On episode 140 of The Quarantine Tapes, guest host Naomi Shihab Nye is joined by Helen Drutt English. Helen is a longtime champion of the contemporary craft movement. She and Naomi discuss her history with crafts and collecting, digging into the tension between mechanization and handmade objects in the twentieth century.Helen and Naomi lift up the value of rituals in these months of quarantine. They talk about the positives of isolation, from improved concentration to time to connect more deeply with friends. Finally, Helen shares a fascinating recent discovery found sorting through the materials in her own basement. Helen W. Drutt English (Helen Drutt) was Founder/Director of her eponymous gallery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1973–2002), which was among the first galleries in the United States to make a commitment to the modern and contemporary craft movement. In 1979, American Craft magazine stated that the gallery was to crafts, what Alfred Stieglitz’s Gallery 291 was to photography, earlier in the twentieth century. Drutt developed the first syllabus for a college-level course in the history of the field in 1973. She has published numerous essays; conceived many exhibitions, e.g., Brooching It Diplomatically: A Tribute to Madeleine K. Albright (1998), Poetics of Clay: An International Perspective (2001–03), Challenging the Châtelaine! (2007–09); and curated American studio jewelry for the Museo del Gioiello, Vicenza, Italy (2016–18). The Helen Williams Drutt Collection of international studio jewelry has been exhibited internationally. In 2002, 800 works entered the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Drutt has built a permanent collection of contemporary crafts for The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (2014), and is currently building a collection of American crafts for the National Museum of Sweden and a collection for the Ilias LaLaounis Museum of Jewelry, Athens, Greece. In 1984 Drutt established the Maurice English Poetry Award (MEPA), which has supported a yearly award for a distinguished book of poetry (1985–2005) and annual poetry readings (2006–present). In 2012 she established the H. Peter Stern Lecture under the auspices of the World Monuments Fund, given semi-annually. In 2020, Drutt announced that she is donating her expansive collection of art books to Temple University. Drutt has received numerous awards and three honorary degrees. She is a trustee of the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution; Fellow of the American Craft Council; and a recipient of the Distinguished Educator’s Award 2018, James Renwick Alliance, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Drutt is currently researching a book that documents activities central to the craft field from 1960 to the present.Credits:Paul Holdengraber - Co-Creator, Host, OLA DirectorAnthony Audi - Co-Creator, Researcher, OLA DirectorAlejandro Cohen - Co-Creator, Producer, ComposerChristian Pitt - Production Coordinator Erin Cooney - Copy, ProductionDublab Team