We’re excited that READING MATERIALS will continue in 2021, in partnership with Textile Arts L.A.

Craft: An American History
by Glenn Adamson

Tuesday, August 17, 2021
7:00pm - 8:30pm
online via Zoom.

A groundbreaking and endlessly surprising history of how artisans created America, from the nation's origins to the present day.

At the center of the United States' economic and social development, according to conventional wisdom, are industry and technology-while craftspeople and handmade objects are relegated to a bygone past. Renowned historian Glenn Adamson turns that narrative on its head in this innovative account, revealing makers' central role in shaping America's identity. Examine any phase of the nation's struggle to define itself, and artisans are there-from the silversmith Paul Revere and the revolutionary carpenters and blacksmiths who hurled tea into Boston Harbor, to today's “maker movement.” From Mother Jones to Rosie the Riveter. From Betsy Ross to Rosa Parks. From suffrage banners to the AIDS Quilt.

Adamson shows that craft has long been implicated in debates around equality, education, and class. Artisanship has often been a site of resistance for oppressed people, such as enslaved African-Americans whose skilled labor might confer hard-won agency under bondage, or the Native American makers who adapted traditional arts into statements of modernity. Theirs are among the array of memorable portraits of Americans both celebrated and unfamiliar in this richly peopled book. As Adamson argues, these artisans' stories speak to our collective striving toward a more perfect union. From the beginning, America had to be-and still remains to be-crafted.

This event is free for Textile Arts L.A. members; $40 for the year for non-members.

READING MATERIALS is an informal book club with an art and material focus. We will be reading books about the artist’s life, about ways of seeing and reasons for making, and about our inextricable relationship with the materials in our hands.