Unpacking the Collection

Founded in Portland, Oregon, in 1937, the Museum is one of the oldest organizations dedicated to craft in the United States. This book presents a selection of works from the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Craft. The first publication to document the Museum's collection and its connections to dramatic changes in artistic practice over the past 70 years, Unpacking the Collection introduces this vital regional center for craft through photographs of work, essays, texts, archival photographs, decade-by-decade accounts of the institution's links to modern craft history and an abbreviated exhibition chronology. The book also reveals connections between the collection and the Museum's exhibition history, links between craft and visual culture, and the importance of recognizing regional specificity and identity in the age of globalization.