TOUCHSTONE HISTORY
Founded as Pioneer Crafts Council in 1972 with an original focus on traditional Appalachian crafts, Touchstone Center for Crafts is Pennsylvania’s premier residential craft school.
It was 1972 when a group of artists, encouraged by the state, began sharing their love of traditional Appalachian craft. Classes in pottery, weaving, quilting, and the fiber arts were held in the Mill Run Grange Hall under the name ‘Pioneer Crafts Council’. These artisans were striving to build a creative community, and eventually found a home a few miles away in nearby Farmington, where the organization now known as Touchstone Center for Crafts remains today. Currently located on 150 acres in Southwestern PA’s Laurel Highlands, Touchstone’s journey has given shape to a place where you will find artists of all backgrounds, skill levels, and ages collaborating and pushing themselves in new directions and mediums. Inspired by the natural setting of the campus, makers become immersed in their craft while being influenced and informed by impactful natural surroundings and the community of makers that is built on campus each week. This simple idea - to honor the value of the arts - lives on 50 years later.
In honor of the first 50 years, Touchstone’s $1.5 Million Anniversary Campaign is a critical step toward its future.
The goals of the campaign reflect current needs and priorities: renewal and enhancement of the creative environment, sustainability, increasing local and regional impact, and contributing to the future of the field.
TOUCHSTONE'S NEXT 50 YEARS DEPENDS ON THE GENEROSITY OF OUR COMMUNITY TODAY
