Jennifer J. Wilhoit

Common Ground Between Crafts Collectives and Conservation: Protecting Natural Resources Through Artisan Production Jennifer J. Wilhoit

Crafts collectives form as a survival strategy forartisans in remote areas of the U. S. and abroad. Often artisans are influenced by their ruralenvironment, using images of and resources fromnature in their work. Some coops are situated nearprotected areas with local residents as members; others draw members from a large regional area withno tie to a protected area. Yet in some crafts coopsin developing countries, members have incorporated aformal environmental agenda into the coop?s by-laws. This research explored two crafts collectives in theU. S. to learn how craftsartists understandconservation in this country. My inquiry focused onthe artisans? perceptions of their work, thecollective and their community in regard toconservation. The results showed that individualartisans highly value, and are knowledgeable about, their local ecology but do not take formalenvironmental action as a collective. I propose amodel for integrating the ecological, economic andsociopolitical actions of artisan members. Theimplications of this research for those concernedabout crafts and ecology are significant; there ispotential for collaboration between artisans andconservationists.