The integrity of this collection is rooted in its provenance: Craft World Tours. For years, that organization served as the bridge between the Western world and the traditional artisan. Every piece in this assembly was acquired through those direct, personal relationships with makers who are the last keepers of their respective traditions. While the era of the tours has concluded, the physical legacy of those journeys remains intact within this collection.

The mission of Tour World Crafts is the purposeful reintroduction of these pieces into the hands of appreciative collectors. We operate with a sustaining approach: by placing selected works with those who value their history, we generate the capital necessary to maintain, protect, and grow the broader collection. We act as a bridge—ensuring that these objects continue to be celebrated while providing the resources to sustain the archive for the future.

Sources of the Collection
Spanning four decades of global field research (1969–2011), the Craft World Tours Collection is sourced from over 30 countries and hundreds of remote artisan communities. Significant regional archives include the Silk Road territories of China, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan; the high-altitude craft centers of Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, and Sikkim; and the textile-rich villages of Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand.

The collection also draws from the ethnographic traditions of India, Indonesia, and Malaysia, as well as the historical folk arts of Romania, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Portugal, and the USSR. Our African and Middle Eastern holdings represent the craftsmanship of Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, Ghana, and Togo, while our Western Hemisphere artifacts originate from the indigenous markets of Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.