America 250. Craft in America Center: Cowboy Craft & Handwork

KTLA
By Gayle Anderson
8/7/26


The Craft in America Center in Los Angeles is hosting the “Cowboy Craft: Traditional Art of the West” exhibition and “Marques Hanalei Marzan: Entwine,” a solo mainland exhibition showcasing works by the renowned Honolulu-based Native Hawaiian fiber artist and cultural practitioner.

The two artists are featured in the AMERICA 250 Craft in America’s Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026 celebration of artists across the country, whose goal is to get the next generation to spend less time on screens and more time learning and studying the crafts that have last more than 250 years.

The Craft in America Center in Los Angeles will host the free Cowboy Art Talk #2 online via Zoom on Thursday, August 13, 2026, from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM PDT. This online event features silversmiths Beau Compton and Scott Hardy alongside rawhide braider Leland Hensley.

There will be a Q & A at the end of the presentation.

Registration is required at craftinamerica.org.

Original article and video here.

New Book on Handcrafted American Objects Highlights Jewelry

National Jeweler
By Natalie Francisco
8/6/26

Los Angeles—Craft in America, a nonprofit arts organization that promotes and advances original handcrafted work through media programs, has released a new book centering items made by hand in America.

“Handwork: Handcrafted Objects that Made America” is the official book created to accompany Craft in America’s yearlong initiative, Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026.

The initiative celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence by featuring hundreds of museum exhibitions and events, a four-part PBS docuseries, and specially designed educational components.

The book highlights America’s spirit through ordinary, surprising, and overlooked handcrafted objects, including jewelry, from before 1776 to today.

Craft in America said the book is essential reading for anyone curious about American history, design, material culture, or craft.

It covers the multiplicity of cultures that have made America and uncovers stories behind objects that shaped American life and reflect innovation, resistance, artistry, and community.

“Handwork: Handcrafted Objects that Made America” is divided into four curated sections, “Dwell,” “Feed,” “Furnish,” and “Adorn.”

The Adorn chapter holds the many jewelry features, including a turquoise brooch from the Sinagua people (1200-1450), a Diné squash blossom necklace, an 1807 mourning pendant, and contemporary pieces by Joyce J. Scott.

Throughout the book, there are more than 100 pieces of art ranging from early Colonial American silver candlesticks to a nineteenth-century Kiowa cradleboard and an antique Hawaiian surfboard.

The included contemporary artists show how craft traditions live on as a testament to the human ingenuity that continues to shape American culture, said Craft in America.

As for the jewelers, work by Frank Gardner Hale, Jan Yager, Bééshłigai ííł’íní Ałts’óózígíí (Slender Maker of Silver), and Scott are shown in the book.

Several objects from the book have also been shown in Craft in America’s episodes or exhibitions this year and related objects are on display at the Craft in America Center in Los Angeles, including pieces by Joyce J. Scott, Ehren Tool, and Consuelo Jimenez Underwood.

Alongside the imagery are essays from 40 experts—craft artists, scholars, curators, and administrators.

“Handwork: Handcrafted Objects that Made America” was edited by Emily Zaiden, the director and lead curator of the Craft in America Center.

Zaiden oversees public programing, including the creation of the online Craft Video Dictionary.

For the book, she also wrote the introduction, which speaks to her editorial approach of “placing on equal footing the everyday and the ordinary, the overlooked and disregarded, and the exceptional and acclaimed.”

The book’s forward was written by Carol Sauvion, an American crafts scholar, the creator of the Peabody Award-winning PBS series “Craft in America,” and the founding director of Craft in America.

The 320-page hardcover book was published by Monacelli, a Phaidon Company, and released on July 29.

It retails for $54.95 and is available through Phaidon, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.

Original article here.

Craft in America showcases cowboy art

Beverly Press/Park La Brea News
7/23/26

Craft in America Center is presenting “Cowboy Craft: Traditional Art of the West,” an exhibition featuring works by members of the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association, through Sept. 12.

The exhibition includes more than 30 handcrafted pieces showcasing traditional Western craftsmanship, including finely tooled leather saddles, hand-forged spurs, intricately braided rawhide works and vintage miniatures. The works highlight techniques that continue to be practiced by contemporary artisans.

Featured artists include Wilson Capron, Beau Compton, Shawn Didyoung, Carol Gessell, Scott Hardy, Bill Heisman, Leland Hensley, Larry Lorang, Pablo Lozano, Ernie Marsh, Luis B. Ortega, Cary Schwarz, Jorge Tello and John Willemsma.

The exhibition is accompanied by a series of artist talks offering visitors an opportunity to learn about traditional cowboy arts directly from participating makers.

The first online discussion will be held July 23 from 11 a.m.-noon and will feature bit and spur makers Wilson Capron and Ernie Marsh, along with saddle makers Carol Gessell and John Willemsma.

A second online program is scheduled for Aug. 13 from 11 a.m.-noon with silversmiths Beau Compton and Scott Hardy and rawhide braider Leland Hensley.

The series concludes Aug. 22 from 3-4 p.m. with saddle maker and leather artist Cary Schwarz, who will present a program available both online and in person. Those wishing to attend in person are asked to RSVP by emailing rsvp@craftinamerica.org.

Craft in America Center is located at 8415 W. Third St.

For information, visit craftinamerica.org/center.

Craft in America explores threads of culture

7/9/26

An exhibition highlighting the work of Hawaiian artist and cultural practitioner Marques Hanalei Marzan recently opened at Craft in America with an artist talk and reception.

“Marques Hanalei Marzan: Entwine” examines the artist’s use of traditional Hawaiian fiber techniques alongside contemporary interpretations of body adornment and sculptural form. Inspired by childhood curiosity about the construction of his grandfather’s lauhala hat, Marzan pursued instruction in weaving and related fiber arts passed down through generations of Native Hawaiian practitioners.

The exhibition features works created with hand-cut pandanus leaves and incorporates techniques including weaving, knotting, twining, and looping. Marzan also works with materials such as coconut fiber, cotton and wire.

Born and raised in Kāneʻohe, Hawaiʻi, Marzan is recognized as a Hawaiian cultural practitioner, educator and contemporary visual artist. He trained with master weavers Julia Minerva Kaʻawa and Esther Kakalia Westmoreland and has become known for promoting sustainable gathering practices, perpetuating Hawaiian fiber techniques and mentoring students within his community.

Marzan currently serves as cultural advisor and the Wayne Pitluck and Judith Pyle Curator for Cultural Resilience at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. In that role, he works to integrate Indigenous perspectives and practices within museum settings while supporting cultural practitioners and community engagement with traditional knowledge and artistic expression.

The exhibition is also part of “Handwork 2026,” a nationwide semiquincentennial collaboration focused on the significance of handmade artistic practices and the diversity of American craft traditions.

Craft in America is located at 8415 W. Third St.

For information, visit craftinamerica.org.

Opening Reception—Marques Hanalei Marzan: Entwine

Discover Los Angeles
6/12/26


Opening Reception—Marques Hanalei Marzan: Entwine
Craft in America Center
Los Angeles 90048

“Marques Hanalei Marzan: Entwine” features work by the renowned Hawaiian culture bearer inspired by age-old indigenous fiber techniques such as weaving, twining and looping techniques resulting in exquisite, contemporary forms.

Marzan will give an artist talk before the reception 3:00-4:00pm. Please email rsvp@craftinamerica.org. Both events are free.

Original post here.

‘Handwork 2026’: Year-long initiative explores handmade American artforms

LA Downtown News
By Jessica Koslow
6/8/2026

Earlier this year, while speaking with teachers at the National Art Education Association conference, Ann Ruhr Pifer learned that today’s students seem hungry for craft activities in a new, different and more intense way.

“One teacher said she had a bunch of art activities in her room, and all the students go for the sewing activity, especially the ninth-grade boys,” shared Pifer. “She didn’t see that coming. We talked about how we feel it’s a reaction against—or perhaps a counterbalance to—the pervasiveness of digital experience in their lives.”

As of January 2026, Pifer, along with Robyn Hollingshead, is the co-executive director of Craft in America, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit arts organization that promotes original handcrafted work through programs in all media. The group is responsible for 35 episodes of the Peabody Award-winning, Emmy-nominated documentary series, “Craft in America,” on PBS, a YouTube channel and multi-disciplinary educator guides. The Craft in America Center in Los Angeles hosts exhibitions, talks by artists and scholars, workshops and K-12 school tours.

Coinciding with America’s 250th birthday and running all year long, “Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026” is Craft in America’s most ambitious initiative yet, featuring four new episodes of “Craft in America” titled East, West, North and South; a publication, Handwork: Handcrafted Objects that Made America; and events taking place across the country in partnership with nearly 300 organizations.

The seeds for “Handwork 2026” were planted by Craft in America founder Carol Sauvion about three years ago in a planning committee.

“The idea was to raise public awareness of craft in connection with the semiquincentennial of the country,” said Pifer. “Craft is woven through our history: Paul Revere, who was a silversmith, was renowned not only for his role in the Revolutionary War but also his remarkable silverwork. The semiquincentennial seemed like a good time to create a collaborative effort to celebrate craft.”

One of the main goals of “Handwork 2026” is to draw in the participation of museums and craft and art schools and galleries across the United States. The Craft in America team lightly curated the partnering organizations and their 2026 events, which are all featured on the Handwork2026 website. There is no cost to participate.

“It’s just all of us coming together making a big noise about craft,” Pifer said. “We had one person call a couple of weeks ago who said they were going to visit Pittsburgh for the first time on a craft tour, and they wanted to know about all the craft organizations and places to visit in that area, and I said, ‘Great, here’s the map.’”

Pifer, who started her career in commercial banking for 15 years, has always loved and appreciated craft — from America and around the globe. She joined the Craft in America board around 2010, and when Sauvion, the former executive director, was preparing to retire, she asked Pifer and Hollingshead to consider taking over as co-executive directors.

Pifer was based in Minnesota and Hollingshead in LA. The likeminded craft gallery owners connected in 2004 and had since then been thinking about how to foster an appreciation of craft, promote craft and support craft artists and galleries.

“It’s been wonderful to see all the partnering organizations come together and join this handwork effort,” said Pifer.

In May, Quilting for Community, which offers free and low-cost classes in Chatsworth, hosted the Gee’s Bend quilting experience. Mary Ann Pettway and China Pettway shared personal history, family stories and the context behind the quilts and traditions of Gee’s Bend on the Alabama River.

The Craft in America Center is presenting two upcoming exhibitions, “Cowboy Craft: Traditional Art of the West,” featuring nine artists including Cary Schwarz, the saddle maker spotlighted in its WEST episode that aired in December, and “Marques Hanalei Marzan: Entwine,” a Hawaiian artist who also appeared in the WEST episode. The opening reception for both exhibitions will take place on June 13 from 4 to 6 p.m., and Marzan will give an artist talk at 3 p.m.

Craft Contemporary’s (formerly the Craft and Folk Art Museum) newest exhibition, “tierra,” expands its focus beyond ceramic and clay as a singular medium to encompass broader practices grounded in land and earth.

“Craft and the arts more broadly are an important part of life for everybody in our society,” Pifer said. “They make life richer. Craft is frequently deeply connected to the cultural roots of people in a place. It’s a part of what makes us human, our historical family, cultural roots. In the present moment, artistic expression and craft, both the objects and the artists who make them, all of us who like making things with our hands, is more important in an age where so much is digital, in an age of AI, where we’re all questioning, what’s real? I think there’s a hunger among people broadly because of that for things that are tangible and beautiful and meaningful. I see a real groundswell of interest in both appreciation for craft and in getting one’s hands into craft and doing it.”

Original article here.

COMING JULY 29 | Handwork: Handcrafted Objects that Made America

Elysian Valley skateboard brand lands in L.A. art exhibit

By Brenda Rees
May 1, 2026

Elysian Valley—When it first happened, Ryan Anderson wasn’t fazed. But when people kept grabbing his DIY skateboard at coffee shops and other spots, marveling at the dozens of circular holes on the deck and wanting to try it, Anderson realized he was on to something.

A decade later, Anderson and partner Russell Hill at Rad Furniture have a famous skateboarding brand on their resume—one that’s literally gallery worthy.

Anderson and Hill grew up in 1980s San Diego as part of the skateboarding and BMX scene, and they founded Rad in Austin, Texas. When they moved their furniture manufacturing business back to LA in 2015 and to Frogtown in 2017, they decided to reconnect with their California roots. So they fashioned a skateboard from a piece of scrap metal.

“It was just intended to be fun, but people really responded to it,” Anderson said. “The attention caught us by surprise.”

The challenge became turning that rough prototype into a product. To make the material more environmentally friendly, they moved from metal to repurposed nylon fishing line. It was injected into the grooves of an iconic skateboard shape, but with an airy, perforated, lightweight twist.

The boards, under the Rad spinoff Lander, are sold worldwide through skate shops and online. In addition to being purchased by fans for decks at $75 and complete sets at $145, they are included in a new exhibit at Craft in America in L.A.’s Beverly Grove neighborhood. The art gallery show “Vehicles of Expression: The Craft of the Skateboard” chronicles how skateboarding evolved from its Southern California DIY roots, which offer clever innovations and artistic interpretations. The show runs until the end of May.

Anderson calls the exhibit the “perfect venue” to tell the story of their skateboard. On display is that first board, welded in 2015, and later prototypes showing the growth of the line.

Anderson thinks even non-skaters will appreciate the exhibit.

“There’s a lot to respect about the craft and ability to skateboard,” he said. “You can be standing up one second and on your back the next. That coolness will never go away—and being on a skateboard is the easiest way to feel like a kid again.”

Original article here.

From repurposed wheels to shag carpet, a new exhibit looks at the origins of skateboards

Spectrum 1 News
By Tara Lynn Wagner
April 10, 2026

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Before they were a 3-and-a-half billion-dollar global industry, skateboards started with the humblest beginnings.

“They’re definitely tiny,” Emily Zaiden said, looking at two small handmade skateboards from the mid-1900s.

Zaiden is the director and curator of the Craft in America Center. Their current exhibit, “Vehicles of Expression: The Craft of the Skateboard,” sees skateboarding as a craft story — one driven not initially by artisans but by kids using repurposed wheels.

“[They] were detached from roller skates and attached to planks of all kinds,” Zaiden said. “Any kind of discarded wood, everything from old furniture that people would break down, and then nail those roller skate wheels onto them.”

Using so many nails.

“Beautifully spaced as far as those nails,” she said. “So there’s some craftsmanship involved in that, certainly.”

Over time, the wheels evolved from metal to clay to urethane. The shape and use of boards changed as Southern California became the epicenter of skateboard manufacturing and culture.

But what never changed, Zaiden explained, is the way skateboards were used as a way to showcase one’s personal identity.

“The idea of decorating the surface of a skateboard is something that was there all along,” she said. “It was this extra canvas, essentially, for expression.”

One from the 1960s, for instance, is actually covered in shag carpet. Zaiden can’t help but laugh.

“The creativity, the humor, the outlandishness and just total fun of what you can do with a skateboard,” she said. “And that was what we really wanted to highlight with the show: the range of creativity.”

Mark X Farina is one artist involved in the exhibit, which, in addition to skateboards past and present, also includes conceptual works of art.

“I think growing up, other than comic books, skateboards were my first intro into seeing art and art that was nontraditional,” he said.

Farina, a longtime resident of SoCal, actually grew up skateboarding in Western Pennsylvania.

“We would just find the largest hill we could and try to survive going down it,” he said with a laugh. “One of my first skateboards had California Dreaming cut out of the grip tape. It was destiny, maybe, that I made it out here to California to live.”

Farina still rides between his home and his art studio on the west side, where he creates what he calls unrideable pieces — attaching wheels to found, often natural materials like palm fronds or coconuts, even tribal art and taxidermy.

He’s not just fascinated by skateboards as objects, but also by the world around them.

“Looking at that culture and looking at the art that came from the streets and into skateboarding is really inspirational,” Farina said.

The free exhibit is open to the public, and Zaiden loves hearing from visitors about their own memories, which they happily share, caught in the nostalgia of the display, which includes many pieces on loan from the Skateboard Hall of Fame in Simi Valley.

What You Need To Know
“Vehicles of Expression: The Craft of the Skateboard,” currently on exhibit at the Craft in America Center, sees skateboarding as a craft story that began with kids using repurposed roller skate wheels

Over time, the wheels evolved from metal to clay to urethane, and the shape and use of boards changed as Southern California became the epicenter of skateboard manufacturing

Besides an array of vintage skateboards, many on loan from the Skateboard Hall of Fame, the exhibit also includes conceptual works of art inspired by skateboards and the culture around them

“Vehicles of Expression: The Craft of the Skateboard” runs through May 30

Original article here.

Craft in America exhibition shows expressive side of skateboards

Beverly Press/Park La Brea News
March 12, 2026

The Craft in America Center presents “Vehicles of Expression: The Craft of the Skateboard” from March 14–May 30.

The exhibition is among the first in the U.S. to focus on the crafted innovations of skateboards, from their inception in Southern California to contemporary, irreverent expressions from artists across the nation. Where other exhibitions have focused on deck art and visual culture of skateboarding, “Vehicles of Expression” focuses on the historical development of the skateboard as a constructed object – from rough-and-ready homemade inventions with lumber, nails and repurposed wheels to contemporary high-tech, ecologically-conscious uses of materials and conceptual works.

Through choices of materials and finishing approaches, artists imbue boards with style and meaning. Some skateboards are made to be cherished as gorgeous objects and others are made for artful performance stunts, departing radically from the sport’s competitive aspect. With skating’s spirit of undaunted exploration and ingenuity, the exhibition celebrates a diversity of approaches. The show expands definitions of craft, art and performance by presenting multiple vantage points on skateboards.

An opening reception with remarks by multimedia artist Abe Dubin will be held on Saturday, March 14, from 3-5 p.m. “Build It and Ride: How Skateboards Began,” an in-person and online talk by Todd Huber, skateboard historian and founder of the International Skateboarding Hall of Fame, will be held on April 11, from 3-4 p.m.

“Skateboarding the Canyons, Plains and Asphalt-banked Schoolyards of Coastal Los Angeles in the 1970s” with scholar Lorne Platt on the evolution of skateboarding environments in suburban developments will be held on April 18 from 11 a.m.-noon. Additional in-person and virtual talks by skateboard historians, makers, artists and performances will take place in conjunction with the exhibition.

The Craft in America Center is located at 8415 W. Third St. For information, visit craftinamerica. org/exhibition/vehicles-of-expression-the-craft-of-skateboarding.

Original article here.