by: Noelle Backer

Last August, I spent four days with Army Arts and Crafts Program representatives from around the world during their annual training week. For those who don’t know … yes, the U.S. Army has a Crafts Program. It was created as a way to help boost soldier morale in preparation for World War II and has continued to grow for over 60 years.

During the training, representatives learned new methods of promoting the Army craft centers, new ideas for classes to offer, new ways to organize inventory and customer mailing lists, and even shared ideas for shop layouts and moving slow-selling inventory.

The training week was held in Fort Hood, Texas, the largest active-duty, armored military installation in the United States. The hottest and most humid weather I have encountered aside, it was an experience I will never forget.

We were put up in what resembled my first college dorm, inside and out, with the exception of the rooms themselves, which were as nice as many hotel rooms. I even had the same strange, nervous feeling I remember having on my first day at college … as I walked down the very long, shiny, white-tiled corridor to my room in Keith Ware Hall.

I think the uniformed soldiers gathered on the couches in the “lobby” and the two riding in the elevator with me were what had unnerved me, thinking about what they were there for, what they were training for. It also made me realize for the first time the strangeness of the union of these two entities: military and craft.

As conference participants sat inside and talked about craft, craft marketing and even attended workshops, I thought: Just beyond these walls, soldiers are setting up camouflage tents, driving tanks, going through weapons training, and the like. That thought also made me realize the importance of the Arts and Crafts Program … inside the workshops, my thoughts were focused mostly on what I was creating … I forgot about the tanks outside, the helicopters, about being in a strange place … and I forgot about being a little homesick. This is the very essence of the U.S. Army Arts and Crafts Program.

Especially today, with current military challenges, the crafts program seems to reflect so much about the United States — that its military offers such a program, that its soldiers’ welfare is considered to such an extent.

As it says on the Army’s Morale, Welfare and RecreationDepartment’s (MWR) Web site (www.armymwr.com), “To quantitatively state the overall impact of this program on the world is impossible.” … I am still realizing the more tangible scope of the program, learning more about it each year, and about the truly inspired artists and non-artists behind its operation.

As I rode in the van to the airport to head home, my head was spinning. I am still amazed about all that goes on in what seems like an entirely different world from the one in which I live.

If you feel you’re in need of a little amazement yourself, visit the MWR Web site and read about all of its programs. There’s a long but interesting explanation of the evolution of the Arts and Crafts Program from its informal beginnings. You can find it under “Recreation/Arts & Crafts.” It is worth reading for things like this:

In August of 1944, the Museum of Modern Art, Armed Forces Program, organized an art center for veterans. … Soldiers were invited to sketch, paint, or model under the guidance of skilled artists and craftsmen. Victor d’Amico, who was in charge of the Museum’s Education Department, was quoted in Russell Lynes’ book, “Good Old Modern: An Intimate Portrait of the Museum of Modern Art,” as saying: “I asked one fellow why he had taken up art and he said, ‘Well, I just came back from destroying everything. I made up my mind that if I ever got out of the Army and out of the war I was never going to destroy another thing in my life, and I decided that art was the thing that I would do.’ ” Another man said to d’Amico, “Art is like a good night’s sleep. You come away refreshed and at peace.”

 

FEBRUARY 2002 : TABLE OF CONTENTS