The launch of Built by Hand: Skilled Artisans in the Traditional Trades has taken place, a digital exhibition available on the website of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
The Traditional Building Cultures Foundation has contributed to the development of this educational resource as an advisory partner, taking part in the definition of its conceptual framework and content. The exhibition offers a detailed insight into the work of craftspeople specialized in traditional building trades, addressing both the technical rigor of their practices and the cultural dimension of their knowledge.
Built by Hand brings together testimonies from a wide range of craftspeople—stone carvers, decorative painters, carpenters, blacksmiths, plasterers, and glass artisans, among others—highlighting the diversity of their backgrounds and contexts. Through their accounts, the exhibition addresses key aspects of these trades: the intergenerational transmission of knowledge, the relationship between manual skill and cultural identity, and the intrinsic value of making.
By making these practices visible to a broader audience, the initiative fosters their understanding not only as heritage to be preserved, but as living disciplines with full relevance in contemporary architectural and cultural production.
