ARCHIVE
The archive at Contemporary Craft is a collection of exhibition catalogs, planning materials, press releases, photographs, slides, VHS, and more that spans from our founding in 1971 as The Store for Art and Craft and People-Made Things through our present day programming. Focused primarily on exhibitions and education, the archive gives a broad overview of CC’s diverse history as an organization dedicated to craft in the city of Pittsburgh.
In 2022, Contemporary Craft embarked on a project to reorganize and activate the archives and collection as a vital educational resource for artists, scholars, and the general public. Generously funded by a grant from the Hillman Foundation in 2023, the archive has undergone a major reorganization and is now well on its way to being used by scholars and the public alike.
COLLECTION
The Contemporary Craft Permanent Collection was established in 1980 after the close of our first exhibition, Art in Modern Handcrafts. The Collection comprises over 300 craft objects that range in size, material, process, and style. One half of the Collection is what is often referred to as our “capsule collection” – items accessioned into the Collection from Art in Modern Handcraft, The Sociable Workshop, and The Store – primarily dated to the 1970s. The remaining half of the Collection was acquired through exhibitions and donations throughout the rest of our history as an organization. While small, our permanent collection tells the story of Contemporary Craft, the artists we have worked with, and how craft has changed since our beginnings.
Beginning in 2024, CC has featured an annual display of the Permanent Collection in our Gerri Kay Exhibition Cases, titled Archive This! The collection is searchable via our database below.
To research the Contemporary Craft exhibitions archive or view the collection in person, please reach out to Sydney Leslie at sleslie@contemporarycraft.org.
