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While the rest of Brisbane was roaring for its state rugby team tonight, a ‘quiet revolution’ was taking place at the Queensland University of Technology Art Museum. Catriona Brown (left) had curated an exhibition Craft Revolution, which featured work from strongly located contemporary craftspersons and proud craft guilds. At a panel with Kylie Johnson (centre) and Robyn Daw (right), we talked about craft’s place in the world today.

There was much talk about the importance of craft as a form of local production. Kylie talked about resisting the lure of making her work off-shore. While local in ethic, there was great interest in the shared struggles with craft scenes in other countries, such as in Chile and South Africa.

Revolution? Well, it doesn’t have the extreme radicalism that you might associate with the term. There are no craft guerilla organisations blowing up art galleries or IKEA outlets. But there’s certainly a move to home-grown forms of resistance. Let them bake cakes!

Craft has much to live up to. Luckily there are some passionate advocates on the front line.