American Craft Forums

Presented in conjunction with the Spring 2025 issue of American Craft.

Meet She Bends, an artist collective that is transforming the iconic (and notoriously challenging) tradition of neon for a new era. Tour the New Mexico studio of Paula Wilson and Mike Lagg, where a rug is a painting, a door is a sculpture, and every square foot is overflowing with creative energy. Ever wonder what doesn’t make it into an issue? Listen in on the stories behind the stories with American Craft editor-in-chief Karen Olson.

Presented in conjunction with the Winter 2025 issue of American Craft.

Join printmakers Susanna Cromwell and LaToya M. Hobbs, and Michele Farwell from Adelphi Paper Hangings—and moderator Laura Brown from the Minnesota Center for Book Arts—for a conversation on all things block printing and what it means to contribute to an art form that so beautifully balances a three-dimensional craft process with a two-dimensional object.

Presented in conjunction with the Summer 2024 issue of American Craft.

Join our speakers in conversation, guided by James Beard Award finalist Chef Yia Vang of Union Hmong Kitchen (Minneapolis, Minnesota)—and Iron Chef fame—for a deep dive into the art of bladesmithing and all things knives. We’ll explore history and use, various making techniques—often ancient and honed over centuries—the thinking that goes into choosing design and materials, and how those materials and techniques come together to produce a tool to be used at home, as well as some of the world’s greatest restaurant kitchens.

Presented in conjunction with the Spring 2024 issue of American Craft.

Join bookbinder and journal-maker Megan Winn, wrapping artist Megumi Inouye, and The Clay Studio Curator and Director of Artistic Programs Jennifer Zwilling, who also collects mugs, for a conversation about the daily rituals that delight us and how adding a bit of craft to our everyday routines can elevate simple pleasures and create meaningful moments.

Presented in conjunction with the Winter 2024 issue of American Craft.

What comes to mind when you think of New Orleans? Mardi Gras? Bourbon Street and the French Quarter? The birthplace of jazz? The Garden District and stunning architecture? Hurricanes and rising water levels? All of the above? We invite you to join ceramist and educator MaPó Kinnord, Mardi Gras suit maker and visual artist Charles DuVernay, installation artist and printmaker Pippin Frisbie-Calder, and master plasterer Jeff Poree for a broad conversation around the multifaceted arts community in New Orleans, exploring what it’s like to live and practice there, and reflecting on the joys and hardships intrinsic to a city with so much individuality, culture, and history.

Presented in conjunction with the Fall 2023 issue of American Craft.

Join us for a conversation between virtuoso violinist Vijay Gupta and luthier Eric Benning who share a love of, and connection through, music and the instruments that give that music voice. They will discuss the symbiotic relationship between player and maker, explore ideas around how moments of transition and transformation can lead to great joy, and share the ways music can be employed to help other people. What kind of power and promise is inherent in this craft of making beautiful tools for another type of creative energy and expression?

Presented in conjunction with the Summer 2023 issue of American Craft.

Materials carry meaning. When artists forage or gather their own materials and tools as part of their practice, that adds another layer in an already complex dialogue that individuals are having with themselves, and with others in the field. Artist and pigment researcher Melonie Ancheta, fiber and clay artist and one of the 2023 recipients of the Maxwell/Hanrahan Award for Craft Adebunmi Gbadebo, and photographer and sweetgrass basketmaker Donovan J. Snype are not strangers to the significance and responsibility their material choices hold. Oftentimes, it’s the materials themselves that tell the story.

Presented in conjunction with the Spring 2023 issue of American Craft. 

Almost every land that touches water has a tradition of boatbuilding or watercraft. How do those skills, traditions, and history—different as they may be—build community and connect us across cultures? Dr. Anton Treuer, an accomplished professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University in Bemidji, Minnesota, and a celebrated author, will guide us through a discussion with Daniel Creisher from The Apprenticeshop, a boatbuilding and sailing school in Rockland, Maine, as well as birchbark canoe maker Jim Jones about the power and history of watercraft.

Presented in conjunction with the Winter 2023 issue of American Craft.

Join us for a conversation exploring an inspiring partnership between The Furniture Society’s Craft for a Greater Good program and BeLoved Village. Through this collaboration, craft artists are contributing handmade furniture, home goods, and more to a set of tiny homes being built in Asheville, North Carolina, for those who struggle with housing insecurity. Community is stronger with craft, and this partnership is a true, feet-on-the-ground example of the handmade making a difference in building stronger, more engaged communities.