Makers of Scrapbooks

This post refers to my dissertation but is not really about my dissertation.

In my dissertation, I used the words artists, crafters, hobbyists, and handcrafters interchangeably when referring to scrapbookers. I found that scrapbookers consider their work to be both an art and a craft, which is consistent with previous research.¹ I also learned that not everyone who makes scrapbooks considers what they do to be scrapbooking or themselves to be scrapbookers. Scrapbooking is many things, which is why it is difficult to say definitively that it is art or it is a craft and so on. I would consider some of my own layouts as art (in my eyes…good enough to framed and hung up on a wall in my house). Some of my other layouts, well, they are done. They are scrapbook pages, but I would not consider them to be very artsy or artistic.

What do you think scrapbooking is? Is it art? Is it a craft? What is the difference between an art and a craft?

In Western Society, art is typically thought of as that which is exhibited and sold² and being housed in an art museum confirms its status as art.³ For the most part, scrapbooks are not exhibited or sold but that does not mean they are not a form of art. What do you think? Is scrapbooking art? Is all scrapbooking art?

Are we even scrapbooking? Is it more accurate to say we are album-making? In The Creative Memories Way, Cheryl Lightle and Rhonda Anderson encourage readers to refer to the activity as album-making because  “scrapbooking is viewed as a hobby or a craft, while making keepsake albums is about building connections enriching our lives, and leaving a lasting family legacy” (p. 4).

A fellow scrapbook blogger had a related post about what to call people who scrapbook a couple of weeks ago. Load of Scrap debated the terms scrapbooker, cropper, crafter, and scrapbook artist. Despite scrapbooker not being a real world (or dictionary official) as pointed out on Load of Scrap, I say that is what we are. Scrapbooker is the word I will be using on this blog until someone convinces me that another word is more appropriate.

The Point is…

The terms are used inconsistently and different thought communities want to prevent these terms from being diluted by others. Leisure activities done predominantly by women, such as textile art (e.g., quilting, knitting, crocheting), are typically not elevated from crafts to art by outsiders.² Outsiders (and even insiders) may reflect this line of thinking with regards to scrapbooking. Others suggest that scrapbooking of the past may have been a craft, but today it is “a sophisticated art form.”⁴ In sum, there is a hierarchy with art at the top and craft at the bottom. If this is the reality, then I personally, would like more of us to consider our scrapbooking as art. The major downside of this is that many people get turned off of scrapbooking and never take it up because they do not have the time to create works of art or they do not believe they are creative enough to do art. Crafts on the other hand, are things most people regardless of creativity, can do. Maybe it doesn’t even matter. What do you think?

References

¹Kelley, Ryan E. and Charles M. Brown. 2005. “Cutting Up with the Girls: A Sociological Study of a Women’s Scrapbooking Club.” in The Eastern Sociological Society. Washington, D.C.

²Nelson, Nancy J. , Karen L. LaBat, and Gloria M. Williams. 2005. “More than ‘Just a Little Hobby’: Women and Textile Art in Ireland.” Women’s Studies International Forum 28(4):328-42.

³Peterson, Karin Elizabeth. 2003. “Discourse and Display: The Modern Eye, Entrepreneurship, and the Cultural Transformation of the Patchwork Quilt.” Sociological Perspectives 46(4):461-90.

⁴Fantin, Linda. 2010. “Scrapbooking: The Decade of Documenting.” The Salt Lake Tribune, January 8. Retrieved February 16, 2010 (http://www.sltrib.com/athome/ci_14143276).