Craft In America - Education

Craft In America - a journey to the artists origins and techniques of American craft

Craft gives us a big-picture view of our history and development as a country and a people. It’s a cornucopia, covering cultures and climates, philosophies and science, social causes and social action. It’s about discipline, excitement, and creativity. In short: it’s what makes America, America – and Americans, Americans. An art form no less valid than painting or sculpture, it’s played a more pivotal role in our lives than any other. It’s all around us, hiding in plain sight. If you think craft is just projects using Popsicle sticks or leftover yarn, think again. It’s truly the American project.

Denise and Samuel Wallace, Crossroads of the Continents Belt, 1990. Courtesy of www.TogashiStudio.com, Kiyoshi Togashi Photograph.

First thing, download the study guides you’ll find here. They have been written and designed to make craft the extraordinary learning experience it is. We’ve set up suggested lesson plans that you can adapt to your own class and personalize to your classroom, based on age and interests. We’ve included places to learn more, so that you can go further on a particular subject or example.

The material presented in the four Craft in America Educator Guides is organized into thematic groupings and written to support middle and high school art education curricula. Teachers are encouraged to use the content as presented or to enhance and further their established programs of study. The guides can also be adapted for use in other subject areas. The primary purpose of the guides is to deepen students’ knowledge, understanding and appreciation of craft in America.


Some hands create to record a place and time; others are more intimate gestures about personal histories. In any case our Nation’s collective memory can become tangible when we examine objects created by the hand. Learn More >	Craft artists depend on their natural environment for both materials and inspiration. Materials are collected, combined and transformed through the creativity of human hands. Learn More >	Community has helped shape the creative processes of our collective craft history. Craft forms are passed from generation to generation in necessity and survival, but also for the spirit of community and commonality. Learn More >


There is great value in making an object by hand with time-honored techniques, using traditional designs. And there is an excitement in combining and reinventing these traditions with present-day ideas and motifs. Learn More >	Artists are inspired in various ways - through collaboration, personal reflection and often, through the materials themselves. In the process, objects are given meaning, connections formed, and boundaries broken. Learn More >