Author(s)

Tao Huang¹, Eric Anderson²

¹Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA.
²Resilient Farms and Design Studio, Makanda, USA.

This paper discusses the importance and opportunities of design in helping to revitalize rural and marginalized communities where traditional arts and craft businesses often reside. It argues that traditional arts and craft businesses need to build a symbiotic relationship with the local communities to ensure the survival and thriving of both. It aims to demonstrate that designers should and can work traditional arts and craft business to better tell their stories and pursue new business opportunities with the goal to achieve sustainable development of these businesses and their communities. Through ethnography research and participatory design process, the paper presents the research team’s collaborations with a few traditional arts and crafts business owners in three communities and presents a few design concepts resulted from this process. It provides a list of suggestions based on the above analysis for designers who are interested in working as the link between business and traditional arts and design.

Revitalization, Business Model, Cultural Heritage, Rural Communities, Co-Design

Huang, T. and Anderson, E. (2019) Designing for Revitalization of Communities through New Business Models for Traditional Arts and Crafts. Art and Design Review, 7, 225-236. doi: 10.4236/adr.2019.74018.