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

Pasadena Weekly
6/11/26
By Jessica Koslow

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.