Craft Knowledge and Performance Through Fiber Arts at the John C. Campbell Folk School

In this essay, I examine craft and its power through the lens of folklore studies, applying performance theory to ethnographic research gathered on craft at the John C. Campbell Folk School, a US-based site of dynamic craft education. Craft is object and action. Continually created by makers, users, and viewers, craft’s meanings emerge in interaction. Considering craft through a performance framework, four currents emerged from my ethnographic research: heightened engagement with the hand; with tradition; with innovation; and with others. These elements articulate craft as emergent cultural phenomena situated in human creation and interaction. The essay acknowledges craft as simultaneously connected to the past—however near or distant—while recognizing the crafted object as unique and multivocal, created in the present and charged with potential into the future

Art · Composite material · Craft · Fiber · Sociology · The arts · Visual arts · Art Education and Development · Art, Technology, and Culture · Crafts, Textile, and Design · Materials Science