About the Project:
Service Communities

Craft Revival: Shaping Western North Carolina Past and Present targets specific public communities who will benefit from the information on the database and website.



At its outset, the project identified five communities that may benefit directly from the project. These include: History and Preservation, Craft/Art/Aesthetics, Tourism/ Economic Development/ Outreach, Education, and Collections Management communities.

  • History and Preservation community includes scholars and independent researchers as well as research institutions, including museums and universities. For this audience, Craft Revival: Shaping Western North Carolina Past and Present serves as an online portal to important research collections.
  • Craft/Art/Aesthetics community includes state and regional craft organizations, craftspeople, art centers and museums, and community colleges that provide community enrichment and adult education programs to the public. The Craft Revival project provides historical grounding for understanding the context of craft production and contemporary economic development initiatives.
  • Tourism/Economic Development/Outreach audience is especially active in western North Carolina in its utilization of craft and craft makers as a focus for defining the region as a destination. The project provides new, accurate, and useful information to outreach and marketing communities for use in understanding and promoting the region's crafts.
  • Education community includes public schools, school teachers, students, and their parents with an emphasis on K-12 activities. The website provides well designed and well integrated applications across the core curriculum for teachers, including lesson plans for various grade levels.
  • Collections Management community—libraries, archives, historical societies, and museums with diverse public collections of manuscripts and objects—have an opportunity to participate by contributing and linking relevant collections to form a cohesive story.

See More: Read The Story. Meet The People. Learn about The Crafts. View The Collection and link to Resources, including a bibliography, lesson plans, and today's craft organizations.