agreement with the organization to continue to bring their highest artistry to the show, in whatever ways they were able. If they could no longer do their traditional craft (and to use me as an example, if I were no longer able to screenprint, which will happen) they would be free to change their art to any and all other forms of media. It would be easy for them to start bringing watercolors or scarves or writing. They would agree to abide by all of the standards and guidelines in place, particularly in spirit if not in exact detail, but basically they would get a pass to just create and display and sell their creations without the usual scrutiny. They would have earned this through their dedication and would be trusted to uphold the agreement to the best of their ability for the rest of their lives. Trust.

My main point here is that if you look at our organizations, we are all in agreement that we owe a lot to those who have built them with years and years of dedicated participation. If you sell somewhere for forty years, you understand how it works. You are part of it in so many ways that you can’t really separate your life from it, and it brings great sadness when you can no longer play your part. You need it. So let’s find a way for it to need you. Mutual support.

We can’t let our adherence to our rules allow us to discard people who can’t keep up. Standards change, juries get more demanding, and the organization and the elderly crafter begin to go in opposite directions. I will be able to do less as my organization asks me to do more. We need to think about our personal sustainability.

For each organization, there are going to be proposed policy changes down the line that are going to meet with resistance. My concept has already met with resistance, and my position is that those parts we resist are what we hold sacred. We need to identify those places where we get stuck because our concepts of them do not have any change built in. Turn the sacred upside down and take a good look at its underside.

For instance, with the OCF, the stated expectation of budget and management is that costs will continue to rise, so fees will continue to increase gradually, spread around the various types of members and guests so each contributes more in turn. My income, however, will decrease over that same time period. I just won’t be able to make more every year to cover the increased fees.

My OCF income pays for my property taxes and my entry fee to the Holiday Market. If I am to stay in my home and continue to sell at HM, I need that to stay in place. It will be a tricky dance. Similarly, to keep my reserve space at Market, I need a certain level of income there to make it work. Just doing these things independently as we tend to believe we need to, I won’t make it. I need my community to make this a more sustainable system for the aging crafter. Sustainability.

So my concept is that we market ourselves in a new way. I have a mental picture of people like Lotte Streisinger and Mary Lou Goertzen and Ayala Talpai and others sitting with their displays, bringing whatever they are currently working on, their books they have published, their teaching materials, and their skills and personalities to an honored place before the public. It would be clearly understood that they were in the category of a living treasure, no longer in the center of the general commercial mainstream but still a part of it, here by grace for some limited time only, to be celebrated and supported in style. If the items they could bring for sale were ten years old, that would just make them all the more valuable. Most of our crafts are one-of-a-kind, and that's just what many people want. Most of us would be able to find media to work in that would continue our productive lives, if it were easier to change in the marketplace.

Why not? We have to figure out what blocks us from putting this in place. There are quite a few areas where we run up on what I call sacred things. Some of these are equality, creating separate classes of vendors, the purity of standards, the control of juries, and changing policy just in itself, which is hard and takes a lot of discussion. We see resistance from those who have already managed to find ways to make it work for them and don’t want any special assistance. We come up on a lot of our fears, the simple fears of aging and death, of ill health, of dependence on others. We are a group that really likes being in control of our own lives and resists calling attention to our weaknesses and needs. But you can hear the fear and relief come out when people immediately start raising their objections and discouragement.

People have a prodigious level of ownership and dedication to both of our organizations. We want to contribute, to give of ourselves, and mostly we don’t want to take or get more than what we think is our share. But we have earned this. We have worked as long as these organizations have existed to make them work for us, and this is just a new wrinkle we haven’t fully considered yet.

It’s not a completely new idea, but it’s a bit new to us to focus on trust and accommodation and making a new set of rules that is less strict than the layers of rules we have worked so hard to put in place. I will quote Michael Bertotti here as I often have over the years: We keep making new rules but we don’t take away any of the old ones.

We keep layering up the restrictions and guidelines but we have a hard time stepping out of that to see the over-arching direction of what we put in place. We want to maintain an increasingly fine level of artistry and keep our marketplaces vital and full of the new and innovative. Our youth-oriented culture thinks we have to do that with young people, and old ones get shuffled off to the side rather than elevated. I really bristle when I sense that I am supposed to get out of the way, and when I feel pushed to meet a new set of expectations that wasn't in place when I started making whatever it is that is in question. I don't want to have to feel defensive.

I believe we are unintentionally making it difficult and ultimately impossible for ourselves to continue to participate meaningfully in what means the most to our lives. Let’s take a look at that. Let’s take the time to carefully examine and respond to our changing needs.

Our organizations are just over forty years old. That is still young, and we are beginning to mature but not there yet. This is an opportunity to put in place a vision that is cutting-edge in our segment of the culture. We need a retirement plan, or rather a refinement plan, because we aren’t going to be able to retire. We need a continuation plan.

I want to age in my place. I’ve carved it out, I’ve invested in it. I want to keep it. I need security, support, and vision to continue to inhabit the life I created. I am one of a large and growing group, and our membership is beginning to show that we are in crisis. This often means that we just die with a garage full of fabulous work that no one has seen, had a chance to own, or has any further purpose or meaning to anyone.

Let’s not abandon those of us who have put in the years. Our current rules and regulations do not allow enough flexibility for these individuals who are so deserving of our support and trust. Just start thinking about it; that is all that I ask. Add your vision to mine and let’s see if we can craft something that we will all be very proud of.