TH E W ID E W O RLD OF C R A F T
Montreal,
Quebec:
Haven for
Craft, City
of Glass
S T O R Y BY
James D. Campbell
N
S
Explore Montreal! Visit
aniericancraftniag.org
for even more informa-
tion and photos. Click
on our Wide World
of Craft interactive map
and find recommended
places to rosit, shop,
eat and play!
Montreal, the largest primarily French-
speaking city after Paris, is one of the most
vibrant multicultural cities in North Amer-
ica. Montreal’s unique linguistic history
contributes hugely to its cosmopolitanism.
Its cultural life is rich and layered, and its
museums and galleries have achieved inter-
national renown. Among its many attrac-
tions, the city is also a magnet for craft artists
pursuing cutting-edge work.
Vanessa Yanow, a glass and textile art-
ist-designer, jeweler, painter and sculptor
knows the city’s craft landscape like the
back of her hand. “Montreal fosters the
birth of fine craft artists,” claims Yanow,
citing the post-secondary educational
system, known as
CEGEP,
which is unique
to Quebec and is an interim zone between
high school and university. It offers a great
many art and trade-based programs and,
because it is basically free, it allows a broad
cross section of the population to get an
education in glass, ceramics, textiles, wood-
working, welding and the like. The city’s
focus on teaching the trades and fine craft
facilitates a more financially secure future
for such workers and results in a milieu
hospitable to aspiring artists.
The city offers generous funding for
emerging artists and, more particularly,
for young entrepreneurs working in craft
art, thus encouraging artists to stay once
they’ve launched their careers. Quebec’s
parental insurance plan, the practice of
offering maternity and paternity leave to
the self-employed, also enables the arts as
a viable career choice. Whenever Montreal
and Quebec craft artists exhibit elsewhere
in Canada, Yanow points out, they are
singled out. “There is an indescribable cre-
ativity to the work that is distinctly theirs,”
she says. This might have to do with an
indigenous love for craft art on the Fran-
cophone side going back centuries. In
any case, it signals a surpassing ingenuity
at work in artistic production here.
The many artist-friendly neighborhoods
in Montreal include the Plateau Mont-
Royal, Mile-End and the Park Extension
districts, to name a few. Since 2001, Yanow
has managed the Long Haul, an artist col-
lective in the Park Extension. It provides
Left:
Vanessa Y anow
A nthozoa II ,
2008, flame-
worked glass, heat-set
organza, fabrics, flock,
metal magnets, aquari-
um pebbles, dimensions
variable.
Opposite top:
Vanessa Y anow
U nb ridle d Fecundity,
2008, flame-worked
glass, sand, wire, thread,
fabric, down, magnets,
18 x 18 x
4V2
in.
068 amcrican craft june/julyio
www.WorldMags.net & www.Journal-Plaza.net
Yanow photos A. John Tinholt.
