Special Report

Artisan America

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

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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

Frederick Hurten Rhead, panel for overmantel, 1910

First Museum Dedicated to American Arts and Crafts Movement Opens in Florida

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

Recent Coverage

In "New Glass Now," at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery, works by 50 artists, including the hot-sculpted glass work of James Akers, (above: TThe Wild One (B), 2018) amplify the stunning advancement of the artform since the last major survey.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Two New Shows Reflect the Shining Versatility of Glass

Joe Fedderson (Arrow Lakes/Okanagan) creates abstract patterns (Above: Horses and Deer, 2020) from ordinary life.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Six Native Artists and Their Works Receive Major Recognition

Attributed to Mary Way or Elizabeth Way Champlain, A Lady Holding a Bouquet, circa 1790–1800

These Sisters' Innovative Portrait Miniatures Immortalized 19th-Century Connecticut's Elite

The internationally recognized paper artist Jiyong Chung works in the Korean craft of Joomchi (above: Balance IV, detail), a technique that was born of necessity centuries ago.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Three Craft Artists Share How the Pandemic Has Reshaped Life and Art

The Paul Family Quilt (1830-35), on display in "Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories," was made for a four-poster bed.

American History as Seen Through Quilts

Frederick Hurten Rhead, panel for overmantel, 1910

First Museum Dedicated to American Arts and Crafts Movement Opens in Florida

Carolyn Smith collecting beargrass in Klamath National Forest, 2015. For beargrass to be supple enough for weavers to use in their baskets, it needs to be burned annually. Ideally, it is burned in an intentionally set cultural fire, where only the tops are burned, leaving the roots intact. Prescribed fires in the Klamath National Forest are few and far between, so weavers “follow the smoke” and gather, when they can, after wildfires sweep through the landscape.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

How Indigenous Ecological Knowledge Offers Solutions to California's Wildfires

In 1921, Ruth Middleton embroidered this cotton sack with a powerful family story.

A Simple Cotton Sack Tells an Intergenerational Story of Separation Under Slavery

At the foot of North Idaho's Bitterroot Mountains sits Wallace, an incredibly resilient, Old West mining town.

The 15 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2021

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