Craft is all around us, giving pleasure as well as serving a function. It is inspirational as well as useful. It is the best representation of who we are as a culture. Craft is democratic -- broad enough to accommodate anyone who makes something or appreciates the handmade. In short, craft is us.

Our mission is to document and advance original handcrafted work through programs in all media, accessible to all. We are dedicated to the exploration, preservation and celebration of craft, the work of the hand, and their impact on our nations cultural heritage.

Carol Sauvion, Executive Director, Craft In America, Inc.

CRAFT IN AMERICA, Inc. is a Los Angeles-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to promote and advance original handcrafted work, through educational programs in all media. The CRAFT IN AMERICA multi-faceted project includes a TV Series, Exhibition, Illustrated book and Study Center. For additional information on CRAFT IN AMERICA and to find out more about up-coming projects please contact us.

Carolyn Benesh
Carolyn is coeditor and copublisher of Ornament Magazine, printed five times a year. Originally started as The Bead Journal, the magazine increased its focus to contemporary, ethnographic, and ancient personal adornment in 1979. She has written and edited articles on craft, lectured at museums and conferences, and served as a juror at major craft shows. She has also studied the modern craft movement.

Corinna Cotsen, Secretary
Fundraiser, artist, architect and collector
Board of Trustees, Craft and Folk Art Museum

Lani Duke
As an arts administrator, Leilani Duke has served as an arts administrator at the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Confederation of the Arts, and the J. Paul Getty Trust. At the Getty Trust, she was the founding director of the Getty Education Institute for the Arts. Ms Duke directed the LA Times' Reading by 9 child literacy initiative from 1999 to 2004. For her national leadership in arts education she received honorary degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of the Arts. Among her board affiliations she served as a trustee of the American Craft Council, and chair the board for three years.

Susan A Grode, President
Partner and Co-Chair of Entertainment & Media Practice
Susan concentrates her law practice in entertainment, intellectual property, media licensing and merchandising law, counseling and representing domestic and international motion picture studios, film and television production and distribution companies and entrepreneurs, Video on Demand companies, digital and interactive game companies and distributors, as well as book and comic book publishing, toy and Internet content companies and theater and arts institutions. Ms. Grode is recognized as one of the leading authorities on domestic and international animation, having represented major motion picture and animation studios and creators of "The Simpsons," "Futurama," and "SpongeBob," among many others.

Lloyd Herman
During his 25 year employment at the Smithsonian Institution, Lloyd Herman was the founding Director of the national craft museum of the US, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, from 1971-1986. He has also worked at the Cartright Galery in Vancouver, B.C., Oregon State University, and Museum of Glass in Tacoma. Since retiring from the Smithsonian Institution, he has continued to curate exhibitions on craft and design topics. He has lectured on American crafts and has juried numerous art competitions in the United States and abroad. In recent years he has led craft tours in other countries and lectures regularly on contemporary glass art for Elderhostel/Road Scholar programs in Seattle. Herman has also published many books. Herman is a native of Oregon, and lives and works in Seattle, Washington.

Beverly Maloof
Beverly is a craft admirer and collector. One of Sam Maloof's earliest clients, she was married to Sam in July 2001 until his death in May 2009. She was a Real Estate Broker and owner of a residential real estate brokerage for 24 years. She has been on many boards of trustees, including the Sam & Alfred Maloof Foundation for the Arts & Crafts, the Botanic Garden Advisory Board, and the Textile Museum Advisory Council.

Jane Milosch
In April 2008, Jane Milosch, curator at the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, was appointed to the acting position of Senior Program Officer for the Arts, in the Office of the Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture (OUSHAC), Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., to work with Under Secretary Richard Kurin on pan-Institutional art programs and initiatives. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Munich, Germany, where she has also worked as a managing editor for Prestel art books. Milosch began her museum career in 1990 at the Detroit Institute of the Arts in the Department of 20th-century Art.

Ann Ruhr Pifer, Treasurer
Ann is the owner of The Grand Hand Gallery in St. Paul, MN. Prior to opening the gallery, Ann spent 15 years working as a commercial banker in New York and Minneapolis. She received her B.A. from Smith College and her M.A. in International Relations from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She is a member of the Board of St. Paul Academy and Summit School, is a past member of the Board of WAMSO, the volunteer association of the Minnesota Orchestra, and is frequently invited to speak to groups on marketing and public relations for arts businesses.

Steven Poster, ASC
Steven is a cinematographer with over fifty film credits including Donnie Darko, Stuart Little 2 and The Box. He is also a photographer with a current exhibition, a retrospective of forty years of street photography, traveling to six cities nationwide. He is the President of the International Cinematographers Guild, Local 600 of the I.A.T.S.E., a 6000-member national labor organization. He is a member of the Motion Picture Academy, a judge on its Nicholl Foundation Fellowship, and on its Public Presentation Committee. He is a past president of the American Society of Cinematographers, the oldest professional organization in the motion picture business, and was on the Board of the International Documentary Association.

Susan Koblin Schear
Susan is an educator, speaker, consultant, and leader. She founded the company, ARTISIN, LLC, in 1995 to offer comprehensive business development and management services for the arts and culture. An active board trustee, Ms. Schear is the treasurer and an involved committees member of CERF (Craft Emergency Relief Fund). She serves on several committees including chair of the steering committee for the Arts and Business Council of New York (ABC/NY), National Arts Marketing Project (NAMP) New York. She is also a member of several cultural and business-networking organizations.

FORMER BOARD MEMBERS

Cathleen Collins
Consultant to Craft in America, attorney, fundraiser
- Former President of the Board of Trustees, Wildwood School
- Trustee, Foundation of the State Bar of California

Pat Courtney Gold
Pat is a fiber artist and basketmaker. She is enrolled in the Wasco Nation, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon, where she was raised. Pat helped revive the art of Wasco Basket weaving, with the geometric images and motifs. She was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship in 2007. Her work is in museum collections and has been exhibited nationally and internationally.

Steven L. Grafe, Ph.D.
Curator, Maryhill Museum of Art

Karin Higa
As the Senior Curator of Art at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, Ms. Higa curated a number of exhibitions and written essays on Japanese craftspeople. She has taught and lectured extensively on Asian American and contemporary art. She brings a deep knowledge of the Japanese American craft experience to the Craft in America project.

Eudorah Moore
FORMER:
- Director of the California Design Exhibitions
- Craft Administrator for the National Endowment for the Arts
- Design Curator for the Pasadena Museum of Art

Cynthia Sears
-Board Member, Bainbridge Island Community Endowment
-Vice President, Port Townsend Film Festival
-Founder and Chairman, Island Treasure Award Program
-Consultant, Local non-profit Arts and Humanities Organizations

Hidde Van Duym, Ph.D.
Arts administrator and consultant

Carol Sauvion, Executive Director
Carol is the creator and Executive Producer of Craft in America, the documentary series celebrating American craft and the artists who bring it to life. She is also the Executive Director of the Craft in America non-profit organization whose mission is to promote and advance original handcrafted work through educational programs in all media. Craft is Sauvions lifelong passion. For the past thirty years she has been the director of Freehand, her Los Angeles gallery specializing in functional craft.

Patricia Bischetti, Producer
Patricia has produced and supervised productions for networks including PBS, Discovery, TBS, TCM, CNN, National Geographic, Lifetime and Showtime. Projects include the Craft in America series, The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing, Participant Productions' The World According to Sesame Street, Discovery's Black Sky: The Race for Space, CNN's Soldiers of Peace: A Children's Crusade and Emmy-nominated Dying to Tell the Story, TCM's Emmy-nominated Cary Grant: A Class Apart and American Masters documentaries Gene Kelly, George Cukor, and Bob Newhart. As Executive Producer at Big Buddha Baba Productions, she produced interactive media and experience design projects and brought those skills to the re-design of the Craft in America website and creation of the new Study Center.

Rosey Guthrie, Producer
Rosey has had a diverse twenty-year background in media production, distribution and outreach. As V. P. of First Light Video Publishing from 1988 to 1996, she created marketing and distribution plans for a catalog of over two hundred educational films, serving as Associate Producer on over fifteen of these productions. From 1997 to 2003 she was V. P. of Panavision Remote Systems. In 2003 she returned to filmmaking as Producer on "Breaking the Maya Code" which aired on PBS/NOVA. As Associate Producer of Craft in America, Rosey has worked on development, fundraising, production and outreach of the various projects, including the documentary series, Study Center and exhibitions.

Denise Kang, Project Coordinator
Denise is a ceramicist and printmaker, graduating from USC in 2006. Since then, she has worked on every aspect of the Craft in America project. Denise is the company archivist and maintains our extensive website.

Judy Hing Administration and Production Accounting
Judy comes to the Craft in America project with over a decade of experience in gallery administration and accounting, with a great understanding of craft, and with relationships with hundreds of craft artists. An accomplished jewelry artist herself, she brings a special precision to her work in production accounting.

Emily-Rose Wagner, Assistant Editor & Production Assistant
Emily-Rose is a graduate of Hampshire College and currently works as a video artist and photographer in Los Angeles. Emily-Rose's video work has been featured on ITVS Television, at the Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival, Actual Size Gallery, as well as the Echo Park Film Center. In 2008, Emily-Rose directed, filmed, and produced "Home", a documentary about the importance of the public library to the homeless community in Downtown Los Angeles. "Home" received the "Best Short" award at the Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival. In addition to continuing her personal artistic endeavors, Emily-Rose operates as the Assistant Editor and Production Assistant for Craft in America.

Emily Zaiden Study Center Director
Before coming to Craft in America, Emily was a research editor for Architectural Digest and she has consulted for private collectors and institutions focusing on post-1850 decorative arts, material culture, architecture and design. After completing her graduate studies at the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture, she became Research Associate to the Decorative Arts department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She has published articles, contributed to exhibition catalogues, and lectured on both American and International decorative arts topics.

Steve Fenton, Founding Creative Director (2001-2010)
For more than 30 years, Steve Fenton worked in the advertising and marketing communications industry at Needham Harper and Steers, J. Walter Thompson, Benton and Bowles and DArcy, developing ideas into copy to make a connection with consumers hearts and heads. Clients included Amtrak, Xerox, Procter and Gamble and MCI. In 2001, Steve became creative director for the Craft in America project. He was instrumental in developing the programs treatment, and identifying the themes and content of the series. Steve also wrote the text for the website and co-authored the companion book entitled Craft in America: Celebrating Two Centuries of Artists and Objects. Steve passed away on August 12, 2010.

Major funding for Craft In America was generously provided by:
Biller Family Foundation
Lillian & Jon Lovelace
LL Brownrigg
Cynthia Lovelace Sears & Frank Buxton
Helen & Peter Bing
Stolaroff Foundation
Windgate Charitable Foundation

Craft In America thanks its many partners.