Craft in America

Craft in America Craft in America is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to advancing original handcrafted work
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A glimpse into the story of the De La Torre Brothers’ chandelier that is featured in our new book!Chandeliers can repres...
08/26/2026

A glimpse into the story of the De La Torre Brothers’ chandelier that is featured in our new book!
Chandeliers can represent opulence, excess, labor, and class, and in many ways reflect our contemporary times by symbolizing the extreme accumulation of wealth. This chandelier from the Einar and Jamex De La Torre’s 2024 installation ‘The Tipping Point’ experiments with representing the seductive and the grotesque by illuminating “all the once-hidden faces at the bacchanal.” It plays with the integration of light and glass. The De La Torre Brothers have been manipulating light in this manner for decades, using the “watery biology” of light to mimic life.

Read more about the chandelier in the De La Torre Brother’s essay in Handwork: Handcrafted Objects That Made America book, available for purchase at phaidon.com. Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026 McNay Art Museum

The De La Torre’s Tipping Point is currently on view at Laguna Art Museum until January 24, 2027.

‘Le Point de Bascule (The Tipping Point)’ (detail of chandelier), 2024, Einar de la Torre (b. 1963) and Jamex de la Torre (b.1960). Mixed media installation ‘Upward Mobility’, March 1-September 15, 2024, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio. Photos courtesy of the McNay Art Museum and Einar and Jamex De La Torre.

08/19/2026

In memory of Paul Marioni (1941–2026), an innovator in the glass world, whose work was about human nature and is often inspired by his dreams. Our condolences to the Marioni family. Excerpt from the FAMILY episode, streaming on the PBS app Cascade PBS

08/15/2026

We are delighted to have highly acclaimed Western artist, NEA Heritage Fellow, and founding member of the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association, Cary Schwarz, at the Center for a presentation on his work. As an accomplished saddlemaker and leather artist, Schwarz is passionate about fostering the traditional Western arts, and educating and mentoring others to ensure these unique crafts continue to thrive. Schwarz is featured in the WEST episode and in our current exhibition.

August 22, 4:00-5:00pm. In person at the Center in Los Angeles and online.�
Email [email protected] to attend in person or register to join online. Link in bio.

“Cowboy Craft: Traditional Art of the West” and “Marques Hanalei Marzan: Entwine” are part of Handwork 2026 and have been extended through September 26, 2026.

Traditional Cowboy Arts Association (TCAA) Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026

Our Getty Marrow intern, Ellanora, has finished her time with us this summer. Read about her experience and what’s been ...
08/12/2026

Our Getty Marrow intern, Ellanora, has finished her time with us this summer. Read about her experience and what’s been going on at the center in the last few weeks in her blog post, link in bio!

It’s a special treat that the Craft in America Center in Los Angeles has work from the Traditional Cowboy Arts Associati...
08/07/2026

It’s a special treat that the Craft in America Center in Los Angeles has work from the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association along with several historic precedents on display.

Typically the place to see members’ work is at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City for the annual exhibition, which runs September 12 – October 18 this year. Each year the artist members push themselves to create a new, ambitious project, continuing to learn and embody the highest caliber in craft. Some of the same artists in our exhibition will be showing newly created work there.

We are delighted to have two talks with TCAA members coming up this month, offering two chances to learn about Western craft culture from insiders.

August 13, 11:00am–12:00pm, we’ll have a second online Cowboy Art Talk. This time we’ll have silversmiths Beau Compton and Scott Hardy as well as rawhide braider Leland Hensley talking about their tradition-based crafts. Gain insights into the design and process of engraving metal and the nuances of braiding raw cowhide. https://www.facebook.com/events/1684067569350490/
https://www.craftinamerica.org/event/artist-talk-8-13-cowboy-craft

August 22, 4:00-5:00pm, Cary Schwarz, founding member of the TCAA and recently named NEA Heritage Fellow, will be in Los Angeles, giving a talk at the Center (that will also be online) about his own work and the TCAA’s mission to foster the education and continuation of the niche Western crafts.
https://craftinamerica.org/event/artist-talk-cary-schwarz
https://www.facebook.com/events/1351388713763930/

“Cowboy Craft: Traditional Art of the West” and “Marques Hanalei Marzan: Entwine” are part of Handwork 2026 and run through September 12, 2026.

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026

A glimpse into the story of the 1950s beaded gauntlets in our new book!Salmon were central to life and culture in the Co...
08/05/2026

A glimpse into the story of the 1950s beaded gauntlets in our new book!

Salmon were central to life and culture in the Columbia River Plateau, but you rarely see them in the region’s beadwork. These gauntlets are an interesting exception. The salmon depicted here are an unusual motif, but when the fish do appear, they are often accompanied by birds, likely referencing swallows' return to the Columbia River each year in concert with the initial salmon runs.

The beaded and fringed gauntlets belonged to George Gibson, a resident of northeast Oregon’s Umatilla Indian Reservation, who was photographed wearing a matching vest. His wife, Mary Gibson, may have embroidered both. Geometric, floral, and pictorial beadwork, like that seen on these gauntlets, became a signature style in the region even as federal and state governments waged forceful campaigns of acculturation.

Read more about these gauntlets in Steven L. Grafe’s essay in Handwork: Handcrafted Objects That Made America book, available for purchase at phaidon.com. Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026 Maryhill Museum of Art

Beaded Gauntlets, c. 1950, Attributed to Mary Gibson (Yakama or Umatilla, active mid-20th century), Glass beads, thread, cloth, leather 16 ⅞ in. Maryhill Museum of Art, Goldendale, WA. Photos courtesy of the Maryhill Museum of Art.

08/02/2026

Enterprising artists are insatiably curious about new possibilities for materials and on occasion have fortuitous discoveries. As part of his artist talk at the Center, Marques Hanalei Marzan spoke of one of his own discoveries in a hardware store, where he came to transform a material intended for pest control into webby, ethereal garment forms using traditional knotting techniques. The entire talk is viewable on our website.

Marzan is also a contributor to “Handwork: Handcrafted Objects that Made America” discussing the history of iconic Hawaiian objects such as a fishhook and surfboard. “Handwork” just released this week and is available at booksellers and online. See the link in bio.

“Marques Hanalei Marzan: Entwine” is part of Handwork 2026 and runs through September 12, 2026.

Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026

07/31/2026

In memory of artist Betye Saar, whose work exploring African American identity, spirituality, and America's social and political landscape left an indelible mark on our nation's art and culture. Our condolences to the Saar family. Excerpt from the INSPIRATION episode, now streaming on the PBS app.

07/29/2026

A glimpse into one of the object stories from the pages of our new book!

Read more about Joan Baez’s Martin Guitar and 100+ other handcrafted objects in “Handwork: Handcrafted Objects That Made America,” available for preorder now on phaidon.com Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026 Joan Baez Martin Guitar

The World Cup may be over, but here's a game whose history in the Americas stretches back more than a millennium, and a ...
07/22/2026

The World Cup may be over, but here's a game whose history in the Americas stretches back more than a millennium, and a handcrafted stick that tells its story. It took master craftsman and legendary lacrosse player Alfred “Alf” Jacques nearly a year to make this lacrosse stick. The relationship between Jacques, the maker, and his material, a mature hickory tree, is part of a tradition of craftsmanship dating back centuries before European contact among members of the Onondaga Nation.

The game of lacrosse or Dehoñtjigwa’és is a traditional medicine game deeply intertwined with the culture of the six nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, of which the Onondaga Nation is one. The game is played exclusively with wooden sticks like this one, which accompany Haudenosaunee men to the grave so they can play for the Creator in the next world. Eighty thousand of these lacrosse sticks were produced out of the workshop on Jacques’s family’s land, each painstakingly handcrafted with traditional techniques refined and revised by Jacques.

Read more about this object in Colette Lemmon’s essay in the forthcoming ‘Handwork: Handcrafted Objects That Made America’ book, available for preorder now on phaidon.com Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026

Lacrosse Stick c. 2013, Alfred Jacques (Onondaga, 1949-2023), Hickory, leather, catgut, nylon cord, cotton, 43x6 in. Private collection of Koltin Huff (Seneca Nation Hawk Clan), photographed by Hayden Haynes (Seneca).

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