Baskets

"Wow, it's just one thing after another-it's just amazing," a passerby enthused at the American Craft Council Baltimore Show and as the event draws to a close I can think of no better way to sum up the experience. Except to say what a total pleasure it was to meet the artists, see their work up close and in many cases put a face to the names I often heard and somehow felt I already knew.

Today marked the first day of the American Craft Council's Baltimore Show -three public days dedicated to craft-based art. For the past 33 years, this enormous show has been humming along at the city's convention center, engaging an enthusiastic crowd with a cornucopia of talent from across the country. I arrived prior to show time and despite dire pronouncements about the economy, an eager crowd had already gathered to see their favorites, lift their spirits and get first dibs on the goods.

While there were no claims of Obama sightings, sounds of jubilation rose once again in Chicago during a celebration last night at the Museum of Contemporary Art, when artists across a broad array of disciplines-architecture and design, crafts and traditional arts, dance, literature, media, music, theater arts and the visual arts-were honored with United States Artists (USA) Fellowships.