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ACC Library
The ACC library has current subscriptions to nearly 100 magazines - but this post is about a new subscription, and a couple interesting old (and older!) donations. We invite you to come in and check them out!
There is a new journal titled Craft Research, and it is a gem. It was founded in 2010 by Dr. Kristina Niedderer, and is dedicated to advocating and promoting current and emerging craft research. Included is research on materials, processes, methods, concepts, aesthetics, and style, in any discipline of applied arts and crafts, including craft education. The pictured journal is the first issue (it's ...
ACC Library
Have you ever wondered where to find the recipe for baker's clay, what a fire proximity coverall looks like, or what is performance sculpture?
Whether you have asked yourself these questions or not, I can't resist telling you about the first phase of the American Craft Council Library's digital projects: making our Council newsletter collection accessible online. Detailing craft history in America from 1957-1986, these newsletters account for major events, important individuals' involvement, as well as movements and trends in modern American craft.
Currently I am in the throes of the digitization process, happily lost among the stacks of archival boxes. ...
ACC Library
Greta Tacke from the American Association of Woodturners recently dropped in to the American Craft Council and brought the library a wealth of resources for woodturners and turned wood admirers.
Woodturning Today: A Dramatic Evolution is a beautiful new book celebrating the 25th anniversary of the AAW. It describes the history of woodturning and the organization. It also celebrates the role the AAW has had on the development of contemporary woodturning and wood art. Plus, the photography is outstanding.
The AAW holds annual symposiums, and the ACC Library is now a repository of the handouts and videos from 2008-2010. For ...
ACC Library
Being able to see some of the most innovative craft exhibitions of the 20th century is by far the best part about scanning materials from the Your Portable Museum collection for our new digital image database. The main curator of the Museum of Contemporary Craft's exhibitions was Paul J. Smith, who explained in a recent interview for American Craft magazine that he often took risks by building shows based on the nonconformist culture of the time. One of the 1965-66 exhibitions he uses as an example, which also happens to be a favorite around the ACC library, ...
ACC Library
Many visitors to the American Craft Council library come solely for the magazines. They like to browse the medium specific journals, read about current and upcoming exhibitions, and study the latest techniques in both studio and DIY application. Knowing how important these publications are to our users, it is with great sadness that we recently learned two of our beloved magazines, Fiberarts and ReadyMade, are no more.
Fiberarts has been a go-to resource for stimulating, in-depth information on contemporary textile craft for more than 35 years. In a world where how-to publications abound, Fiberarts uniquely provided documentation on the field from ...
ACC Library
Today's interview is with Alanna Nissen, office coordinator at the American Craft Council.
What is your favorite/most-read craft book in your personal collection? I have so many, it's impossible to pick! I've got everything from historical overviews of traditional, domestic crafts to how-to books to Amy Sedaris's new book, Simple Times. A favorite recent addition is the catalog to the Sonya Delaunay exhibition, "Color Moves," which recently closed at the Cooper Hewitt - a show I absolutely loved.
What book or magazine would you like to sneak out of the ACC Library? I just did! I recently borrowed Becoming Judy ...
ACC Library
Five Questions is a brief Q&A about books and craft, with people who love and use the American Craft Council library. Today's interview is with Greg Grinley, ACC's director of development:
What is your favorite/most-read craft book in your personal collection? It would have to be the new Makers: A History of American Studio Craft by Janet Koplos and Bruce Metcalf. It’s been a great education tool for me in my role at ACC.
What book or magazine would you like to sneak out of the ACC library? Conversations with Wood: The Collection of Ruth and David Waterbury. I’ve known the ...
ACC Library
Today's interview is with Pati Hibbard, visual resources intern at the ACC library.
What is your favorite/most-read craft book in your personal collection? What?! I don't have any craft books in my personal collection (a truly sad discovery)! That's why I must frequently visit the American Craft Council's library! So when I'm here I check out (in the following order) the newest periodicals, the exhibition, most titles that fall in Library of Congress subclass NK (decorative arts, applied arts, decoration and ornament), and the resource section.
What book or magazine would you like to sneak out of the ACC Library? ...
Checking In
Insect limbs, tree trunks, airplane wings: What do these forms have in common? Each is seen in Jere Osgood's furniture in our June/July 1985 cover story. The curvy span of Osgood's ash desk (1987) - with the sinuous, tapered legs he favors to this day - invites such comparisons. Using lamination techniques he pioneered in the 1970s, Osgood has crafted a timeless, signature style.
"I've continued to use tapered laminations, and I like that," Osgood says. "The legs are a mark that I was involved - a way of signing my piece before signing it." Lamination involves gluing together thin strips ...
ACC Library
Recently, the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft generously donated their library materials to the American Craft Council Library. The boxes were treasure chests to open - full of books, exhibition catalogs, and magazines. Here are a few of our favorites.
Cutting the Mustard is the autobiography of Miles Burkholder Carpenter, a folk artist from Virginia. He started carving small animals and figures in the 1940s, progressing to carving sculptures in the late 1960s. The art world discovered Carpenter in 1972, when he was 82 years old. To see some of his work, see the works owned by the ...
70-Year Craft Timeline
In all honesty, I must admit that I had selfish reasons for supporting the creation of the 70-Year craft timeline. Here in the ACC library, we receive countless research requests for information pertaining to the history of craft. Don't get me wrong - I live for the thrill of digging up that one golden nugget of information, quote, or photograph that can help connect the dots of a thesis, exhibition, or the like. In today's world, however, where time is of the essence, having the timeline is certain to be a quick, resourceful tool for both serious fact-checking ...
ACC Library
On May 24th, PBS will air "Messages," the latest installment of the series Craft in America. The episode's focus is on the ways numerous contemporary craft artists use their skill for personal and political expression.
In a recent perusal of our image files, we encountered "Political Ceramics," a series of slides assembled by the American Craft Museum (now the Museum of Art and Design) in 1993 to highlight a neglected aspect of twentieth-century ceramics: political content. The museum invited artists to send in their slides, and curator Mark Harris selected 63 images from 34 artists to be archived as ...
ACC Library
While working on the digitization project for the American Craft Council's library, I've navigated through the organization's ephemera from exhibitions past that make up the archives. It has been a blur at times. I've uncovered countless files of formal and staged photographs. So when I stumbled upon a series of fun-loving (to the point of mischievous) images from the exhibition Made With Paper I was stopped in my archiving tracks.
Made With Paper was on view at the American Craft Council's Museum of Contemporary Craft in November 1967. For some exhibitions, the MCC found ways to engage with the community outside ...
ACC Library
The library has recently purchased some new books on selling craft, and all have been very highly reviewed. Whether you've been crafting for years, or are looking for how to begin, these books are a great place to start!
Kari Chapin describes it all in The Handmade Marketplace, from pricing to photography, and online sales to marketing. Faythe Levine writes that this is "a fantastic resource full of useful tips and guidelines from top DIY insiders" and a "must have for any maker's library."
Philip Kadubec, in Crafts and Craft Shows, helps specifically on good business practice for shows, dealing with customers, ...
ACC Library
It's not often I find an exhibition catalog filled with as many striking images of the artists as of the artists' works. Actually, I don't believe I have ever come across a catalog quite like the one for Woven Forms. The imaginative layout consists only of centerfolds. Yes, I said centerfolds, but don't worry: It's not what you may think. When unfolded, the pages reveal exquisite black and white images of long, woven sculptures. Folded, these pages present detailed profiles of each artist featured in the exhibition, reminding us not to forget the maker behind what's made. By placing the ...
ACC Library
This month we're taking the first steps towards fulfilling our New Year's resolution to grow our collection online. A significant collection within the American Craft Council library is the Your Portable Museum archive, a series of slides, filmstrips, transcripts, and catalogs arranged in thematic sets and made available to the public for borrowing, rental, or sale between 1959 and the early 1980s. Included in these 152 slide kits are more than 8,200 one-of-a-kind images detailing various exhibitions at the American Craft Museum. The kits cover a range of craft disciplines and feature the works of many important artists of the ...
ACC Library
Earlier this year, librarian Jessica Shaykett introduced our plan to grow the library's online collection by digitizing the Your Portable Museum Archive. The digitization process is now well under way. Here's a little more background information about the project.
What it was then...
As an audio-visual service of the American Craft Council, Your Portable Museum brought exhibitions and workshops as close to real life as one could get in the 60s, 70s, and 80s without actually having to be there. The 35mm color slide kits, 16mm filmstrips, 35mm motion films, and accompanying literature were available for rent or purchase by ...
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