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

ChuckSchugPhotography/Getty Images

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

"This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World," featuring Alicia Eggert's stunning 2019-2020 neon sculpture, is on view at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

The Craft World Is Undergoing a Democratization

Shantay Robinson

The four-day Smithsonian Craft Show opens April 20 at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., offering the works of 120 artists (above: an array of offerings).

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Nine Artists on What It Means to Create

Antonia Mufarech

Left, the Chiquibul Forest in Belize, near the spot where the fabled Tree once grew. Right, a custom guitar crafted from the Tree’s distinctive mahogany.

The Legend of the Music Tree

By Ellen Ruppel Shell
Photographs by Grant Harder and Tony Rath

The renowned Tlingit American artist, Preston Singletary created more than 60 glassworks to illustrate the traditional story of the raven, above: White Raven (Dleit Yéil), 2018, and pairing them in an immersive experience with music and projections.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Artist Preston Singletary Sheds New Light on the Tlingit Raven Tale

Harriet Jacobs, who escaped enslavement to write Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), created these three dolls for the children of writer Nathaniel Parker Willis around 1850-60.

Black Dolls Tell a Story of Play—and Resistance—in America

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