American Craft (magazine)

American Craft is a periodical magazine that documents crafts, craft artists, and both practical and creative aspects of the field of American craft.[2][3] Originally founded by Aileen Osborn Webb in 1941 as Craft Horizons, the magazine has been published by the nonprofit American Craft Council under the title American Craft since November 1979.[2]

As of 1979, the magazine's monthly circulation averaged 40,000 copies, making it the main craft publication in the United States.[2] As American Craft, the magazine developed "a more visual orientation as a coffee-table magazine".[4]^: 378 After the National Endowment for the Arts began to award grants to individual craftspeople in 1973, American Craft profiled major NEA craft recipients.[4]^: 377 However, its reviews were often limited to "one or two in-depth commentaries" accompanied by a "visual summary of shows".[5]

Like its predecessor, which both "documented and shaped" the changing history of the American craft movement,[6] American Craft has reflected the development of craft.[7] Writers such as Ed Rossbach have examined the history of craft in its pages. In the 1980s Rossbach wrote a series of articles describing tensions between textile artists Mary Meigs Atwater, Anni Albers, Dorothy Liebes and Marianne Strengell in the 1940s.[4]^{: 206–207} In 1993, the magazine marked its 50th anniversary and the national "Year of American Craft" with a commemorative issue profiling the previous fifty years.[8]^: 6[9] American Craft was described in 1994 as a "major scholarly periodical" of interest to both researchers and serious craftspeople.[8]^: 12

American Craft's current editor is Karen Olson (2020-).[1] Previous editors-in-chief include Deborah Pines, Pat Dandignac,[10] Lois Moran (1980 to 2006)[11], Andrew Wagner (2007-2009), Janet Koplos (guest editor, 2009-2010), Shannon Sharpe (deputy editor)[10], Monica Moses (June 2010 to January 2018)[12] and Megan Guerber (2018-2020).[10]