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WhyNotThink's avatar

Hello Alanna Green, (Is Principia the College in Missouri?) I tried to get admitted there eons ago. I didn't make the cut.

I appreciate everything your write and the efforts of Stand-United. I also painted for years, and plein-air and other techniques, and now I love making music. But never as my principle activity.

I have a German friend, Peter, who recounts his story of 25 years or more, of buying and commercializing beautiful and authentic craft work, (skills many 100's of years in development), from the indigenous people in Mexico and Central America. His house is still loaded with art, many decades after. It was really big-time, with a chain of trusted suppliers, and shipping 4 - 6 - 40 foot containers to Germany, where he had a whole network of customer craft stores buying whatever he could send. It is so amazing to hear his stories. Lots of ceramics, complex dolls and puppets. Everything imaginable.

But then he tells how it gradually all fell apart. Certain Mexican craft centers started supplying with knock-offs from China, cutting down the prices, until the real craftsmen were driven out of business. The quality was not comparable, but only the connoisseurs looked that closely.

At a certain point all of those skills of excellence were erased, since nobody took up apprenticeships to learn the methods. They didn't because they couldn't survive on it. It is gone now, - forever.

I want to know about indigenous culture, indigenous society and life-styles. How will they back up crafts, to ensure a positive growth in the coming future?

Thanks

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