Paper Short Abstract:

Though it is not a craft school, craft has been essential to the Campbell Folk School since its foundation in 1925. Examining craft at the school highlights the multi-faceted ways in which craft acts as a node of communication, looking beyond the objects to broader social, political, and cultural power.

Paper Abstract:

The John C. Campbell Folk School is not a craft school; however, craft has been an integral part of the school since its foundation in 1925. Craft was an essential aspect of the school’s curriculum and founder Olive Campbell played a significant role in defining craft and characterizing a singular idea of traditional Appalachian craft that persists today, as both celebration and resistance. Looking at the legacies of craft and craft pedagogies established through the school’s ongoing engagements and promotion of craft, I explore how approaches to knowledge and knowledge formation is enacted through making. What do we learn when we learn through our hands? Exploring this question 100 years after the school’s founding, I draw from archival and ethnographic research to consider how craft has been a vehicle for affecting change at the school, and how individuals have engaged with political and social issues, becoming vocal advocates and active catalysts for effecting change. In recent years, individuals at the school have addressed issues of race (and erasure) and gender equity and I consider the role of craft and craft knowledge in reckoning with the school’s exclusionary legacies as individuals continually redefine its future. Examining craft through the folk school highlights the multi-faceted ways in which craft acts as a node of communication, looking beyond the products and aesthetics of the objects to understand the broader social, political, and cultural power in craft.