Canadian Handicrafts Guild

Demand for high quality products and a shift towards more "professional" craftspeople and modern designs placed stress on the organization.

[1] The Montreal branch held major exhibits of applied arts in 1900 and 1902, and in June 1902 opened a store, Our Handicrafts Shop.

[2] That year Alice Peck proposed that the Guild should start a permanent collection holding some of the best handwork.

It awarded prizes at annual competitions and ran educational programs, including classes for immigrant children and a weaving school.

[2] The Manitoba branch was formed in January 1928 by a group of over 30 women at a meeting in Winnipeg, led by Lady Constance Nanton.

The writer described the Handicrafts Association's aim as helping to sell the products of Canadian craftsmen and people making crafts for occupational therapy, such as disabled soldiers.

The association had a shop in downtown Toronto stocked with an array of products from the east, but so far with no western crafts.

[10] In May 1933 it was announced that the Canadian Handicrafts Guild had received letters of support from leaders and organizations across the country for their planned exhibition in Montreal for the end of October.

[11] Participating organization included the Guild's branches in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island, the Art Association of Montreal, the Women's Art Society, Montreal, and Union Catholique des Cultivateurs, the Handicrafts Association of Canada of Toronto and the Mount Allison Handicrafts Guild of Sackville, New Brunswick.

Products exhibited would include homespuns, tweed from a blend of angora and sheep's wool, Indian basketwork, hooked rugs, quilt, blankets and furniture.

Cape Breton Home Industries, founded by Mrs. Alexander Graham Bell, and the Mabel Hubbard Club of Montreal were now associated with the guild.

[15] In the early 1950s the Guild began to help the Inuit of Port Harrison, Quebec, to sell their arts and crafts.

[2] The Canadian Craftsman's Association was formed as an alternative national craft organization after the 1964 First World Congress of Craftsmen.