Craft might be seen as a domestic task, unlike art, a commercial, creative, or philosophical pursuit; thus, making friendship bracelets is craft, but intricate gold bracelets are art. However, this nuance is culturally contingent. In the Renaissance, sculpture was an art form done by specialised artists like Michelangelo, who were trained as painters, sculptors, and architects, three disciplines of fine art, as it may be defined today. Yet there is evidence that in Ancient Greece, sculptors and ceramicists may have been enslaved, of the lowest social class. In that period, the Muses were the divine patrons of the arts, and they represented music, poetry, and literature, however these have more recently been tucked into defined categories other than fine 'art'.
Women’s work is never art.
In spite of these differences, there is one constant throughout how we have defined art, and how we have defined craft: women’s work is never art. Whether you look at Penelope on her loom, or 'needleworking' in the 19th century, women’s labour over intricate designs has always been diminished as craft, not art, simply because it is produced in the domestic sphere to which women were confined. Like many debates, this ultimately comes down to a question of what art actually is, and who defines it.
While women’s 'education' would revolve around domestic tasks, often including pursuits such as quilt-making, embroidery, and music, upper-class men were educated in art schools, taught to produce work praised for encouraging philosophical introspection, encourage political commentary, and eventually define their period of history. Women and people of lower classes were financially and socially denied access to an artist’s education, and in turn, to the spaces, communities, and resources that enabled one to produce art rather than craft.
The redefining of terms and the revaluation of history has allowed women, often posthumously, to be recognised as great artists, not just skilled craftspeople. The Gee’s Bend quilts were produced by African American women, sold as products, but reclaimed as art and exhibited, quilts which continued cultural traditions established by their enslaved ancestors, produced on the land they now owned. Similarly, Mary Queen of Scots’ embroidery has been reviewed as a metaphor for her troubles: for instance, a crowned ginger cat playing with a mouse represents her relationship with Elizabeth I, rather than as an unimaginative recreation of a scene she once saw. Controversy, though, stems from the fact that this redefinition often requires the implicit sign-off from male artists and critics, rather than being recognised as a necessary recognition of women artists.
Modern art movements, from the turn of the 20th century, have also challenged traditional modes of art and their dominance in the art world...
Today, the very processes that excluded women from art are being overwritten; historically, there was a relationship between craft and the production of household goods - this lent value to embroidery, lacemaking, weaving, and knitting - all crafts that were laboured over by women in the domestic sphere. Now, many of these crafts are seen as an art form, even when they are innocuously intended simply as craft. Now, lots of homemade products can be made by machine, giving new perspective on the amount of time, skill, and effort that went into making them by hand. The act of handmaking something like a quilt or embroidering a scene requires intention and purpose, just like traditional art mediums. Modern art movements (from the turn of the 20th century) have also challenged traditional modes of art and their dominance in the art world, taking traditional crafts and bringing them to the forefront of the fine art world.