Craft in America

September 19 – November 15, 2026 at the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust Education Center

Commemorating the semiquincentennial of the United States, the selected images from our collection in Craft In America showcase the importance of the handmade and celebrate the diversity of craft that defines America. This exhibition is an opportunity to look closely at these objects, some of which are currently on display elsewhere in the museum, and to discover more of the handwork that makes these objects so remarkable.

Maryhill Museum of Art is one of 300+ cultural organizations participating in Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026, a yearlong, nationwide initiative marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence featuring hundreds of museum exhibitions and events, a four-part PBS docuseries, and specially designed educational component. Organized by the team behind Craft in America (a Los Angeles-based nonprofit arts organization whose mission is to promote and advance original handcrafted work through programs in all media) and its Peabody Award–winning documentary series, Handwork 2026 invites Americans of all ages to celebrate the country’s shared heritage through the beauty, skill, and stories of handmade objects created by and for Americans over the last two and a half centuries.

The official publication of Handwork 2026 is called Handwork: Handcrafted Objects that Made America. Edited by Emily Zaiden, director and lead curator of the Craft in America Center, with a foreword by Carol Sauvion, the visionary behind the Peabody Award– winning PBS series Craft in America, Handwork takes readers on a journey through time and across the multiplicity of cultures that have made America, uncovering the powerful stories behind objects that shaped American life.

Handwork includes illuminating texts from nearly 30 experts nationwide that accompany each object, emphasizing overlooked narratives and the underrepresented artists who helped define American life through their craft. Contemporary makers featured throughout show how craft traditions live on, a testament to the human ingenuity that continues to shape American culture. Two objects from the Maryhill Museum of Art collection are included in the publication, with texts provided by the museum’s now-retired curator of art, Steven L. Grafe, Ph.D.

---