MINIATURES Screening at the Museum of International Folk Art on December 9th

December 9th 2pm to 4pm
706 Camino Lejo, on Museum Hill
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505

Join the screening of MINIATURES and a discussion with individuals interviewed in the episode: Laura Addison, Museum of International Folk Art; Stuart Ashman, Artes de Cuba Gallery; Nadia Hamid, International Folk Art Market; Thomas Leech, retired, New Mexico History Museum; and Maureen Russell, New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. Patricia Bischetti, Craft in America’s Executive Producer and Director, will facilitate the panel discussion.

New Mexico artists and organizations figure prominently in MINIATURES, which includes segments on Alexander Girard’s spectacular invented world housed in the Museum of International Folk Art’s Girard Wing; beloved New Mexico artist Gustave Baumann’s marionettes from the collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art; and International Folk Art Market artists who work at a diminutive scale, including Cuban artist Leandro Gómez Quintero, who creates small-scale, painstakingly detailed re-creations of vehicles using found materials.

More information here.

Watch the MINIATURES preview here.

KRQE shares: New Mexico artists, museums featured in PBS show “Craft in America”

New Mexico artists, museums featured in PBS show “Craft in America”

by: Fallon Fischer

Nov 14, 2023

SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – Artwork from the New Mexico Museum of Art’s collection and the Museum of International Folk Art’s collection were featured in the PBS series “Craft in America.”

The Museum of International Folk Art will host the national premiere screening of the episode, followed by a panel discussion in the museum’s Vernick Auditorium. There will be free museum admission all day, including to the screening and panel discussion.

“Craft in America” staff and film crew traveled to New Mexico twice in 2022 to film the “MINIATURES” episode. The public broadcast of “MINIATURES” on PBS will take place on Dec. 29, 2023. All episodes are available for streaming on the PBS App, craftinamerica.org, and pbs.org/craftinamerica.

Read the full article here.
For more information on the event, click here.

Austin Creative Reuse to Screen PLAY Episode

Join Austin Creative Reuse for an exclusive evening with Austin-based reuse artist, Calder Kamin. They will be screening one of Craft in America’s newest episodes, PLAY. It features Calder and follows the creation of her installation, “Once Upon a Time in the Future,” which is currently on display at ACR. Meet Calder, make a unicorn brooch from reuse materials and see the episode before it airs for the public.

This is a free event with donations gratefully accepted. Suggested donation: $5
All ages welcome!
This is an outdoor event. Please bring a lawn chair and dress for the weather. Rain date: Sunday, November 19, 2023

This project has been financed in whole or in part by the City of Austin’s Elevate Grant Program.

More information here.

Quilts That Keep You Up at Night

Congratulations to Craft in America artist, Michael A. Cummings, of the QUILTS episode! Mr. Cummings is the subject of an article in The New Yorker Magazine, October 23rd, 2023:

“Quilts that Keep You Up at Night,” was written by Nina Mesfin and illustrated by by João Fazenda.

“Michael A. Cummings, a seventy-­seven-year-old quilt artist based in Harlem, is the only person he knows of who has slept beneath one of his works. ‘I have put my quilts on my bed when I was cold,’ Cummings said the other day. ‘When I first got to New York, I was putting layers on top of me on the bed, and I couldn’t move, hardly, because it was so heavy. But I was warm.’ Eventually, his mother and his sister told him about electric blankets. Over the years, he has made some quilts for friends with babies, but none made it into a crib. ‘One woman I know, she just put it on the side of the baby bed, and the baby looked at it,’ he said.”

Read the full article here.

Screening at the Skirball Cultural Center on November 12th

Be among the first to get a sneak peek at a segment of one of the newest episodes of the Peabody Award-winning PBS series Craft in America, PLAY. Celebrate the power of imagination and the child in all of us as the Skirball Cultural Center explores the ways in which play facilitates discovery, builds bridges, and enhances learning. 

After screening the Noah’s Ark segment of the Craft in America episode, the Skirball will lead a panel discussion with artists, educators, and parents about the importance of incorporating play and imagination into arts education.

The segment will be introduced by Patricia Bischetti, Executive Producer and Director, Craft in America. The panel will be moderated by Rachel Stark, Vice President, Education and Family Programs, Skirball Cultural Center. Confirmed panelists include Jane Fung, Member, Skirball Teacher Advisory Council, and Dr. Kristin Vanderlip Taylor, Associate Professor of Art Education at California State University, Northridge.

FREE

Advance reservations recommended. Kids and Families welcome.

Sunday, November 12- Program Schedule

10:30 am: Doors open

11:00 am: Screening and Panel Discussion

12:00 pm: Refreshments, complimentary admission to Noah’s Ark

More information and to register, click here.

Craft in America Center presents “Influences/Influencers: California Fibers”

ArtDaily.com

LOS ANGELES, CA .- California has driven the fiber arts since the mid 20th Century. Countless schools, college programs, workshops, guilds, and artist collectives have led experimentation and development of this artistic medium. The desire to formulate a language for sculpture and expression through fiber has been a core driving force. The artists in this exhibition are part of a historic organization that has been at the forefront of contemporary fiber art in Southern California, across the state, and far beyond. The work in this exhibition represents some of the vast influences that are shaping fiber art today. It is simultaneously a celebration of how fiber has become a beam of influence on the broader contemporary art world in recent years.

Read the entire article

Craft Library Update: Special Collections + Back to School with Craft in America 

Despite these last couple weeks of lingering heat, things are feeling very autumnal and back-to-school at the Craft Center. Our Craft in Schools team led by (me) Sam Sermeño and LAUSD school partnerships have kicked into full force as we host teaching-artist workshops, art tours, and field trips. 

Lately, during field trips curious students have been asking me about our significant craft-art library, so we figure now is a good time to share some library announcements.

Special Collections

All are welcome to visit and browse our newly added Special Collections materials. Over the summer, thanks to generous art and literary patrons, we’ve integrated and catalogued four cubic feet of notable library donations. These recently added materials include books now blended into our general Dewey-Decimal organized shelves; along with a variety of niche art catalogs and unique artist paper ephemera found in our “Special Collections” labeled magazine boxes. 

As always, we invite all craft enthusiasts and the wider public to enjoy our current art exhibitions and to browse our in-house library. We’re happy to collaborate with artists, curators, and fellow art nerds in general craft research and information resourcing as well. Currently, our gallery/library space (previewed below) features an interactive/browsable display of magazines, books, and manuals around fiber arts connected to the work of our Fall 2023 Influences-Influencers: California Fibers Exhibition.

The library is open to the public: Tuesday – Saturday, from noon to 6pm.

The Craft in America Center Library includes over 3000 books, exhibition catalogs, and more than 2000 periodicals dedicated to the art of craft and related topics.  

For further library or Craft in Schools inquiry, please visit our Library page or contact Education Programs and Library lead sam@craftinamerica.org 

cerf+ Get Ready Grants due Oct 31, 2023

Artist Get Ready Grants

CERF+’s Get Ready program provides individual craft artists grants up to $500 to conduct activities that will help safeguard their studios, protect their careers and prepare for emergencies. Artists are encouraged to use the Risk Assessment activity to generate ideas.

Priority will be given to applications from people who identify in the global majority or as Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC)* and folk and traditional artists.

* Language use is a key element of access, equity, and inclusion work, and can help or hinder efforts in this area. We are currently using the term “people of the global majority” and Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) to describe individuals from prioritized communities. We recognize that neither term is universally used nor accepted but they are the most commonly used terms in our work. We encourage you to familiarize yourself and utilize the terms that your community members use to describe themselves.

Applications will open on October 10th and the deadline to apply is on October 31st, 2023.

Learn more at https://cerfplus.org/get-ready/get-ready-grants

The Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF+) serves craft artists across the United States and territories by providing education programs, advocacy, network building, and emergency relief.

Decorative Arts Trust’s Dean F. Failey Grants due Oct 31, 2023

Applications for the Decorative Arts Trust’s Dean F. Failey Grants for research, exhibition, publication, and object-based conservation projects are due October 31, 2023.

The Decorative Arts Trust underwrites grants in support of noteworthy research, exhibition, publication, and object-based conservation projects through the Dean F. Failey Fund, named in honor of the Trust’s late Governor. Areas of interest include new scholarship in decorative arts, material culture, craftsmanship, and historic preservation.

Deadlines and Details

Grants for up to $15,000 are awarded on an annual basis. Organizations wishing to apply for consideration must submit a letter of inquiry by October 31 to thetrust@decorativeartstrust.org. Grant funds will be available as early as the subsequent January 1. The letter must describe the nature of the project and its impact on the field, and include CV’s for the project’s leaders as well as a budget and timeline. Preference will be given to projects that employ or are led by young professionals in the museum field. The Trust also aims to support colleagues and projects that represent the full diversity of our field.

Learn more at decorativeartstrust.org/failey-grant.

The Arts Intel Report: Influences / Influencers

Airmail News: The Arts Intel Report

California has been a leader in fiber arts—weaving, quilting, embroidery, and more—since the mid–20th century. The artists gathered in this exhibition are members of the close-knit and collaborative group California Fibers, which was founded in 1970. Over decades they have sculpted fiber art into a serious contemporary medium—a discipline that is now taught in colleges and collectives, and that inspires artists in other mediums. Wool, wire, wicker. Whatever can be loomed, stitched, or woven can become a vibrant means of expression. 

—Isabella Carter