Crafting curiosity.
Explore the American Craft Council’s array of programs designed to inspire appreciation of craft and support makers at all career stages.
Early Career Artist Program
Transformative support.
American Craft Council’s Early Career Artist Program builds your path from passion to profession, offering program participants exclusive access to $100,000 in grants, steeply discounted booth fees to showcase your work at premier craft fairs nationwide, and more—all on top of the full benefits of ACC membership.
Artist opportunities.
Calls for applications and exhibition opportunities for makers.
Explore opportunities to exhibit at ACC events and marketplaces throughout the country.
American Craft Forums
Where makers and ideas meet.
Explore ACC’s lively series of virtual events that spotlight visionary artists, dive into creative practices, uncover hidden histories, and spark timely conversations linking today’s big ideas with the vibrant world of craft.
Object Stories
Handmade objects and the personal connections they evoke.
In this live storytelling series, artists, community voices, and cultural leaders share personal tales about objects that shape and influence their lives. Each story reveals how objects carry memory, meaning, and the ability to bring people together.
Let’s Make!
Let’s Make! brings craft out of the workshop and into the open.
Let’s Make! is an ACC initiative that brings together fair attendees and regional partners to showcase the processes and skills that bring handcrafted goods to life. Craft enthusiasts are invited to explore fun and educational demonstrations and interactive activities, while artists, businesses, and nonprofits have the opportunity to connect with new audiences. ACC’s Let’s Make! helps infuse ACC fairs with a fun, engaging, and approachable energy.
School-to-Market
Designed to bridge the gap between craft-centered education and the marketplace.
The American Craft Council’s School-to-Market program is designed to help bridge the gap between craft-centered curricula and ACC’s nationally renowned fairs and craft audiences. School-to-Market encourages craft and folk schools, colleges and universities, trade schools, and other organizations to partner with ACC to allow early-career artists to participate in a professional craft fair early in their development.
Guided by faculty or senior staff, the participants develop the skills needed to interact with the public in a sales environment without the expense and experience that are required of established artists. Alongside their peers, participating early-career artists develop their work, plan the visual presentation, create the booth, and actively sell their work.
Craft Lab Workshop Series
Illuminate the business of making.
This free virtual workshop series is designed for artists and makers interested in honing the craft of business. Available to ACC members, Craft Lab is an opportunity to learn directly from experts through presentations, discussions, and activities that illuminate the most important elements of a craft business.
Our awards.
ACC helps pave the way for excellence in craft by honoring artists and advocates whose work moves the craft field forward.
ACC Biennial Awards
Every other year, the American Craft Council bestows four types of awards recognizing the inspiring individuals and organizations moving the field forward.
Awards of Excellence
These awards celebrate outstanding artists in our marketplaces, recognizing makers who demonstrate exceptional quality of work and entrepreneurial effort. Five Awards of Excellence are distributed during American Craft Made Baltimore.
Randall Darwall Grant for Fiber Artists
The Randall Darwall Grant for Fiber Artists, an opportunity created in honor of a beloved ACC show artist, helps fiber artists participate in our marketplace by providing a free booth and stipend to assist with show expenses.
Harlan Boss Scholarships
This opportunity awards Minnesota emerging artists who are Black, Indigenous, or Persons of Color (BIPOC) or otherwise historically underrepresented with financial and in-kind support to build sustainable and successful careers.
CERF+ Award
The CERF+ Emerging Artist Readiness Award is an annual award (over five years from 2025-2030) provided by the Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF+), a non-profit organization that provides craft artists emergency relief and preparedness grants as well as education, advocating for craft artists through every step of their creative journeys.
Take part.
Become a member of ACC.
Craft is better when we experience it together. Support makers, celebrate the handcrafted, and explore the nationwide craft community with a membership to the American Craft Council.