A retired clinical social worker, Patricia Young is not only an ardent craft advocate and collector. She views herself as a “craft chaplain,” she says.

“I have been intrigued by the handmade for as long as I can remember,” says Charlotte Herrera, a craft enthusiast and collector, and co-founder, organizer, and volunteer at the Fine Craft Show at Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, New York, for 22 years.

Woodturner William Stoney Lamar never intended to be a sculptor; rather, he’s said, “I decided to make work on a lathe.” Having begun as a furniture maker, he discovered the lathe in the 1980s and was captivated by its potential to carve in lyrical and technically demanding ways.

Lowery Stokes Sims, an art historian and curator of contemporary art and craft, has focused her expertise on the work of African, African American, Latinx, Native, and Asian American artists, resulting in exhibitions and writings that have contributed fresh insights and critical scholarship to the craft field.

What is craft? How is it different from fine art or design? In his numerous journal articles, catalog essays, and books on contemporary theory in fine art and craft, writer and scholar Howard Risatti has elevated public and academic understanding of craft in contemporary society.

Despite her doctorate in aerospace engineering, Carolyn Mazloomi turned her energy to quilting and bringing the unrecognized contributions of African American quilt artists to the attention of American and international audiences.

Educated at the University of Minnesota, where he studied with Warren MacKenzie, Mark Pharis has continually innovated forms and glazes for functional pottery both within and outside of an academic career.

Tip Toland’s fascination with faces—drawing and painting them in art school, plumbing the knowledge and experience she found there—led to painted bas-relief sculptures in wood and clay, then three-dimensional ceramic work reflecting an entire human character.

In praising Kristina Madsen’s exquisite furniture when bestowing its 2020/2021 Award of Distinction, the Furniture Society wrote she’s a “truly exceptional furniture maker who has made a significant impact on the field through her unique way of combining classic European cabinet-making techniques with traditional Fijian carving to produce furniture that truly embodies her own style.”