A MAKERSbank

CONTEXT: Currently in Australia 'governance' – Local, State  & National – and institutions are increasingly stepping away from funding cultural institutions and initiatives. Consequently aspiring 'makers' are finding it increasingly difficult to make their way in the world at a time when the the 'making' of things humanity needs is rich with meaning and when:

•... The haptic experiences to do with making is almost always so rewarding; and

•... The need to make things that fit a circumstance, no matter how seemingly trivial is almost always so rewarding; and

•... The need better understand material's 'materiality' currently is so pressing; and

•... The need better make places where people are secure and welcomed and overtly celebrated  is likewise so pressing; and 

all that makes more sense than perhaps ever in humanity's histories played out in a diversity of cultural landscapes. There is much to be said on all this and the opportunities to say them in our own voices is much needed. 

As Winifred West often said to anyone with an ear to listen ... "humans cannot perform miracles but we can create the circumstance within which they can happen."

Also, she also now famously said when speculating on STURT's future “… I do not know what it will turn into. That will depend upon the people who come and on changing conditions. I can foresee many possible developments. It might become a training school for teachers of arts and crafts. It might become an industrial concern. It might become a colony of artists and craftsmen, potters and printers… or of course, it may just go phut!” ... Winifred West, 1941

It is not beyond the realms of our imagination to say that IF a MAKERSbank were to be formed Winifred West might well utter such words. Nonetheless, it is imaginable that she would not be falling to act and she would be testing the idea among her network of supporters.

There is one more thing that might well be said here as well. That is the art craft binary can now be understood as a historical construct. It is often used in exclusionary hierarchy ways that privileges the so called FINEarts – intellectual, expressive, often male-dominated – over THEcrafts – functional, decorative, historically associated with women, domesticity, or indigenous cultures. This distinction is increasingly challengeable given the sexist, rankist, racist, and the colonial cultural cargo this 'movement' carries/carried – and rightly so.

There are strong arguments that suggest that the so called 'International Crafts Movement' of the of the 1960s, 1970s and into the1980s was fuelled by FIRSTworld cultural imperialism – neocolonialism in the wake of catastrophic conflict.

That movement saw a significant international revival and transformation of the crafts/makers movement, driven by reactions against mass production, the counterculture practices, and especially so with the emergence of studio craft as a legitimate art form. Interrogating all this is an idea that might yet launch a PhD or two and quite possibly a MAKERSbank may have a role to play in that possibility.

In an effort to overturn the possibly of a impending dystopia, makers and making have a role to play. A MAKERSbank may well provide the circumstances for a utopian like miracle in the 21st C.

As is often said ... WATCH THIS SPACE.

FORWORD: The Grameen Bank, a Community Social Enterprise ... MAKERSbank, founded by Muhammad Yunus [1]–[2] in 1983, is a specialised financial institution in Bangladesh that provides no-collateral MICROcredit to the rural poor, specifically women, to foster financial independence. It serves nearly 45 million people across 94% of villages [makers often] using a group lending model.

Key Aspects of a MAKERSbank [a bank to enable makers make, making work work]:

PURPOSE: Founded on the principle that loans are more effective than grants, charity to enable makers to focus on developing their makers practices.

TARGET AUDIENCE: Under served makers including makers surviving on social security, the untrained, the underemployed, and makers seeking training and experience.

NO COLLATERAL: A Community Social Enterprise [A MAKERSbank] does not require traditional collateral in order lend to makers as has been the case with the Grameen Bank. Such enterprises are underwritten by trust and respect.

MODEL: Community Social Enterprises use a group-based lending system with weekly installments, bringing services directly to makers to enable them to maintain their MAKINGpractices.

FINANCING: As is the case with the Grameen Bank, a proportion of loans should be funded by makers' deposits and interest income rather than external funding.

IMPACT: Empowering makers and communities' of makers to initiate similar institutions in many places as has been the case with the Grameen Bank.

NOTE TO WHOEVER ... Consider the CHURCHILL FELLOWSHIP ...  A massive public fundraising campaign, known as "Operation G" (for Gratitude), was launched. This included a nationwide door-knock appeal on February 28, 1965, which raised over £2.3 million—more than double the target.

THINKING ABOUT THE CIRCUMSTANCES FOR MIRACLES 

IF a MAKERSbank could possibly raise say $1Mil  the seeds could be sown to lend MAKERS the funds they needin the GRAMEENway to contribute to MAKING MAKING MATTER MORE!!!??? 

The story goes that it was high summer and Winifred West was encountered in the STURTgarden ein the arly morning watering a camellia tree that she had planted  near STURT Cottage in STURT's early days but had decided that it needed to be moved. With the aid of the Frensham Farm workers the tree was duly moved despite it being an inauspicious time to do such a thing.

 

When asked if she imagined that it could possibly survive she replied as she had in many times in a like circumstance ... ... "humans cannot perform miracles but we can create the circumstance within which they can happen." Well the tree did survive and it seems to be still standing to where she moved it notwithstanding the STURTpausing .....