It sought to provide training in traditional crafts and "to develop and raise the standards of the hand arts in the United States.

[5] The American Craftsmen's Council and Aileen Webb organized the program in cooperation with the Dartmouth College Student Workshop.

[5] The first group of teachers included Linn Lovejoy Phelan[11] and Marianne Haile in ceramics, Alden Hewes Wood and Miss Sammy Tate in metalworking, Robert Frederic Heartz in weaving, Eva Crockett in textiles, and Ernest Brace in woodworking.

"[1] Student designs, if approved by a specialist committee, could be put into production and sold through America House in New York city or other craft organizations.

Producing marketable goods and selling them through America House was still a major focus, but there was no longer an industry-style production system.

[15] As of January 1947, faculty included Ernest Frank Brace (woodworking), Edwin Blanchard Brown (design), Ethel Irene Mitchell (textiles), Linn Lovejoy Phelan (pottery), Herbert H. Sanders (pottery), Alden Hewes Wood (metalsmithing) and Laurits Christian Eichner (metalsmithing).

[1] He apprenticed as a silversmith in his father's business, and attended Copenhagen Technical College where he worked with Evald Nielson.

[23] Danish studio furniture designer Tage Frid was also recruited in 1948, to teach woodworkinug at the School for American Craftsmen.

[19][24][25] His work was Danish-modern in style with light, delicate lines and curves that emphasized natural qualities of the wood.

Thus, the school benefited from not one but two great women benefactors of art education, founder Aileen Osborn Webb and donor Susan Bevier.

Wildenhain had studied at the Bauhaus in Germany, and spent the war working as a teacher and production potter in Holland.

The move also gave it access to a larger cultural community[1] and made it possible to open a shop and gallery to sell fine craftwork.

It was not officially related to the school, but was organized by SAC faculty and alumni John Prip, Frans Wildenhain, Tage Frid and Ronald Pearson.

[30] When John Prip left the school in 1954, his chosen successor was highly respected Danish-born silversmith Hans Christensen.

[1] Christensen had studied at the College of the Technical Society in Copenhagen, Denmark and the School of the Arts and Crafts in Oslo, Norway.

Christensen’s hollowware designs were noted for simplicity, balance, clean lines, natural curves, and the interaction of light and shadow on surfaces, combining both form and function.

[32] Christensen combined Danish Modern style, technical knowledge and a trade background, all assets to the SAC metalsmithing department.

An increasing perception of the craftsperson as artist rather than artisan was personified by the appointment of American modernist Albert Paley to the metalworking faculty in 1969.

In the metalsmithing department, the 1960s saw a shift away from the production of traditional holloware, to the creation of individualist contemporary jewelry.