VisualArts - Professional Associations

The Alberta Craft Council (ACC) is designated as one of the Provincial Arts Service Organizations by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and is a key player in promoting crafts. Founded by 17 organizations in 1979, the ACC was established at a time when a province-wide umbrella for craft organizations existed.

The ACC's purpose is to increase public awareness of crafts while facilitating professional development and the marketing of crafts within the province. With various works based on distinct traditions, and others based on the cross-pollination of disciplines, the ACC's space, which functions as both a store and gallery, always contains a wide representation of creative possibilities realized by its more than 500 members.

The ACC's Main Gallery exhibits six shows each year, while the Discovery Gallery profiles monthly works by emerging and experimental craft producers.

"Grain Elevator Tureen" by Bradley Keys.

Walking into the building, which is situated in downtown Edmonton, a person is exposed to an array of colours, textures and materials.

Purposefully constructed kettles with the distinct hue of patinas, intricately carved treasure boxes, and delicately tapered goblets can be found at the ACC shop. Works contained in the ACC's gallery and shop include clay and ceramics, hand blown glass, handmade jewelry, handcrafted furniture and fibre arts.

ACC activities aim at bridging cultural and commercial development. Understood within this context, the duality behind a space that functions as a venue for both exhibiting and selling crafts can be seen as purposeful.

Though the ACC is an arts organization, not all affiliated individuals identify themselves as artists, specifically. Some are considered artisans or crafts persons, while others, such as ceramists, blacksmiths, or weavers, self-identify through a specific craft.

Still, others use more ambiguous monikers such as fibre artist. This name could refer to someone who sculpts hand-dyed felt as much as it might refer to those who integrate swatches of fabric into a mixed media piece. Like individual imagination, the possibilities for ACC exhibited work are endless.

Serving its members in many ways, the ACC publication, Alberta Craft Magazine is distributed six times a year. It is the only magazine produced in Alberta that is wholly dedicated to crafts and acts as a source of information on events, exhibits, ACC news and general craft happenings in Alberta.