© 2025 Abbetuck

Crafts

Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party," 1974–79. Mixed media: ceramic, porcelain, textile. Brooklyn Museum. Photograph by Donald Woodman.

Ceramics. Textiles. Glass Arts. Jewelry.

How have folk and craft visual artists activated their talents for our common good? What action can you take today?

Folk artists and craft artisans have a special knack for weaving culture, history, and everyday life into their work. Here are ways in which you can bring us closer to our shared humanity and use your talents to remind us of the importance of preserving our cultural and natural heritage.

  • Preserve Cultural Heritage: By maintaining traditional crafts and techniques, you can keep cultural heritage alive, ensuring that future generations can connect with their roots. This includes media like pottery, fabric and fiber art.

  • Empower Communities: You can use your skills to create economic opportunities for yourself and others. Cooperatives and collectives often form around craft traditions, providing income and fostering community bonds.

  • Promote Social Change: Art has always been a powerful tool for social commentary. As a folk artist you can address contemporary issues through your work, using traditional forms to convey messages about justice, equity, and human rights.

  • Help Sustain the Environment: Folk artists often use natural and sustainable materials, promoting eco-friendly practices. Your work can highlight the beauty and importance of nature, encouraging others to adopt more sustainable lifestyles.

  • Heal and Provide Therapy: Engaging in craft activities can be therapeutic, providing mental and emotional benefits. By leading community art projects, you can bring people together, offering a sense of purpose and connection.

Preserve Cultural Heritage

Hailed by The New York Times as "some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced," the quilts made in Gee’s Bend and Alberta, Alabama constitute a crucial chapter in the history of American art. Today, they are in the permanent collections of more than thirty leading art museums.

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Empower Communities

Grain of Rice Project operates a workshop in Nanyuki, Kenya where artisans sew, bead, weave baskets and more. The organization offers fair wages, training in basketry and jewelry making, and coaches its artisans in essential life skills like budgeting, savings and setting goals.

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Promote Social Change

With "Is there any free will in communication?" glass artist Jiayun Ding highlights the prevalence of ineffective communication today, especially in intimate relationships, and how it can lead to unresolved conflicts and mental health issues. Photo by Dave Williams.

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Help Sustain the Environment

Constructed from used jeans, Megan Prince calls her floor sculptures "Jean Bodies." Donated jeans are an important part of the years' long project, creating relationships, empowering people, and inviting participants to discuss the environmental benefit of repurposed clothing.

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Heal and Provide Therapy

Joshua Kinman Nan's work has shown that clay art therapy benefits adults with depression by improving their mood, decision-making skills, and motivation. Nan's approach to clay therapy helps individuals express emotions, which can be particularly beneficial for those who find it challenging to articulate their feelings.

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Josiah Wedgwood was an English potter who created the "Am I Not a Man and a Brother?" medallion in 1787.

Josiah Wedgwood was an English potter who created the "Am I Not a Man and a Brother?" medallion in 1787. This medallion depicted an enslaved African man in chains. It became a powerful symbol in the abolitionist movement and Wedgwood produced and distributed thousands of these to raise awareness and funds for the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.

Kat Crabill, owner and founder of Nurdle in the Rough which removes and transforms plastic from Hawaii's coastlines and turns it into jewelry.
Duane Kearns Puryear believed he contracted HIV after his first sexual experience while a teenager in Dallas.

The NAMES Project Memorial Quilt (also known as the AIDS Memorial Quilt) was conceived on Nov. 27, 1985, in San Francisco. By 2022, the world's largest work of folk art featured 50,000 panels with nearly 110,000 names sewn into them. One of these panels was created by Duane Kearns Puryear who believed he contracted HIV after his first sexual experience while a teenager in Dallas.

Are you aware of a folk artist or artisan who is mobilizing meaningful change in the world with their art form?
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Abbetuck

Abbetuck
P.O. Box 222303
Dallas, TX | USA

Abbetuck encourages artists to create works that inspire compassion and promote freedom.

© 2025 Abbetuck