Arts & Crafts, Traditional Films

Becoming Geppetto gives us an intimate and serenely meditative front-row seat to the Petros's guitar making process, as well as a look into their family life and history.

The film documents the process of tapestry weaving from design to finish and captures the beautiful singing of the Swazi women weavers who worked in Patrick County, Virginia,…

What do nature centers, natural history museums, and hunters have in common? They all require someone skilled in bird taxidermy. This film shows how, with the help of a two-year…

Although once ubiquitous, the art and craft of making footwear by hand is a craft that’s practiced by very few people in Massachusetts today. Its survival relies on knowledge,…

Produced by Ohio Bell Telephone and narrated by Ralph Rinzler from the Smithsonian Institution's Folklife Center, this film highlight aspects of Folklife in the State of Ohio. It…

A portrait of the traditional Italian-American artisans who carved the gargoyles and statues of Washington Cathedral, featuring Roger Morigi and Vincent Palumbo. "The Stone…

Quilt scholarship has grown into a serious discipline generating material of interest—not just to the quilt world — but to a dozen other important disciplines from material…

“Quilt making,” as one quilt maker says, “is the greatest mass movement nobody ever heard of.” The population of the American quilt world outnumbers those of many small countries,…

Unique among objects, quilts are both lowly “women’s work” and great art. They are something made from nothing; they are both nurturing and inspiring. They can communicate both…

Part 6 traces institutional attitudes toward quilts as objects, rationales for their selection, and the public response to their exhibition.

The quilt’s unique ability to preserve, not only our own family histories, but the history of America

The quilt is the perfect test case for a dozen theories about what makes art. The art vs. craft debate

Why Quilts Matter: History, Art & Politics is a nine-part documentary series that will change the way you think about quilts. Uncover the unsuspected size and depth of quilt…

Elizabeth James-Perry's artwork is intimately tied to her Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal heritage. Her wampum belts are made using indigenous materials -- locally harvested, handspun…