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Robert Shaw is a widely recognized expert on American folk art and traditional crafts, and the author of such critically acclaimed books as The Art Quilt, Quilts: A Living Tradition, America's Traditional Crafts, Great Guitars, and American Baskets.

Bob was curator at the Shelburne (VT) Museum from 1981-1994, where he worked with that institution's renowned collections of American folk art. He has curated exhibitions at many major American museums, including the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian Institution's Renwick Gallery, the University of Michigan Art Museum, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and the Dallas Museum of Natural History, and lectured at the American Museum of Folk Art, the American Craft Museum, Sotheby's, the Amon Carter Museum, and many other institutions.

From 1998-2003, he was curator of special exhibits for Quilts Inc./International Quilt Festival in Houston, and he has curated exhibitions of antique and contemporary quilts at expositions in the US, Europe and Japan. Bob's exhibitions of "30 Distinguished Quilt Artists of the World" at the Tokyo Great International Quilt Festival in 2002 and 2003 were seen by more than 250,000 people.

Bob also has contributed to numerous books and exhibition catalogs, served as a consultant to museums,and private collectors, and written articles for The Magazine Antiques, Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, Fiber Arts, Early American Life, Sports Afield, and Decoy Magazine.