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70-Year Craft Timeline
70-Year Craft Timeline
We're celebrating America's handmade history and our own with a timeline of 70 years of craft history.
Great moments in craft: That's what we set out to capture when we decided to mark American Craft's 70th anniversary with a 70-year timeline of making in the United States. But set aside any ideas you might have of a linear chronology with clear-cut categories and tidy edges. What we found, working with 16 contributors and (literally) a library of reference books, is a fascinating tangle of people, institutions, exhibitions, technologies, economic history, and culture - high and low. We tried to capture ...
70-Year Craft Timeline
The process of pulling together 70 years of craft history in the United States has been, shall we say, time-consuming. We've debated, fact-checked, and delivered the print version, but we'd love for this collaboration to evolve online. With that, we're asking for your help in building the ultimate craft timeline.
We want this to be a collaborative process, but with a few minor caveats. We may: • Refuse any suggestion that does not fit with within our editorial objectives• Edit entries for clarity and factual accuracy• Determine an event's level of historical significance
One last request: No ...
70-Year Craft Timeline
When the folks at American Craft magazine asked me to help gather photos for their upcoming timeline celebrating the past 70 years of craft, I thought, "Sure, how hard can it be?"I had no idea what I was getting into.
More than 75 photos and 50-plus hours later, I realized image research for this project wasn't going to be as easy as it might seem going in. While some artists, galleries, and museums were eager to cooperate ("Oh sure, give me your email address, and I'll send you something right away"), others were, well, not ("You'll have be transferred at least ...
70-Year Craft Timeline
In the August/September issue of American Craft we are celebrating the 70th anniversary of the magazine with a 70-year timeline of making. This is quite an ambitious undertaking for our new magazine staff as they scoured the ACC library and consulted with many craft luminaries to identify the significant moments that highlight craft's rich history. While there have been other timelines documenting craft, the significance of this timeline is that it identifies the cultural influences that have shaped craft and its social impact since 1940. Space is limited in our print version, but we are creating a digital version that ...
70-Year Craft Timeline
I don't want to overstate this, but the 70-Year craft timeline has been a huge part of my life for the past four months. Now that the magazine is out, and the interactive timeline is up and running, it's hard for me to fathom life post-timeline. Picking my favorites was a tough task, because I've had all of these years and events ingrained in my very being. But here are my highlights:
1981: A walnut rocker by Sam Maloof is donated to President Reagan and his family for use in their private quarters at the White House. Maloof's appeal is ...
70-Year Craft Timeline
Choosing favorites hasn't ever been my strong suit (just ask anyone who's ever had to go clothes shopping, or, heaven forbid, to the grocery story with slow, methodical me). But choosing favorites out of our massive, 70-year craft timeline presents a special challenge - there are so many great entries! I'm soothing myself with the thought that, as this week unfolds, other American Craft staff members will be sharing their favorite entires too. And some of the great moments in craft that I passed by, well, they could still get their due.
1941: Aileen Osborn Webb's Handcraft Cooperative League of America ...
70-Year Craft Timeline
Over the next few days, American Craft staff will share highlights of the 70-year craft timeline we recently completed. My favorite craft moments from the past 70 years involve the public becoming aware of the creative process. I agree with the sociologist Richard Sennett, who says everyone is a craftsperson. But many people have vocations that don't necessarily feel creative. When those people become aware of artists, they may become more aware of their own potential to create.
With that in mind, I celebrate these milestones:
1942 Rosie the Riveter rules, as women pick up tools and head to wartime ...
70-Year Craft Timeline
It's been a fun week around the office, seeing everyone's timeline highlights and hearing the reactions as people have received their copies of the magazine. I'll forgo a repeat pick of the launching of This Old House (possibly my favorite TV show growing up), but otherwise, here are my favorite entries in the 70-year craft timeline:
1950: Mary and Russel Wright's Guide to Easier Living paints an Atomic Age vision for a well-designed futuristic utopia, laying the foundation for lifestyle mavens such as Martha Stewart and Ralph Lauren.
When I first saw this entry I rushed to the ACC library ...
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 ...
70-Year Craft Timeline
As we cobbled together 70 years of craft history for the uber timeline in our August/September issue, we had way more to choose from than we could include within our pages. Contributor Faythe Levine, perhaps best known for her film Handmade Nation, sent us a delightful bonus timeline of "The New Wave of Craft." Illustrated by Kate Bingaman-Burt, the timeline takes us from 1994 through 2007, from the beginnings of Venus Zine and Bust and the inaugural Stich ‘n Bitch group to the formation of regional craft mafias, indie craft fairs, craft websites, and more. It's simply too ...
70-Year Craft Timeline
Rose Slivka's groundbreaking article on ceramics, published in 1961 shortly after she became editor of Craft Horizons, highlighted the movement of clay artists toward the abstract. Peter Voulkos and others, like Paul Soldner and John Mason, used the medium to create very challenging work. Colors, shapes, textures, and size were juxtaposed in sculptural work against classical functional forms. The marriage of these Abstract Expressionist ideas and clay resulted in big change, and Slivka's article cemented this movement in the greater art world. There was a lot of praise for the work, and a lot of outrage.
A letter from Wharton Esherick ...
Editor’s Letter
The buzzword around these parts for several months has been timeline. As in: "What percentage of the pictures are in for the timeline?" and "Um, is there space for 7,000 words in the timeline?" and the line that makes me most uncomfortable, "Whose idea was this timeline, anyway?"
We built this issue around our "70 Years of Making" timeline, which is our way of marking American Craft's 70th anniversary. It's been a gargantuan undertaking for our tiny staff, even more than we anticipated going in.
First, we identified and wooed more than a dozen contributors to help us figure out ...
70-Year Craft Timeline
Over the past two weeks we've been recounting our favorite entries from the 70-year craft timeline in our August/September issue. Today's picks are from Alanna Nissen, the American Craft Council's office coordinator.
1991: Anne Wilson's Hair Work in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, extends the provocative possibilities of human hair in art. Call me creepy, but I love hair art. Everything from elaborate 19th century wreaths made of intricately twisted and braided strands to Janine Antoni's "Loving Care." As an artistic medium, human hair brings together themes of embodiment, loss and memory, beauty, ...
70-Year Craft Timeline
Editor's note: This is one in a series of posts about American Craft's August/September 70-year craft timeline. View the interactive timeline.
I couldn't help but be drawn to the American Craft timeline entries of the 1970s and swept away in nostalgia for my grandma and the decade that defined my love of crafts. If not Holly Hobbie, the rag doll outfitted in her patchwork prairie dress and hand-stitched bonnet, I could've been the poster child for '70s craft, in my crocheted vest, iron-on-patched jeans, and hair ribbons made from yarn.
Most of us have dabbled in craft ...
Web Exclusive
We're doing a lot of research for a timeline chronicling 70 years of achievements in the craft field that we'll be debuting in the August/September 2011 issue. Being a wood guy, I gladly dove into the woody details. Beyond the beautiful furniture of Sam Maloof, Wharton Esherick, and George Nakashima, it seems these artists did everything deliberately and with passion. It's really no surprise that these men, used to making things themselves, would spend their "free" time crafting their surroundings. After all, the urge to make, create, and build doesn't stop. Looking at these artists' homes, you get a glimpse ...
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