The Bard Graduate Center Craft, Art, and Design Oral History Project
30 December 2013
www.bgccraftartdesign.org is an online archive of illustrated oral history interviews with contemporary craftspeople, artists, and designers. The interviews consist of transcripts accompanied by photographs of the makers and their work; some also feature audio and video clips. The interviewees come from many fields: studio craft in wood, ceramics, fiber, glass, metal, and mixed media; architectural, industrial, graphic, fashion, and costume design; and sculpture and installation art. Topics discussed include background and education, aesthetics, goals, career choices, and the marketplace.
The project responds to the growing interest in craft and design history, in which oral histories have been a key resource for a growing body of scholarship. The goals of the project are twofold. One is to document, preserve and make available the voices of contemporary makers for the purpose of research. By including creators in multiple fields, the archive provides the opportunity to consider the distinctions, continuities, and fluidity among their practices and their work. The project's second aim is to share strategies for developing primary sources on contemporary craft, art and design via the practice of oral history.
The interviews have been conducted by graduate students in the seminar "Craft and Design in the USA, 1940-Present," taught by Assistant Professor Catherine Whalen, who also directs this ongoing project.
Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture
38 West 86th Street, New York, NY 10024
Source:
www.bgc.bard.edu
Number of Visits: 3951
The latest
- A Review of Scientific and Operational Strategies for Overcoming the Erosion of Narrators’ Memory
- 100 Questions/ 33
- Expert Panel Session on Oral History of the Country – (Part 2)
- Memoirs of Ahmad Nabavi
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 33
- Memoirs of Majid Yousefzadeh
- Oral History News/April–May 2026
- Expert Panel Session on Oral History of the Country – (Part 1)
Most visited
- Ta An Setareh (Up to that Star) (Part One)
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 32
- 100 Questions/ 32
- Expert Panel Session on Oral History of the Country – (Part 1)
- Oral History News/April–May 2026
- Memoirs of Majid Yousefzadeh
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 33
- Expert Panel Session on Oral History of the Country – (Part 2)
From Revolutionary Circles to the Military Arm of the Islamic Government
In those days, it became clear that certain institutions had to be established very quickly—institutions suited to the temperament, expectations, and lingering aspirations of the younger generation; young people who had been politically active before the Revolution and, in some cases, had been directly entangled in arrests, imprisonment, ...Authenticating Oral History: From Possibility to Necessity
The use of oral history as one of the historical sources has long been one of the principal challenges facing oral historians and those who employ it in contemporary historiography. The development of international standards for oral history, as well as IRIB standards, was intended to address the criticisms raised in this regard. The relationship between Diplomatics in written records and oral history is reciprocal.100 Questions/27
What is the place of research ethics in compiling oral history?We asked several researchers and activists in the field of oral history to express their views on oral history questions. The names of each participant are listed at the beginning of their answers, and the text of all answers will be published on this portal by the end of the week.
Photo Album from The Doctor of fly
The Doctor of fly, authored by Fatemeh Dehghan Niri, presents the memoirs of Dr. Mohammad-Taqi Khorsandi Ashtiani, Professor Emeritus and a subspecialist in Otolaryngology at Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Compiled within the framework of oral history, the work recounts different stages of his life—from childhood and years of ...
