June 10, 2010; Source: Voice of America | While the world can always use innovation, when our valuing of what is new is out of balance with preservation, stewardship and endurance, we begin to lose our bearings. This article describes a Native American Arts Cooperative in North Carolina, where business is good even during the recession. Qualla Arts and Crafts not only helps market the work of local artists but it also trains people in traditional crafts such as the Cherokee double-weave basket and helps them with such stuff as locating the raw materials they need to make the high quality enduring pieces displayed in the shop, many of which have useful functions. According to this article, the search for the traditional and long-lasting is common during economic downturns and creating spaces for teaching and creating lasting beauty is forever.—Ruth McCambridge
About The Author
Ruth is Editor in Chief of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.
