Oral history interview with Nancy Crow
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 3 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 12 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 31 min.
name: label: Creator
content: Crow, Nancy, 1943-
label: Interviewer
content: Robertson, Jean
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
label: Names
content: Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts -- Faculty
label: Names
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
label: Names
content: Snyderman Gallery
label: Names
content: The Ohio State University -- Students
topic: label: Occupation
content: Quiltmakers -- Ohio
label: Occupation
content: Fiber artists -- Ohio
label: Topic
content: Decorative arts
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Women textile artists
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators. Researchers note: A separate 1988 interview of Crow, also conducted by Robertson is also available.
creator: label: Creator
content: Crow, Nancy, 1943-
label: Interviewer
content: Robertson, Jean
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Nancy Crow (1943- ) is a fiber artist and quiltmaker in Baltimore, Ohio.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 50 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2002 December 18
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.crow02
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript available online.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Nancy Crow conducted 2002 December 18, by Jean Robertson, for the Archives of American Art, at her home and studio, in Baltimore, Ohio, as part of the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Crow speaks of her early childhood and her father's high standards; her early interest in color; her studies at Ohio State University and her first ceramics professor Edgar Littlefield; joining the textile guild in Athens, Ohio; how her quilting evolved from traditional to contemporary and abstract forms; her practice of working on several quilts simultaneously; the influence of Anna Williams, a quiltmaker in Baton Rouge, Alabama; and she describes her studio. Crow also discusses her association with the Snyderman Gallery, Philadelphia; a trip to China that resulted in the series Chinese Souls; and how beauty is her ultimate goal. She talks about her travels to Mexico and South Africa; her technical mastery of strip piecing; working at home while raising two sons; the dyeing process; her sketchbooks; her long-term working relationship with hand quilter, Marla Hattabaugh; teaching at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts; the beginnings of the Quilt National Show at the Dairy Barn; the Ohio Arts Council; the Art Quilt Network; periodicals including FiberArts, Surface Design, Hali, and Raw Vision; two seminal exhibitions in her career, "Nancy Crow: Work in Transition," at the American Craft Museum, 1993, and "Nancy Crow -- Improvisational Quilts," at the Renwick Gallery, 1995; and the changing market for quilts in America. She recalls Bruce Hoffman, Rick and Ruth Snyderman, Jan Myers-Newberry, Rosalie Gascoigne, Sandra Blaine, Vivian Harvey; Linda Fowler, and others.