Stream or tune in Friday, Dec. 11, 2020 at 9 p.m. on KPBS 2
CRAFT IN AMERICA “Storytellers,” highlights artists who use narrative to communicate personal and universal truths, creating a uniquely powerful expression of our human experience.
FEATURED ARTISTS:
We begin in Alaska, where we meet one of our nation’s most important multidisciplinary artists, Nicholas Galanin. Galanin creates works layered in meaning and visual language.
Descended from a family of Native Alaskan Tlingit and Unangan artists, he challenges the displacement of indigenous art and cultural disruption, offering perspective rooted in connection to land while investigating and expanding intersections of culture and concept in form, image and sound.
- Clip: Nicholas Galanin on “What Have We Become?”
- Clip: Nicholas Galanin on White Noise, American Prayer Rug
- Clip: Nicholas Galanin on “Shadow on the Land, and Excavation and Bush Burial”
- Clip: Nicholas Galanin on forced assimilation
- Clip: Nicholas Galanin teaches his son
Then we explore the Art to Wear movement with gallerist and craft historian Julie Schafler Dale.
Dale walks us through the Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibition “Off the Wall: American Art to Wear” and introduces textile artist Linda J. Mendelson, who draws inspiration from poetry and pushes the boundaries of wearable art.
- Clip: Julie Schafler Dale on Susanna Lewis
- Clip: Julie Schafler Dale on Sharron Hedges
- Clip: Julie Schafler Dale on Jo-Ellen Trilling
- Clip: Julie Schafler Dale on Joan Steiner
- Clip: Julie Schafler Dale on Jean Cacicedo
- Clip: Julie Schafler Dale on decorated denim
- Clip: Julie Schafler Dale on her collection and book
The episode also features Seattle-based sculptor George Rodriguez, who makes oversized ceramic figures that are both personal and universally resonant. Rodriguez’s sculptures are human expressions, influenced by mythology, global civilizations, a spirit of play, and his Chicano heritage.
Lastly, “Storytellers” highlights artist Christina Bothwell. Through her unique approach to glass, Bothwell explores her interest in birth, death, and renewal, while imbuing her work with a sense of wonder and hope.
We record her technique, which involves sculpting in wax and casting in plaster, creating a space for a figure within a figure - a process never before documented by CRAFT IN AMERICA.
- Clip: Christina Bothwell on her process
- Clip: Learn more about Craft Emergency Relief Fund Plus (CERF+)
The stories these artists tell us through their creations bring us together in ways that defy cultural boundaries and offer new ways of understanding even the most complex mysteries of our existence.
Watch On Your Schedule:
Episodes from the series are available to stream on demand.
With the PBS Video App, you can stream your favorite and local station shows. Download it for free on your favorite device. The app allows you to catch up on recent episodes and discover award-winning shows.
Join The Conversation:
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About The Series:
CRAFT IN AMERICA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to advancing original handcrafted work through the Peabody Award-winning documentary series on PBS nationwide and the free-to-the-public Craft in America Center in Los Angeles. With 25 episodes produced since 2007, the series takes viewers on a journey to the artists, origins and techniques of American craft.
