• Since 1992, the Craft Center has provided guests with a rare glimpse into the historic crafts and technologies that allow the Museum to so vividly re-create the look and feel of the 17^th century. Using tools, materials and craft techniques of the 1600s, Native artisans make stone, wood and sinew tools, porcupine headdresses and hand-coiled clay pots. Other artisans practice historic English trades, making reproductions of the objects that 17^th-century colonists imported from England. Our joiners and cabinetmakers, potters and tailors provide the Museum’s 17^th-Century English Village with its accurate material culture. All of our celebrated artisans are involved in the important work of reviving and perpetuating ancient technologies that are in danger of being lost. To learn more about current programs and exhibits at the Craft Center, click the links to the left. 

JUST ANNOUNCED! The Craft Center Renovation and Expansion Project 

Traditional crafts, encompassing those arts and trades of everyday life for Native People and the English Colonists—including cabinet-making, textiles, beadwork, basket-making, cooking, baking, metal-smithing and more—have been an area of increasing interest to our guests, and thus an identified area of growth. Expanding these exhibits aligns perfectly with the Museum’s educational mission. The plan will add a bakery to the Craft Center where guests can view demonstrations of 17th-century baking techniques, people of all ages can learn about the process from processing the grain to baking bread. 

As the new hub of the Museum experience, critical renovation and essential expansion will add hands-on activities, baking facilities and craft apprenticeships. We plan to renovate the Craft Center to provide essential visitor rest services, such as comfortable seating, updated lavatories, air-conditioning and an inviting outdoor space to rest, and enjoy the view.

Augmenting the Craft Center interior redesign is the open-air pavilion. This multi-purpose, outdoor space adjacent to the Craft Center will be used for demonstrations and hands-on activities. The new pavilion will have movable seating and a weatherproof sound system. On busy days for school groups this will also provide a place to eat bag lunches out of the sun or rain. This will also be a natural place for further orientation and outdoor learning experiences – and a perfect spot for guests to simply relax for a while or to wait for other members of their party.

To learn how you can support this project, call Courtney Roy-Branigan, Director of Development, at 508-746-1622 Ext. 8203, or email at croy-branigan@plimoth.org