American Craft

A close-up view of the Hartwell Memorial Window, a stained-glass panel likely designed by Agnes F. Northrop in 1917

Stunning Tiffany Stained Glass Debuts After 100 Years of Obscurity

The enormous, luminescent landscape spent nearly a century in Providence before its 2018 acquisition by the Art Institute of Chicago

A behind-the-scenes look at the installation of a massive piece of stained glass art inside the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas.

Celebrating America's Oldest Family-Run Stained Glass Studio

A new exhibition spotlights Judson Studios, the Los Angeles group that's been creating iconic pieces of art for nearly 125 years

Like the original show staged at what's now the Smithsonian American Art Museum, "Objects: USA 2020," hosted by R & Company, an art gallery in New York City, aims to bring American craft to a new generation.

The Groundbreaking 1969 Craft Exhibit 'Objects: USA' Gets a Reboot

More than 50 years later, the new show combines the works of 100 established and emerging artists

Jim McDowell holds his jug, “Emmett Till.”

How a Pioneering Ceramicist Is Using Pottery to Reclaim Black History

Jim McDowell, known to many simply as “the Black Potter,” is a ceramicist who specializes in a craft with deep connections to lost histories

Amelia Joe-Chandler, Hogan Teapot, 2013. Hammered copper and cast silver. 7.5 x 11 x 9cm. National Museum of the American Indian, 26/9781.

Learn the Powerful Story Behind This Handcrafted Diné (Navajo) Teapot

From the storage vaults of the National Museum of the American Indian, a small, copper sculpture points to a different sense of place

In honor of Black History Month, Etsy debuted nine online stores featuring work by Gee’s Bend quilters (including Doris Pettway Mosely, who is pictured here).

Thanks to Etsy, You Can Now Purchase a Gee's Bend Quilt Online for the First Time

The Alabama community of women quilters launched nine new Etsy stores in honor of Black History Month

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Artisan America

A year-long celebration of craft in the United States

At the Totem Heritage Center in Ketchikan, Alaska, Nathan Jackson wears ceremonial blankets and a headdress made from ermine pelts, cedar, abalone shell, copper and flicker feathers.

How Native Artisans in Alaska Bring Innovation and Humor to Their Craft

In Indigenous communities along the coast, a lively artistic movement plays with tradition

Cotton coverlet quilted in Texas, 19th century.

The State of American Craft Has Never Been Stronger

Today’s craft renaissance is more than just an antidote to our over-automated world. It renews a way of life that made us who we are

Mary Lee Bendolph, Blocks and Strips, 2002

National Gallery of Art Adds 40 Works by Black Southern Artists to Its Collections

The "milestone" acquisition includes works by the Gee's Bend quilters, Thornton Dial, Nellie Mae Rowe and James "Son Ford" Thomas

A "crazy quilt"—a chaotic style without repeating features—by an unidentified 19th-century artist incorporates politicians' campaign banner portraits.

The Surprisingly Radical History of Quilting

Works on display in an Ohio exhibition highlight political art by marginalized people

In a typical year, the Columbus Washboard Company in Logan, Ohio, sells about 80,000 washboards.

Only One Factory in the United States Still Makes Washboards, and They Are Flying Off of Shelves

Sales of the antique tools have boosted since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, with people wanting to avoid a trip to the laundromat

In the ninth edition of the Renwick Invitational, artists Lauren Fensterstock, Timothy Horn (above: Gorgonia 12, 2016), Debora Moore and Rowland Ricketts offer viewers entrancing new perspectives on the natural world.

Nature and Artifice Collide at the 2020 Renwick Invitational

In an era of isolated anxiety, “Forces of Nature” offers room to breathe

The liberal arts college is home to the country’s longest continuously operating broomcraft workshop.

This Kentucky College Has Been Making Brooms for 100 Years

Berea College's broomcraft program carries on an American craft tradition that’s rarely practiced today

For 12 days from October 13 to 25, the works of selected contemporary crafters (above: Lady Liberty by Patti Warashina) will be on sale through the Bidsquare.com platform.

For This Year's Crop of Smithsonian Craft Show Artists, the Pandemic Changes Everything

Ceramicist Patti Warashina, the winner of the show’s prestigious Visionary Award, reflects on how her artwork reveals the surreal of these times

“Freeman's Hands"

The Remarkable Life and Work of Guitar Maker Freeman Vines

For nearly half a century, the North Carolina native has created instruments out of found wood—including some from a notorious hanging tree

Chorus for Paul Mooney, 2017, made of antique quilt, assorted textiles, acrylic and spray paint. Most of the quilts used in Biggers’ works were donated or came from thrift stores.

Sanford Biggers' Quilts Carry Secret Messages

Inspired by antique “freedom quilts,” the artist stitches encoded icons into his own textured pieces

The Washington National Cathedral shrouded in scaffolding post-earthquake.

The Decades-Long Journey to Restore the National Cathedral

Craftspeople in the building arts are practicing “social distancing stone masonry” in safeguarding this cultural heritage

The Wisdom of the Universe (detail) by Christi Belcourt (Michif), 2014

Native Women Artists Reclaim Their Narrative

The first major exhibition of its kind, "Hearts of Our People," boasts 82 pieces from 115 Native women across North America

Tempestries representing daily high temperatures in Utqiagvik, Alaska, in 1925, 2010, and 2016 (left) and Death Valley, California, in 1950 and 2016 (right)

How Knitting Enthusiasts Are Using Their Craft to Visualize Climate Change

In these crafters' scarves and blankets, rows of color correspond with daily temperature

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