State of Craft

By Arlene Distler

As I sit with Jamie Franklin, director of the Bennington Museum, in the room that serves to showcase the museum’s wonderful collection of Norton pottery from the 1700’s, I’m steeped in craft history and lore. It is the perfect setting to talk about the upcoming State of Craft exhibit. According to Franklin, the museum’s important collections of eighteenth and nineteenth century American furniture, ceramics, silver, textiles, and a nationally renowned early American glass collection, have much to do with why this fairly modest museum was chosen to be the primary showcase for a statewide celebration of the studio craft movement in Vermont.