New hires at Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design will support Indigenous artists and crafters – TheChronicleHerald.ca

SYDNEY, N.S. —

The Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design is hoping to attract a broader, more diverse swath of the island’s artists and crafters with the help of two newly created positions.

Executive director Lori Burke says a survey of the centre’s membership last year showed that it did not truly reflect the peoples and cultures of Cape Breton or its craft sector.

With this in mind, in the winter of 2020, the centre hired an Indigenous facilitator, and through roundtable discussions and focus groups in First Nations communities, identified what artists and makers needed and wanted to support the growth of their artistic practices and creative businesses.

Around the same time, the Cape Breton Partnership conducted a study looking at barriers for female Indigenous entrepreneurs and found that 52 per cent of participants identified art and crafts as the sort of creative business they would like to pursue.

Read More: https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/lifestyles/regional-lifestyles/new-hires-at-cape-breton-centre-for-craft-and-design-will-support-indigenous-artists-and-crafters-559148/