Create a World Built to Last | The Craftsmanship Initiative

Featured Blogs

Back to the Future: IFAM Invests in Sustainable Cultural Traditions

“My Heart is in the Art”—the resounding theme for the world’s largest gathering of indigenous folk artists, folk art collectors…

Fileteado Porteño: Preserving the iconic street art of Buenos Aires

It’s been years since I’ve walked the cobblestone streets of Buenos Aires, but the sights and sounds of the city…

The Intelligent Hand

For many anthropologists, their work involves delving into obscure corners of humanity’s past; for Trevor Marchand, a Canadian-born anthropology professor…

Mexican Craftsmanship and Frida Kahlo

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, we want to spotlight one of Mexico’s most iconic artists, Frida Kahlo. Although known…

The Magazine - Latest Stories

Spring 2018

The Looming Recession’s Workforce Dilemma

In early 2018, after the release of a positive national jobs reports, some experts said the glowing numbers really suggested a “wage-less recovery.” Today’s signs of a recession suggest the experts may have been right. For the last few decades, both the private and public sectors have gradually weakened the support structures that have nurtured the American workforce for generations. Two experts connect the dots on this new dilemma, and look for solutions.

Summer 2019

Café Jacqueline and the Art of the Soufflè

Deep in San Francisco’s storied North Beach neighborhood, Jacqueline Margulis has been making soufflès for her café’s customers five nights a week for nearly 40 years. Our story—and mini-documentary—on the only restaurant in the U.S. that specializes solely on this challenging but famously scrumptious symbol of French cuisine.

Summer 2019

Mexico’s Master Guitar Makers

When a Disney film, “Coco,” spotlighted a small Mexican town where almost every shop makes guitars, it suddenly made ornate, white guitars famous. Underneath the new pop icon, however, lies a variety of much finer instruments—and a rich craft going back generations.

Video / Audio

The Jewelry Archaeologist

Through years of painstaking, often combative detective work, Hugo Kohl rescued an era of early American jewelry manufacturing technology that was on the brink of extinction. And what Kohl makes with these old machines turns out to be superior, in many ways, to the finest modern jewelry.

Cafe Jacqueline and the Art of the Soufflé

In San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood — where you can still feel the pulse of film noir scenes from the 1940s, and then the Beat Generation in the 1960s — Cafe Jacqueline remains the only restaurant in the U.S. dedicated entirely to the art of the soufflè.