Skip to main content
Craft in America Logo, banner

FEATURED IN HOME EPISODE

HOME visits craft artists whose environments are filled with meaning and metaphor. 

Featuring Biskakone Greg Johnson, North House Folk School, Syd Carpenter, Wharton Esherick, Sim Van der Ryn, and Helen Drutt English. 

Now streaming on PBS Video App, craftinamerica.org, pbs.org/craftinamerica. 

PBS broadcast premiere Dec 16, 2022 (check local listings)

Buy Craft in America on DVD

WHARTON ESHERICK

Wharton Esherick (1887-1970) was a woodworker who worked and lived in Malvern, PA, where his hand-built studio houses the Wharton Esherick Museum today. He was one the artists of the early 20th century who were concerned with conceiving and creating a uniquely American handwork.

HELEN DRUTT ENGLISH

Helen Drutt English is a curatorial consultant, art historian, educator, and author. She founded Helen Drutt Gallery in Philadelphia, PA in 1973. Considered to be the “godmother of craft and a global ambassador” since the 1960s, Drutt has championed and promoted American craft internationally and helped to elevate studio craft into the realm of fine art. Her home is a reflection of her life-long commitment to the handmade at its best.

SYD CARPENTER

Sculptor Syd Carpenter is an artist and professor. Her Groundbreaking Farm Series, clay sculptures that mix nature and African American culture, reflect the history of African American land ownership in the South after the Civil War and going forward to today.

BISKAKONE GREG JOHNSON

Biskakone Greg Johnson is an Ojibwe tribal member, cultural practitioner, and educator committed to learning and teaching the traditional methods and crafts of the Ojibwe people. He has mastered the crafts of cedar bark mat weaving, beadwork, weaving winnowing baskets, and winter bark basket making, moccasin sewing, and canoe building. 

NORTH HOUSE FOLK SCHOOL

North House Folk School was founded in 1997 with a dedication to traditional craft and cooperative learning. Located in the Northwoods of Minnesota, on the shore of Lake Superior, it is one of the few places where Scandinavian timber framing is being practiced and taught.

SIM VAN DER RYN

Sim Van der Ryn is an architect, author, and educator dedicated to incorporating ecological principles into his work. He and his colleague Jim Campe founded the “Outlaw Builders,” an irreverent and visionary group experimenting with new and more sustainable practices.

JIM CAMPE

Jim Campe held an experimental studio course for undergraduate students with his colleague, architect, author, and educator Sim Van der Ryn. The course was entitled “Making a Place in the Country -The Outlaw Builder’s Studio,” and it involved on-site building construction and student collaboration in building their own shelters and communal buildings, using salvaged wood and found materials.