American craft

American craft is craft work produced by independent studio artists, working with traditional craft materials and/or processes such as wood, woodworking or furniture making, glass or glassblowing, clay or ceramics, textiles, metal or metalworking. Studio craft works tend to either serve or allude to a functional or utilitarian purpose, though they are as often as not handled and exhibited in ways similar to visual art objects.

History

The American studio craft movement is a successor to earlier European craft movements. Modern studio crafts developed as a reaction to modernity and, particularly, the Industrial Revolution. During the nineteenth century, Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle and English social critic John Ruskin warned of the extinction of handicrafts in Europe. English designer and theorist William Morris continued this line of thought, becoming father of England's Arts & Crafts Movement. Morris distinguished the studio craftsman in this way: "[O]ur art is the work of a small minority composed of educated persons, fully conscious of their aim of producing beauty, and distinguished from the great body of workmen by that aim." Both European and American craft traditions have also been influenced by Art Nouveau. Both of these movements influenced the development of the contemporary studio craft movement in the United States during the late nineteenth century, throughout the twentieth century and to the present.

American Craft Council

The American Craft Council (ACC), was founded in 1943 as a national, nonprofit, educational organization to support and foster interest in the crafts in America. The council sponsors national craft shows, publishes American Craft magazine, and has an extensive awards program. In 1956, with the help of philanthropist Aileen Webb, the ACC opened the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York City, which eventually became the Museum of Arts and Design. The ACC supports and is supported by artists, teachers, scholars, collectors, gallery owners and professionals in many fields, including woodturning, ceramic art, fiber art, woodworking, glass art, papermaking, lapidary, lace making, metalworking, jewelry, needlepoint, and quilting.

At their headquarters, as part of their ongoing educational initiatives, the ACC maintains a resource library containing over fifteen thousand volumes, including rare exhibition catalogues and archives, possibly the most comprehensive collection of materials on American craft in the United States.

Craft

A craft is a pastime or a profession that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly as pertinent to the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small-scale production of goods, or their maintenance, for example by tinkers. The traditional terms craftsman and craftswoman are nowadays often replaced by artisan and rarely by craftsperson (craftspeople).

Development from the past until today

Historically, craftsmen tended to concentrate in urban centers and formed guilds. The skill required by their professions is and the need to be permanently involved in the exchange of goods also demanded a generally higher level of education, and craftsmen were usually in a more privileged position than the peasantry in societal hierarchy. The households of craftsmen were not as self-sufficient as those of people engaged in agricultural work and therefore had to rely on the exchange of goods.

Once an apprentice of a craft had finished his apprenticeship, he would become a journeyman searching for a place to set up his own shop and make a living. After he set up his own shop, he could then call himself a master of his craft.

American

American(s) may refer to:

Organizations

Sports teams

Council

A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county level, but most legislative bodies at the state or national level are not considered councils. At such levels, there may be no separate executive branch, and the council may effectively represent the entire government. A board of directors might also be denoted as a council. A committee might also be denoted as a council, though a committee is generally a subordinate body composed of members of a larger body, while a council may not be. Because many schools have a student council, the council is the form of governance with which many people are likely to have their first experience as electors or participants.

A member of a council may be referred to as a councillor, or by the gender-specific titles of councilman and councilwoman.

In politics

Notable examples of types of councils encountered in politics include: