Even though it was more than 30 years ago, it seems like yesterday.

My mother participated in the Rhinebeck craft fair in the 1970s and ’80s as a quilter and clothing designer.

As a child, I was surrounded by the amazing energy of these creative makers as they developed and fostered a studio craft community. This early exposure to a creative community had a profound effect on who I am today.

In my early career as a professor of art history, I focused on early 20th century Russian art. I am currently researching a book about the evolving relationship between the growth of the American Craft Council and American Craft Enterprise craft fairs, the New York art world, and intentional communities in the Hudson Valley during that formative era.

Many of the unique materials I need for this project are held in the library of the American Craft Council, located in Minneapolis. Living in New York, this could have been a tremendous obstacle, but ACC librarian Jessica Shaykett was such an incredible resource that distance was not an issue.

Access to scarce publications, such as Rhinebeck fair directories, was critical to my research and helped me pursue other opportunities. I was honored to have been named the James Renwick Senior Fellow in American Craft at the Smithsonian American Art Museum earlier this year. My fellowship proposal would not have been as successful without the materials provided by the ACC library and Jessica’s assistance.

Access to the ACC Library’s digital collections is free and open to everyone. Since 2010, donations and grants have made it possible to add more than 4,500 new items to the ACC’s digital collections, creating an incredible source of information about the history of American studio craft. One of the most exciting additions includes the first 25 years of Craft Horizons magazine – what is today American Craft. Now you can read each issue, page-by-page, and search the text for makers or materials of interest. There are more than 1,000 midcentury articles by and about noteworthy artists such as Karen Karnes, Anni Albers, and Sam Maloof.

With the exciting revival of scholarly interest in studio craft, there is growing need for the resources of the ACC Library. While my family connections to Rhinebeck led me to investigate a slice of craft history in New York, other artists and scholars have thought-provoking and groundbreaking explorations of their own to complete. The ACC Library, archives, and digital collections help make these creative and scholarly endeavors possible for people around the country and around the globe.

I hope that you will join me in making a donation to support the American Craft Council. Whether you are inspired to give in support of the library, or by one of the many other ACC educational programs that champion craft, your gift today means increased access to extraordinary craft resources for everyone – makers, scholars, collectors, and you.

Sincerely,

Sarah Warren
Assistant professor of art history, Purchase College, SUNY

P.S. I encourage you to check out the digital collections. Before you start discovering the fantastic information you’ll find, make your gift!

About the ACC Library

The American Craft Council Library maintains one of the most comprehensive collections of print and visual materials on American studio craft in the country. In addition to 15,000 books, catalogues, and periodicals, as well as 3,000 files on individual artists, the library is also the repository for archives of significant craft institutions. These archival collections include artists’ files, rare and valuable photographs, and documents from the contemporary craft movement from 1940 to today.

Information about the library is available online, including the online catalog listing of books and exhibition catalogs and the ACC Library Digital Collections, an openly accessible database of digitized archival materials.