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Carol Sauvion

Carol Sauvion

Carol Sauvion

Carol Sauvion is the Creator of Craft in America, the Peabody Award winning documentary series celebrating American craft and the artists who bring it to life. The Craft in America series airs nationwide on PBS. 

Sauvion is the Executive Director of the non-profit organization Craft in America, which has a mission is to promote and advance original handcrafted work through educational programs in all media. Projects include the PBS documentary series; the book, Craft in America: Celebrating Two Centuries of Artists and Objects; two inclusive websites: www.pbs.org/craftinamerica, www.craftinamerica.org and the Craft in America Center, located in Los Angeles and open free to the public. The Center originates exhibitions with catalogs, hosts artists’ talks and workshops and provides access to a large craft library.  

Projects also include outreach to six public schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, production of education guides in conjunction with the premier of each episode of the Craft in America series, production of short films to enlarge upon materials presented in the series and providing films and shorts to museums and craft organizations nationwide.

To help advance knowledge of the handmade, Sauvion participates in conferences and screenings, juries exhibitions and lectures on the crafts. She has served on the board of the Craft Emergency Relief Fund and the American Craft Council. She is currently on the planning committee for Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026, an organization with the mission to reflect on the importance of original handcrafted work and to embrace the diversity of makers and making, past and present. They are organizing a Semiquincentennial celebration for the crafts.

Craft in America has won the Distinguished Educator Award from the James Renwick Alliance for Craft. Sauvion has received the Distinguished Alumna Achievement Award from Manhattanville College.

Craft is Sauvion’s lifelong passion. For the past 43 years, she has been the director of Freehand, her Los Angeles gallery specializing in functional craft. Prior to her involvement in the gallery, she was a potter for ten years. She continues to make pots as an avocation.

Sauvion earned a BA in Art History from Manhattanville College, Purchase, New York.