Craft in America

Craft in America, Inc. is an American arts nonprofit known for its award winning television series of the same name, Craft in American.^[1]

Craft in American is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded by Carol Sauvion in 2004. It is based in Los Angeles, California. The organization documents and promotes contemporary American and traditional craft practices through educational programs across various media. It aims to foster an appreciation for handmade craft, recognize the craft makers, and emphasize the cultural significance of craft in the nation's heritage.

Their television series began in 2007.^[2] It is shown on PBS,^[3] and is a winner of the Peabody Award.^[4] In 2020, Craft in America was awarded the inaugural Decorative Arts Trust Prize for Excellence and Innovation in connection with its plan to create a video dictionary of decorative arts tools, techniques, and materials.^[5]

The organization's projects include establishing the Craft in America Center in Los Angeles, California.^[6] The Center is used for hosting artist talks, curating exhibitions, authoring books, maintaining an archival library of books, magazines, DVDs and video footage on craft, and a website with further information on artists and craft organizations nationwide.

The Craft in Schools educational outreach program connects students to professional artists with workshops and talks to underserved public schools in the greater Los Angeles area. Education guides and various other resources are linked to the television series episodes for use in classrooms.^[7][8][9]

The organization received funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and additional support of private donors in 2005. It then began production for three one-hour television documentaries on American craft.^[10] Craft in America, the Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning^[4] PBS television documentary series premiered in 2007.

Each episode takes viewers inside the homes and studios of skilled makers who talk about the process of crafting handmade works. Over two hundred artists have been filmed so far, including MacArthur Fellows bead worker Joyce J. Scott,^[11] woodworker Sam Maloof,^[12] and blacksmith Tom Joyce.^[13] Other artists include birch bark basket maker Dona Look,^[14] and Mira Nakashima,^[15] daughter of furniture maker George Nakashima. Episodes have highlighted numerous schools and craft institutions committed to advancing and preserving American crafts such as Pilchuck Glass School, Pewabic Pottery, Penland School of Craft, North Bennet Street School, Renwick Gallery, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The series is notable for its diversity of native and multi-cultural craft artists and more widely recognized practitioners.^[16]

The episodes "Borders" and "Neighbors" cross the southern border of the United States for the first time, to focus on the United States and Mexico's shared history and influences. The project came about through Craft in America's participation in Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA,^[17] the Getty's exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with the city of Los Angeles, California. Producer and director Carol Sauvion described the episodes as carrying a message of international relatedness and cross-cultural exchange, affirming that there are no borders in art.^[18] The episode "Borders" features Mexican altar maker Ofelia Esparza, Mexican celebration Day of the Dead, American artist Kiff Slemmons, as well as other artists with a focus on cultural exchange between Mexico and the United States.^[19]

"Neighbors", also set in Mexico, features ceramic artists Carlomagno Pedro Martínez and Magdalena Pedro Martínez, and the work of American silver designer William Spratling. Its focus is the dialogue between Mexican craft artists and their American counterparts, including Judy Baca and the Social and Public Art Resource Center in Venice, California.^[20]

Episodes

• Lauria, Jo; Fenton, Steve (2007). Craft in America : celebrating two centuries of artists and objects : [... companion to the Craft in America PBS television series and to the traveling museum exhibition of the same name] (1st ed.). New York: Clarkson Potter. ISBN 978-0307346476.

• Official website