Made in America: Handwork 2026 invites Americans to discover, explore, and celebrate the country’s craft legacy
American Craft Council
Shivaun Watchorn
8/6/25
To celebrate American craft during the country’s 250th birthday, Los Angeles–based Craft in America has partnered with the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum to spearhead Handwork 2026, a yearlong initiative that includes new TV episodes, a book, craft tourism, a national exhibition, and much more.
Major partners, including the American Craft Council, Americans for the Arts, the Craft Emergency Relief Fund, PBS, and Ornament magazine, will help to organize and promote the initiative. More than 200 smaller regional craft museums and organizations will also participate in programming throughout the year.
“Craft is not nostalgic. Craft is alive,” says Carol Sauvion, founder of Craft in America. “That’s something we can be very proud of in our country.”
The initiative recalls 1993’s Year of American Craft, when Michael Monroe, then the chief curator of the Renwick, gathered 75 craft objects for display in the White House and brought the likes of Sam Maloof and Dale Chihuly into the storied building.
Visual arts consultant Harriett Green, who is an American Craft Council trustee, suggested doing something similar for the country’s semiquincentennial in 2026. Why not a full year of celebration of the craft that made—and continues to shape— the United States? Here’s what you can look forward to.
TV and Video. Starting in December, a four-part television documentary produced by the team behind the PBS program Craft in America will air on PBS and online, aiming to capture the full range of craft in the US with episodes titled “East,” “West,” “North,” and “South.” Three separate video initiatives—Handmade America, Craft Across America, and Crafting History—will also stream on PBS, YouTube, and Craft in America’s website.
A Book. To be published in spring 2026 by Monacelli Press, a book will feature under-told stories about craft histories, artists, materials, and processes.
Residencies and Education. Handwork 2026 artist residencies at select universities are being funded by the Windgate Foundation. Dr. Marilyn Stewart, an arts educator and textbook author, will oversee the creation of a curriculum for K–12 students that will “take a wide look at the history, cultural traditions, and impact of craft in the United States, from Indigenous origins until today,” according to organizers.
An Exhibition. The capstone of the project will be an exhibition at the Renwick Gallery, opening in November 2026, which will draw on the Smithsonian’s permanent collection and include 10 objects acquired specifically for the show.
Regional Programming. Organizers also hope to connect Americans to the country’s craft history through programming with regional partners. In Houston and upstate New York, for example, neighboring organizations plan to offer “craft trails,” where people can visit a handful of craft sites over a weekend.
Ultimately, the goal is to deepen Americans’ appreciation of the craft artists, materials, and processes that have shaped the country in its past 250 years, divided as the country may now be.
“Craft is unifying and craft is gratifying, and there aren’t many things in this world that have those two traits,” says Sauvion.
Shivaun Watchorn is associate editor of American Craft.
PBS America @ 250 Marks Nation’s Semiquincentennial with Expansive Programming
PBS Publicity
5/20/25
PBS America @ 250 Marks Nation’s Semiquincentennial with Expansive Programming Beginning Spring 2025 and Through 2026
ARLINGTON, VA; May 20, 2025 – PBS America @ 250 is a multiyear celebration of U.S. history, culture, and children’s programming, from spring 2025 through America’s Semiquincentennial in 2026 and beyond. As part of the largest national and local engagement effort in its history, PBS member stations will pay homage to the country’s founding with events in more than 75 markets nationwide. In addition, next summer, from June 27 through July 4, 2026, PBS will showcase a collection of its programming during a special week commemorating this important milestone.
PBS America @ 250, which was first announced in 2024, is designed to engage the country and inspire conversation around history and civics. In addition to tentpole programming like THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION from Ken Burns and Florentine Films, PBS KIDS, PBS LearningMedia, PBS Digital Studios, and PBS member stations will explore these topics at a national and local level.
With support from The Kern Family Foundation, PBS has launched the largest education and outreach effort in its history with THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. As part of the initiative, stations are hosting screenings and discussions with the filmmakers and historians. Events have already taken place in Richmond, Williamsburg, Boston, Lexington and Concord, Charleston, Raleigh, and Atlanta, with upcoming events in Dallas, Austin, Houston, and Charlottesville to name a few. A full list of events can be found at www.pbs.org/americanrevolution.
“PBS America @ 250 is an extraordinary undertaking, made possible by the dedication of our member stations, PBS LearningMedia, PBS Digital Studios, producers, and countless others,” said Paula Kerger, President and CEO of PBS. “I could not be prouder of the powerful content emerging from these collaborative efforts. Our nation’s history deserves to be honored, and through this work, we are doing just that. PBS was made for this type of national reflection.”
PBS America @ 250 programming will span across History, Music and Culture, plus programming from PBS KIDS. More titles will be announced on a rolling basis.
At the helm of the initiative is THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, a new six-part, 12-hour documentary series from Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt, which explores the country’s founding struggle and its eight-year War for Independence, premiering Nov. 16. A MORE PERFECT UNION: INSPIRING CIVIC & CIVIL CONVERSATIONS ACROSS AMERICA, a special from WETA in collaboration with the National Constitution Center that follows THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, examines how we think about America’s founding and how the ideas and values articulated 250 years ago remain relevant to conversations about governance today. It will premiere on Nov. 24.
HANDWORK: A CRAFT IN AMERICA 250 SPECIAL, a four-part series, will celebrate 250 years of handmade artistry with the first two episodes, “East” and “West,” premiering Dec. 19. Each episode is told through the hands of makers and explores ancestral traditions and modern innovation. Celebrating the significance of handcrafted objects in shaping and reflecting America’s diverse cultural heritage, these episodes are one part of HANDWORK: CELEBRATING AMERICAN CRAFT 2026, a multi-faceted, national initiative organized by Craft in America. Exhibitions and community events will be held nationwide in collaboration with PBS member stations, and educational programs for K-12 will be available on PBS LearningMedia.
LUCY WORSLEY INVESTIGATES: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, a two-part miniseries from BBC Studios marking the Declaration of Independence’s 250th anniversary, takes Lucy Worsley back on the detective trail as she uncovers why the British Empire, the most powerful in history, lost the War of Independence against a ragtag band of American rebels. This two-part special will premiere in spring 2026.
DECLARATIONS OF INDEPENDENCE, a documentary from VPM, Virginia’s home for Public Media, explores the American Revolution through the eyes of free and enslaved Black people in the 1700-1800s. It will premiere in summer 2026.
GREAT PERFORMANCES “SUFFS,” based on the Tony Award-winning musical created by Shaina Taub, tells the story of the passionate American women who fought for the right to vote and explores the triumphs and failures of a struggle for equality. It will premiere in spring 2026. ANTIQUES ROADSHOW’s “250 Years of Americana” special episode will feature items from 1775 through today, and a journey through time via material culture. The special will premiere in summer 2026.
PBS will bring back several AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: PRESIDENTIAL PROFILES, examining the history of the American presidency, in addition to several original films. CAPITOL CONCERTS 2026 will feature a variety of well-known musical artists to celebrate America.
PBS KIDS programming will feature MAP ZAPPERS, a new series from Arkansas PBS that follows three ordinary kids who stumble across a highly anticipated museum exhibit in Washington, D.C. that contains artifacts from every U.S. state and territory. When they accidentally activate a piece of technology that teleports, or “zaps,” all the artifacts back to their place of origin, the trio of friends travel across the country, recovering the lost artifacts and learning about what it means to be an American along the way.
Additional content from ongoing PBS KIDS series will be a part of the PBS America @ 250 initiative, including a special new episode from MOLLY OF DENALI, plus new civics-themed content from ROSIE’S RULES and ALMA’S WAY.
PBS America @ 250 will include an array of digital programs. ROGUE HISTORY, from PBS Digital Studios and PBS North Carolina, introduces audiences to the rebels and revolutionaries who lit the fuse 250 years ago during America’s fight for independence. Season 2 will premiere on May 28, on the PBS Origins Channel.
IN THE MARGINS, from PBS Digital Studios and WHYY, reveals lesser-known figures who made huge impacts on the shape of the country and tells stories that expand our understanding of American history. Season 2 will premiere on June 25, on PBS Origins Channel.
CIVICS MADE EASY is a digital series hosted by author Ben Sheehan that explains how the American government and the U.S. Constitution work. Produced by Second Peninsula, the team behind PBS’s BRIEF BUT SPECTACULAR, with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the series premieres June 26, on the PBS YouTube Channel.
As part of PBS America @ 250, PBS LearningMedia will help connect teachers and students to educational resources and learning events that draw from the broad range of new programming. Through curated, media-rich collections aligned to curriculum, PBS LearningMedia will help educators and students engage with this milestone moment in our nation’s history, inviting reflection, learning, and deeper understanding of how our past continues to shape our present.
Many of the 330 public television stations are partnering with educators and a wide range of local organizations to spark meaningful conversations about the nation’s founding and its evolving story.
SEE & SIP: Tea for Two and Afternoon Tea
KCRW Newsletter August 4, 2025
Ever thought of drinking your morning chai or bedtime chamomile out of a globe? Whimsical imagination comes to life with the Tea for Two collection, on display now at the Craft in America art gallery. From retro pots to rubber duck designs, each piece offers an avant-garde approach to the traditional teatime necessity. Then, top off your tea-riffic adventure with afternoon high tea at one of LA’s premier spots for sips, scones, and dainty sandwiches. Sounds like a perfect day brewing!
Playing with Fire
7/18/25
“By hammer and hand all craft doth stand,” says blacksmith Heather McLarty, paraphrasing “The Blacksmith’s Song” written by Moses Kipling in 1828. We’re standing inside her tipi in the sprawling Highland Park creative complex she shares with her husband, Troy Evans, an inspired and multi-skilled artist who incidentally made the tipi.
The Sioux-style tripod tipi (Evans is from northwest Montana) is sewn from 100 percent cotton—McLarty says they tried a cotton-hemp blend earlier, without success—and larger-than-life-size otters painted by a friend gambol across a few of the exterior panels.
The tipi, she says, offers her tools some protection from the elements. Many of the tools were made from iron by McLarty herself, and wear a coat of deep orange rust, ferrous turmeric.
“No jeweler would touch these tools,” she says, “but rust is inevitable, and it doesn’t stop me from working.”
McLarty will serve as the guest curatorial consultant for the upcoming exhibition “Tools of the Trades,” coming to Craft in America in September. Participating artists include Seth Gould, Tom Latané, Michael Sherrill, Liza Nechamkin, Dennis Dusek, Brien Biedler, and Andrea Harvin Kenington of NC Black ( a boutique tool company).
The announcement for the exhibition states, “Prior to today’s mass production, makers and artists fabricated their own implements as needed. In doing so, they might decide to add a bit of beauty to the functional with some decoration. Tools of the Trades celebrates the ingenuity born of necessity and the special narratives in the hand-crafted. The objects pertain to a wide scope of crafts: ceramics, textiles, hot glass, woodworking and metal, including the niche fields within them, such as ironwork or spinning.”
McLarty explains that working inside a space without walls “took some getting used to,” but the tipi’s flexible design, especially smoke flaps which can be easily raised or lowered to accommodate large pieces of steel, is in fact ideal for her process. This is especially helpful since she loves sheet-work, saying, “You can make anything with a sheet of steel, using it to create visual mass without actual mass.” One technique she uses to accomplish this is repoussé, meaning to push up from the reverse side. She’ll use a form shaped from pitch, a pliable mixture of pine resin, plaster, clay dust and some type of oil or fat, as the sculpting model around which the heated metal is shaped.
If all of this sounds medieval, or even more ancient, that’s because it is.
Blacksmiths, she says, are among the few craftspeople who not only make their own tools but also make tools for many other artisans. Smithing is traditionally associated with iron, but McLarty is deeply into steel, which is an iron-carbon alloy– preferably 18 gauge. She teaches workshops where copper—soft, forgiving, comparatively inexpensive—is used as an introductory medium, and she also works with bronze.
Among her specialties are railings and gates, which often integrate found objects. The gate to her home incorporates billiard balls as the street address numbers, and other gates, such as a 15-foot by 15-foot steel and copper entryway to the Occidental College Athletic Field, are even more fanciful.
To plan a railing, she makes what she calls a “story stick,” which is a length of pine used as a model, marked with the stairs and other aspects of the build. She says, “I’m not a linear person, and I don’t think in two dimensions. I may do a basic sketch, but really, to get started on a metal piece, I pretty much pick up a tool and start working.”
For the past century, sociologists have theorized that much modern angst arises from the fact that urban people rarely make things with their hands, with even manual laborers, such as assembly-line workers, producing only an isolated element with no sense of completion. Women have historically excelled in art forms and craft forms termed low resistance: cooking, baking, sewing, painting, embroidering, knitting, weaving, crocheting, quilling, clay sculpting, beadwork, jewelry fabrication. Whipping 18-gauge steel into submission requires an entirely different attitude.
Read the full article to continue.
Something for the Summer: Tea for Two at Craft in America
KTLA
Have ‘Tea for Two’ at Craft in America
Original post in Beverly Press Park La Brea News
May 15, 2025
Sharing a cup of tea with someone can be an intimate, resonant experience, and through the eyes of Los Angeles art collectors Gloria and Sonny Kamm, the dutiful, historically laden teapot can be a site of great visual and tactile expression, where the focus becomes evocative abstraction of its most standard features. Through Aug. 30, Craft in America welcomes the exhibition “Tea for Two: The Teapots of Gloria and Sonny Kamm.”
The Kamms are known and respected for collecting and commissioning studio craft teapots by a wide range of artists. Envision a teapot made of perforated clay or another made of heavily embroidered fabric or even one made of metal mesh and pistachio shells.
Gloria Kamm has called these concept teapots “delightfully useless” in terms of practical function. And yet in partnership with her husband Sonny, the Kamms see the function of a teapot less as a device for serving the beverage, but rather as a celebrated vehicle for expression. The hospitable and iconic teapot has a 500-year history and has been widely and wildly interpreted by artists and production houses alike. “Tea for Two” will feature a curated selection giving insight into the inclinations and motivations of the renown Los Angeles art collectors, whose collection also ranges beyond that of their teapots. The couple is also featured in one of the newest Craft in America episodes, “Collectors. “
Gloria Kamm regards contemporary, one-of-a-kind teapots as “containers full of ideas” where the artist has transmuted, by their hands, their worries, celebrations or ponderings into the object. The wide scope of styles and materials in the curated selection will not only cause visitors to marvel, but to also give greater consideration to the structure of a teapot: pot, handle and spout. The irreverent and whimsical interpretations of these integral parts will provide entertaining musing for viewers of all ages.
Boris Huang’s exquisite featherwork on display at Craft in America Center
1/18/25
Read original post on Art Daily here.
Huang’s recent feather work, made expressly for this exhibition, are on display at the Craft in America Center.
In Hawaiian culture there is a long tradition of feather garments made to protect and distinguish royalty, and more commonly known, feather leis are used to symbolize welcoming and compassion.
Boris Huang settled in Hawaii when he landed a good job after his education there. Taking interest in the local culture, he took a workshop on Hawaiian featherwork and became so enamored with the craft that he asked to apprentice with Hawaiian Feather Lei Master, Aunty Mary Louise Kekuewa. Over the five years of working with her, he mastered the laborious technique of individually tying single feathers to a net base to create leis, capes and other adornments.
The feathers Huang uses for his work are sustainably sourced from molting and other harmless means of gathering. Feathers from different parts of the bird have different qualities and these subtle variations become the basis for symbolic and aesthetic decisions.
Being from Taiwan, Huang’s work is set apart by his skillful blending of Eastern and Western featherwork traditions and aesthetics. Before passing away, his mentor gave him the encouraging words, “You’re not in the box; keep doing your amazing work.”
“What makes my feather artwork different from others is the skill passing and culture crossing between two different ethnicities. Thereʼs love, encouragement and home for a stranger like me to settle in, and thereʼs respect for [the Hawaiian] land and culture.” —Boris Huang
Feathers as symbols of yearning: Chris Maynard’s art at Craft in America Center
1/18/25
Original post on Art Daily here.
Imagine carving into a single bird feather with a surgical scalpel to cut several individual bird outlines. That is the art practice of Chris Maynard. Over his career, he has carved hundreds of tiny birds and arranged them into delicate configurations both contained in shadow boxes and scattered over wall installations. These configurations allude to a range of bird activities, from dynamic murmurations to the ecosystems they are part of. A selection of Maynard’s work, including an in-situ wall installation, will be on display at the Craft in America Center starting January 18, 2025.
Maynard carves feathers into intricate art and creates elegant arrangements in order to heighten awareness of their natural beauty. His work highlights the subtle patterns and colors of the feathers themselves, inviting the viewer to look deeply. For him, feathers represent flight, transformation, and a bridge between our present lives and our dreams.
“We want to fly but cannot.” he says. “But birds can, so their feathers become symbols of this yearning.
Feathers are perfect by themselves.” Presenting them slightly altered but still retaining their featherness, he encourages people to see feathers in new ways, promoting beauty and new connections.
Maynard works with feathers gathered sustainably from birds such as turkeys, parrots, peacocks, and many more. A conservationist at heart, many of the feathers are sourced from natural shedding, which means that the birds they came from may still even be alive today.
Birds were always a part of Maynardʼs childhood. As a young person, he took refuge in the woods around his home in Washington State where, his head nestled in moss, he observed the birds high up in the trees. He first began working with feathers at age 12.
Beverly Press: Craft in America Center opens colorful exhibit on paper art
9/12/24
Original post in the Beverly Press here.
The Craft in America Center is holding “Erik and Martin Demaine: Puzzling with Paper” from Saturday, Sept. 14, through Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025.
Father-and-son Martin and Erik Demaine are featured in the upcoming Craft in America episode, “SCIENCE.” The duo has a stimulating generative practice that blends disciplines from math to zoology.
They fold pieces of paper by hand along geometrically derived lines and transform flat sheets into intricately curved constructions. The works at the same time prove math theorems. They plot out the pattern of a sunflower’s face, improvise pathways of hot glass on paper, extract Shakespeare’s words and write programs that generate threedimensional and animated fonts.
The Craft in America Center also presents “Lorraine Bubar: Papercut Perspectives” from Sept. 14-Jan. 4. Bubar creates lush imagery reflecting the hierarchy and intricate patterns of nature through the cutting and layering of fine Asian colored papers.
Decorative Arts Trust – Understanding Craft: A new digital tool debuts
8/2/24
Read the full article by Emily Zaiden on DecorativeArtsTrust.com
Three years in the making, Craft in America is launching the first ever Craft Video Dictionary (CVD), thanks to support from the Decorative Arts Trust’s inaugural Prize for Excellence and Innovation. The CVD (accessible at craftvideodictionary.org) is a free online resource that gives the public direct, close-up views of the craft processes and techniques behind the decorative arts. Instead of words and images, CVD definitions are conveyed via video. Clear and concise, these segments are edited to focus strictly on the artists’ movements and the transformation of their materials. By providing an intimate lens into the artist’s studio, each video entry is an accurate look at how the objects in our world come to be and the skills handcraft really entails.
The CVD consists of techniques demonstrated by artists with expertise across the spectrum of the crafts and decorative arts. Ceramics, metal, wood, fiber, glass, and other materials are among the represented media. Terms range from sgraffito to shaping hot glass and from coiling fiber to fullering. Each video features an artist shaping their work through methods that are historic and also very much alive. These videos provide a bridge to the past and shed light on how people have created objects over the centuries. Craft is a continuum that spans time and connects cultures.
The roll-out of this new reference tool includes an initial batch of 100 video definitions, and 100 additional videos will be posted later this year. The first collection of videos begins to flesh out the specifics of art and craft making across materials and media, and there is so much more to be recorded. The CVD has the potential to include hundreds of additional videos featuring the work of artists from across the country and beyond.
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