Handcrafts and Art

The Amana Colonies arts community is thriving as local artisans and artists create baskets, candles, furniture, clocks, toys, iron, brass and copper goods, pottery, glass, jewelry, knives, brooms and quilts, along with paintings, prints and fine art work of every description.

This tradition began 151 years ago when the Inspirationists set up shops to provide everything a growing prairie community would need. The communal villages had their own tinsmiths and blacksmiths, locksmiths and coopers, woodworkers and broom makers, weavers and clockmakers to create beautiful, simple things for everyday life.

Today is no different; craftspeople create beautiful things for everyday life. Some use the patterns and designs created generations ago by communal craftsmen, but others express the Colony ethos in new designs and forms. Even in the work of a new generation of painters and fine artists, in the bold pastels of High Amana artist Gordon Kellenberger and the evocative brushwork of West Amana painter Michele Maring Miller for example, there is a uniquely Amana perspective, a melding of traditional views and 21st century vision that is inspiring.

Furniture and Clocks

Dating from the days when communal furniture makers built for the community, the Amana Colonies continue the 151-year tradition of finely crafted furniture and clocks.

In the Colonies, the furniture makers invest each piece with telling quality that adds value as the years pass. Using Colony designs of old, in addition to classic and contemporary

American and European designs, furniture makers create pieces for today's families. Furniture may be purchased from the shop's showroom or made especially to your specifications. Each piece of furniture has its own story, a story told in the age and beauty of its wood, the graceful lines and perfect symmetry of its design and the hand rubbed, velvety texture of its finish, a story expressed in line and form and function, a story made real in the signature of the furniture maker who built the piece - a story that joins your own when you take it home.

A Community of Artists

The Amana Arts Guild, a not-for-profit organization of Amana Colonies artists and supporters, offers gallery exhibits and workshops open to the public at the Amana Arts Guild Center in High Amana.

Exhibits at the Center range from one-person exhibitions by local and regional artists to survey exhibitions focusing upon a particular art form, style or time period. The Arts Guild operates a gallery shop featuring both traditional Amana Colony craftwork and contemporary artwork by members of the Amana Arts Guild. The gallery and gallery shop in High Amana are open May - October.

The Guild also hosts a variety of weekend and week long workshops year-round. Whatever your skill level, you can take a class or workshop at the Arts Guild Center and express yourself as you learn. Classes offered for re-certification teaching credit and a curriculum that works for both beginning level and advanced level artists are hallmarks of their workshops. To learn more go to www.amanaartsguild.com.