Editor’s Note: On March 8, we celebrate International Women's Day. In the week leading up to it, SaltWire Network is sharing stories written entirely by women that focus on this year’s theme: "A challenged world is an alert world, and from challenge comes change." Each day, we will tackle a different subject area as we celebrate women's achievements, raise awareness, and encourage our readers to take action towards equality.
For the past 49 years, the Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design has been helping people put their creative energy into use.
And it’s no secret that most of those people are women.
“Women are creators, that is without a doubt,” says executive director Lori Burke, who adds a recent analysis shows the centre's membership base is over 80 per cent female.
Throughout history, women have often been associated with crafts, probably because many crafts are practical objects that can be used in the home. If a family wanted clothes, the female members sewed or knitted them. Blankets were crocheted and rugs made from scraps of materials. Dishes were made from wood or clay pottery.
Just because these items have practical uses doesn’t mean they can’t be beautiful as well.
“We’re the caregivers, the ones who take care of the home and provide for the home,” says Burke. “You look at rug hooking. That was a needs-must craft so you had pieces of wool that you cut up to make rugs to keep the floors warm.
“Now, it’s become an art form.”
'Need to be creative'
The Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design was originally founded by a group of women who recognized that heritage craft skills were fading and in danger of being lost. After all, why learn to make a rug when you can buy one, probably for less money?
But saving money by buying a factory-made item isn’t always the point.
“I think women need to be creative,” says Burke. “They need an outlet for their voice and craft is a part of that. They want that joy and to express themselves in the making of a handmade object. And there is a freeing element in the making of an object.”
The need to express that creativity and make something unique still exists, even in a culture that embraces fast fashion and online shopping. The centre has long offered classes to anyone who wanted to learn such skills as knitting, weaving, rug hooking, ceramics, embroidery, block-printing, jewelry-making, art, and sewing at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.
Among those who have taken advantage of the classes are Debra Kirkpatrick and Karen Graham. In previous careers, Kirkpatrick was a health clinic administrator and Graham was a teacher. Now that they’re both retired, they have more time to devote to jewelry making, which they both learned at the centre.
“It’s really refreshing,” says Kirkpatrick, who has been creating jewelry for about six years and has never thought of herself as being an artist.
“You make interesting pieces of jewelry. And some things are mistakes and they turn out even nicer than the stuff you had thought about making. It’s just as wild as you can believe.”
Graham has been involved with the centre for about 30 years, learning every craft until she began her favourite, making jewelry, about 15 years ago. She now sells her pieces in the centre’s gallery.
“Everyone should have an outlet other than whatever you do every day,” says Graham. “You should have something else that you enjoy and go to, at least once or twice a week.”
Crafty career
While some go to the centre primarily to create something new and to learn another life skill, others take the skills they've learned and turn it into a career.
The centre is there to help you get started and to guide you through a series of business skills training programs that can help you promote and sell your craft.
“If you’re an entrepreneur or a craft entrepreneur, and you want to get a website to help with e-commerce, we have funding to help you do that or if you need a consultant to learn how to do social media marketing or to develop a business plan, we’re here to serve those needs,” says Burke.
Many approach it as a side hustle or a part-time job to make some extra money, perhaps selling items at seasonal craft fairs. But others approach it as a full-time career.
“It is a patchwork of employment,” Burke concedes. “So, maybe some of them are working seasonally, and the rest of the year they are working part-time on their craft careers."
But she adds, through the centre's membership, she knows there is also a large portion of full-time craft producers.
"Predominantly, we work from a business skills development and artistic development with professional artists whose careers are full-time in craft," Burke says. "And we support them in a variety of ways through programming, and we are starting to look more at how we can be supporting them from a creative perspective, not just an economic impact perspective, but how we can feed their creativity.”
Multicultural interests
In addition to business skills, the centre is also adapting and trying to meet the needs of today. They are in the process of hiring two Indigenous staff members who will develop programs and exhibit possibilities for the Island’s First Nations.
“Historically, this has been a very white organization, and we want to change that,” says Burke. “Although we do have some Mi’kmaw members here, we have not done a great job of working closely with First Nations communities in Cape Breton. So we are currently hiring for an Indigenous craft business skills co-ordinator and an Indigenous arts co-ordinator. They will work solely with First Nations craft producers, developing craft programs in the community and building an exhibition program to highlight and showcase their work.”
While the jobs are open to everyone, Burke wouldn’t be surprised if these two new positions go to women, who will join the rest of the centre’s all-female staff.
“I think women are naturally problem solvers. And I think when you’re a creative person, you’re a problem solver, you’re always trying to grow and develop and evolve - I think there’s a need within women to be that way, to take care and grow.”
Elizabeth Patterson is a culture reporter at the Cape Breton Post.
