Also this issue:

Is There a Left Left?
Finding a place for liberalism in the new America.
-Sam Adams

Making the Video
Doug Aitken's work mixes film, art, social commentary and a dash of MTV.
-Robin Rice

More Than Words
-Sam Adams

History Lessons
-Elisa Ludwig

Sets and Lucia
-Steve Cohen

Carmen, and All the Rest!
-Howard Altman

Run and Hyde
-Toby Zinman

Noir Gold
-David Anthony Fox

November 7-13, 2002

artpicks

Wares House

"Every imaginable medium" is represented in the annual Craft Show to benefit the Art Museum, its promoters claim.

They kid you not. This year, we're talking brain-tanned deerskin.

For the first time in its 26-year history, the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show has specifically sought out Native American artists.

The decision, made by the event's co-presenters, the PMA Women's Committee and the Craft Show Committee, was partially spurred by the success of last year's show, where the committees invited Japanese artists.

The organizers researched different American Indian arts -- all of which, curiously or not, fall within our westernly academic category of "crafts" -- for the four-day exhibition and sale at the Convention Center.

So little is known, even to the most educated Americans, of the lives and concerns of contemporary American Indian communities, the sovereign nations within the borders of the United States. The initiative taken for the 2002 Craft Show is, if not redemptive, a nice blend of innovation and tradition. The Craft Show always has ample opportunities for visitors to speak with the participating artists, and not just for haggling over prices.

Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, Thu.-Sun., Nov. 7-10, $12 ($18 two-day pass), Pennsylvania Convention Center, 12th and Arch sts., 215-684-7930.

—Diane Eacret