Los Angeles, CA - Craft in America, a filmed journey to the history, artists and techniques of our nation’s rich craft culture, has been awarded television’s highest honor, the prestigious Peabody Award.
The award citation for the series noted, “This three-hour chronicle of America’s rich, ongoing traditions of weaving, quilting, woodworking and other craft art was as carefully wrought and as beautifully shot as its subject matter…visually elegant, the programs also allow the creators to explain the deeply personal perspectives that define their work.”
Craft in America is the result of a decade-long passion of Carol Sauvion, the project’s co-executive producer. Joining her in her effort were fellow Californians Kyra Thompson (co-executive producer and writer) and Jacoba Atlas, former PBS VP of programming and currently president of Creative Visions Productions. KCET, the Los Angeles PBS affiliate, is the presenting station for Craft in America. New programs in the series will air in primetime, nationwide on PBS in 2009.
Craft in America mirrors other, relatively obscure projects that somehow rise to the top. “I wanted to do a series to make people more aware of craft, which, while all around us, seems to be hiding in plain sight in our high-tech, drag-and-drop world,” Sauvion said.
Sauvion readily admits that a subject like the handmade would never have garnered attention had she not been in Los Angeles, a center of the entertainment industry. The exquisite production value of the series, shot in high definition by some of America’s best documentary film makers, among them directors Nigel Noble, Dan Seeger and Hilary Birmingham; cinematographers Don Lenzer, Peter Pilafian, Allen Palmer, and Steven Poster; composer Laura Karpman; and narrator Randy Oglesby, kept viewers in front of their sets for its three-hour premier last May.
Ancillary projects that expand upon the craft story, include the book Craft in America: Celebrating Two Centuries of Artists and Objects, written by Jo Lauria and Steve Fenton and published by Random House, Craft in America: Expanding Traditions, a traveling exhibition of craft objects touring US museums for two years, and an expansive website, www.craftinamerica.org.
The Peabody Awards, the oldest honor in electronic media, recognize distinguished achievement and meritorious public service by television and radio stations, networks and producers. The Peabody Board is a 16-member group comprised of television critics, broadcast industry executives and experts in culture and the arts. For more information about the Peabody Awards, visit www.peabody.uga.edu
