Namita Wiggers

My research project and subsequent publication “Making Craft History: Exhibitions in U.S. Craft Museums, 2000–2020” pivots on the premise that exhibitions are a critical form of making craft history. The project will contextualize craft museum exhibition history during the most recent craft revival, a period that coincided with socio-cultural and economic shifts that impacted all museums: the rise of the internet, the 2008 recession, a turn to collection-building and collection-driven exhibitions, and more recently, public calls for museums to address equity gaps in representation. During this time, more museums opened or rebranded with a craft or craft media-specific mission than in any previous decades. Exhibitions at these museums constitute one of the most public forms for understanding and documenting craft’s histories. My study asks: what kind of history is shaped through exhibitions in craft museums? How do craft museums define American culture?