- (Narrator) For the last fifty years and counting,
the Renwick has been the nation's craft museum.
- (Stephanie Stebich) The Renwick is a magical place
from the very moment you walk in the doors.
You're greeted by this grand staircase,
but a quite surprising, elegant, sashaying red carpet
tumbling down the stairs to greet you
and invite you upstairs.
The Renwick is a place of wonder and discovery.
When I talk about the Renwick,
I begin the story with the building itself.
- (Narrator) Stand on the front steps and look up
and you'll find the words "DEDICATED TO ART"
carved on the historic facade.
It's a fitting caption for the first building
in the United States designed
with the intention of being an art museum.
Its first bricks were laid
in 1859 to house the art collection of Washington, DC
banker and philanthropist William Corcoran.
But by 1900,
Corcoran's art collection had moved out
and the U.S. Court of claims had moved in,
and the place once "dedicated to art"
became just another federal building.
By the late 1950s, the structure was headed for demolition.
That is, until First Lady Jackie Kennedy intervened.
She fought for the preservation of this historic building,
just steps from her home at the White House,
and largely due to her efforts,
what we now call the Renwick Gallery was saved
from the wrecking ball.
In 1972, the Renwick opened its doors
as the home of the Smithsonian American
Art Museum's contemporary craft program.
If you are not sure what craft is, exactly,
you're not alone.
- (Nora Atkinson) Craft is kind of impossible to define.
Everybody has a different idea
of what craft is.
Traditionally, as far as museum contexts go,
craft has been divided up basically into five buckets
of media: wood, fiber, ceramics, metal, and glass.
But so many of the things that we've been
collecting really play outside of those boundaries.
I think the beauty of craft
in a lot of ways is that it's a moving definition.
- (Mary Savig) Craft is about the process, not the end.
So I think there's inspiration from being
in the midst of process and seeing that
at play in the galleries.
Craft tends to show you something about how it was made.
So in this way it always carries the presence
of the artist, including their memories
and their feelings and lived experiences,
all through the material trace of their hands.
- (Consuelo Jiménez Underwood) What I like about the crafts is that
a true craftsperson not only has to express themselves
and their tradition,
but they have to be one with that material.
They have to know that material
- (Steven Young Lee) As a maker,
I think that's something that it comes slowly.
It's not something that you can just
look up really quickly on the internet
and then know everything about it.
I think being a committed craft artist is you get better
by doing it more and doing it repetitively.
I think that as our world becomes so much more virtual,
there's an innate need for a lot of us
as humans to feel like you want to engage
with physical material and actually touch things.
I love that it boils down
to that very simple way of connecting.
- (Katie Hudnall) What I'm so interested in craft is
that you're literally thinking with your hands.
In the craft world,
often you're starting with the process
or material and you're exploring that material
and you're developing an empathy for that material.
- (Chawne Kimber) There's always going to be this need to restore back
to a sense of what humans are capable
of with their own hands.
Even just from a utilitarian perspective,
craft is important.
But we as humans have a drive
to distinguish ourselves as individuals,
and we do that through adornment.
And so once we knit our new sweater,
we're going to wanna embroider on it and embellish the knit
in the sleeve to kind of say that
"I am here, I am not like you.
I am different.
And I will show my sparkle to the world".
And that comes from craft.
- (Katie Hudnall) One of the things that's really interesting
to me is how open craft has always sort of felt,
like it opens itself up to every person.
I really love that.
Art sometimes can feel like it's for artists a little bit,
and I think craft can be a gateway into art
for people who don't have a relationship necessarily to it.
- (Mary Savig) Craft teaches us empathy.
It teaches us connections to each other
and hopefully helps us see a vast array
of perspectives of everyday life around us.
- (Nora Atkinson) I think the Renwick could make anyone a fan of craft.
I think every time people come to the museum
they find something unexpected
and unlike anything they find anywhere else.
- (Karen LaMonte) I always expect to be surprised when I go in that
I think I know what I'm going to see.
And then I'm like, "Oh, that's what craft means. Okay."
- (Sharon Kerry-Harlan) The Renwick is enduring.
The Renwick is encompassing.
The Renwick is enlightening.
- (Chawne Kimber) I think the Renwick represents sort of the pinnacle
of craft and what we're doing as a nation,
what we want to remember as a nation,
and what we want to preserve as a nation,
as representative of what we as Americans
have built in response to our world.
- (Consuelo Jiménez Underwood) It's a fellowship.
The Renwick can't be an institution
with one person involved.
It's got to be a group of people.
All for one and one for all.
- (Nora Atkinson) We just have a lot of fun asking questions
about "What is craft in the contemporary world?"
I'm very proud that we can put on exhibitions
in a singular place that feels like it matters.