An ongoing exhibition of the Museum’s growing permanent collection of over 3,500 objects, Craft Front & Center features a fresh installation of more than 60 historic works and new acquisitions dating from the golden age of the American Craft movement to the present day. Organized into themes of material transformation, dismantling hierarchies, contemplation, identity, and sustainability, the exhibition illuminates how the expansive field of craft has broadened definitions of art.

Established at the Museum’s beginning in 1956, MAD's permanent collection was the vision of Museum founder, Aileen Osborne Webb, the collector and philanthropist who pioneered an understanding of craft and the handmade as a creative driving force of art and design. With the aim of broadening access to the collection's holdings, Craft Front & Center will be periodically updated with new displays of rarely seen works and recent additions, as well as inspiration for hands-on workshops and off-site field trips. 

Mitsuko Asakura, Japan, b.1950 photo by Jenna Bascom

Waltz, 2016

Silk and bamboo

Museum of Arts and Design, New York; purchase with funds provided by Michele and Marty Cohen, 2022

Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola, United States, b. 1991 photo by Jenna Bascom

CAMOUFLAGE (Count Basie at Carnegie Hall), 2021

Durags

Museum of Arts and Design, New York; purchased with funds provided by the Collections Committee, 2022