Revivalism, Labor, and Discourses on Craft in Indigenous Arts of Southwest Asia and North Africa: Then and Now

Beginning in the early twentieth century, British and French colonial administrations across Southwest Asia (Middle East) and North Africa embarked on campaigns to “revive” local decorative arts and craft traditions. These campaigns were a response to the increasing anxiety that indigenous handicraft traditions were in a state of decline. While often framed as a form of paternalistic care and protectionism, the regulation of local arts and crafts enabled the integration of artisanal production into western commercial markets. Building on a rich body of secondary scholarship concerning the modernization and regulation of textile, ceramic, carpet-making, and woodworking production regionally, this panel explores colonial discourses of craft through the offices, schools, workshops, societies, and supporting bodies that were established to oversee the documentation, preservation, and revival of local artistic traditions, then and now. Inasmuch as this panel examines how paternalism masked the economic exploitation at the heart of these projects, the panel also mines the historical record and reportage that asserts autochthonous peoples' voices and labor. How did colonial art infrastructures radically change, challenge, or undermine local artistry and craftsmanship? What were the long-term effects of colonial artistic interventions and what are the legacies of those incursions today? How did/do artists and artisans resist the restrictive frameworks placed upon them? How can we understand artists and artisans as engaging with a decolonial or anticolonial politics, broadly?