There’s an exhibition on Folk Art at the Nordiska Museet that I thought my craft-y friends would particularly appreciate. Many people are struggling to figure out how “crafts” participate in contemporary culture, and I think the mission statements here will be inspiring to those who are on a quest to incorporate more handiwork into daily life. Of course, this – like many – is a gendered issue, as many of these crafts (especially in urban culture) involve textiles (knitting, crochet, weaving, embroidery) and are therefore seen as “girlie”. Part of my interest in the study of men’s clothing is to show how vital clothing (and other textiles) was to both genders for most of human history, and it is only recently that this work has been dismissed as less important. Another wonderful thing about Swedish culture is that textile arts seem to be taken as seriously as any other form of technology or engineering, at least in the museums I’ve seen so far. (Bonus of some 19th century knitted / embroidered mittens at the end!)
