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 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 

USPS Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month With Piñatas! Stamps

Sept. 8, 2023

ROSWELL, NM — The U.S. Postal Service today kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct.15) with new festive Piñatas! stamps at the 36th Annual Piñata Festival.

These Forever stamps come in four designs — two donkeys and two seven-pointed stars — celebrating the traditional Mexican fiesta favorite.

This is the third consecutive year the Postal Service has issued a Hispanic-themed stamp. In September 2021, USPS issued Day of the Dead stamps, and in July 2022, USPS issued Mariachi stamps.

News of the stamps is being shared with the hashtag #PinatasStamps.

“One of the reasons I feel proud to work at the Postal Service is because we are one of the nation’s oldest and most admired public service institutions. Part of that proud history is celebrating our multi-faceted heritage through stamps. Ours is truly a world culture, and our stamps allow us to weave together the many threads of our national tapestry, and piñatas are the perfect example of this,” said Isaac Cronkhite, chief processing and distribution officer and executive vice president, U.S. Postal Service, who served as the stamps’ dedicating official.

Other participants at the stamp ceremony were Juan P. Oropesa, City Councilor, Roswell, NM; Timothy Z. Jennings, Mayor of Roswell, NM; Alma Salas, Board President, Roswell Hispano Chamber of Commerce; Felipe Flores, Jr., Western Division, Senior Director of Processing Operations, U.S. Postal Service; Yesenia Prieto, Executive Director and Piñata Maker and Artist, Piñata Design Studio; and Emily Zaiden, Director and Curator, Craft in America Center.

Read the full article.

Thank you to Joan Takayama-Ogawa

We are honored and thankful to Joan Takayama-Ogawa, who donated this piece to the Craft in America collection.

Craft in Schools: End of School Year Student Showcase

In the last week of Craft in America’s Permanent Collection exhibition, we proudly feature artwork made by students from our Craft in Schools program. The student art on display includes completed projects from school-workshops, virtual workshops, and school field trips to the Craft Center led by teaching artists. We’d like to extend a big thank you to Rosewood Elementary, Fairfax and ArTES Magnet High School classrooms for participating in this end of semester Student Showcase.

Over the last six months, 300 students from over six schools engaged in Craft in America’s Exhibition key concepts, vocabulary, art discussions, and artist workshops. K-12 students collaborated with teaching-artists Mandora Young, Victoria May (of Craft in America), Joe Cunningham, Carrie Burckle and the inspiring work of Diedrick Brackens. Featured mediums in this Student Showcase include compact card-loom weavings, quilting, and Hmong Paj Ntaub embroidery as explored in our previous exhibition Inspiration and Home: Highlights from the Episodes.

Craft in America wishes all students and their families a happy end of the school year!  We hope to collaborate with more LAUSD schools in the coming school year!

For future Craft in Schools-program inquiries, please contact both: 
Education Programs Lead – Sam Sermeno and Craft Center Director – Emily Zaiden
center@craftinamerica.org

Craft in Schools: Home and Inspiration Winter Reflections  

As we welcome Spring, our Craft in Schools program proudly reflects on all that we accomplished earlier this year. Thanks to ongoing partnerships with K-12 LAUSD classroom teachers and various teaching artists, we were able to host several on-site field trips, virtual gallery talks, and hands-on craft workshops based on our recent Home and Inspiration Exhibition. 

In these educational programs, students were conversationally guided through Visual Thinking Strategies, and journaling and sketch pad prompts as they explored fiber, ceramics, woodworking, and sculptural art. Students ages 8-18 were encouraged to share their curiosity, ideas, and critiques of how they viewed craft and art practices both past and present. 

Several classrooms hosted on-site teaching artists, such as Paj Ntaub artist Mandora Young and textile artist Victoria May. Together, we learned about the significance of Paj Ntaub’s mesmerizing embroidery within the Hmong diaspora, while learning the foundations of cross-stitch embroidery. Our neighboring Rosewood Elementary 4th graders enjoyed a dynamic “human loom” weaving exercise as pictured above! And, several classes explored hands-on weaving as seen in Diedrick Brackens’ Kente-cloth inspired weaving. Our Craft in Schools program hopes to continue collaborating with and would like to thank the engaging classes at: Rosewood Elementary, Palms Middle School, Van Nuys High School, ArTES Magnet High School, and Fairfax High School. 

Stay tuned for more family and Craft in Schools programming!

HOME / INSPIRATION Exhibits

As the longest Winter night in the Northern hemisphere approaches, Craft in America warmly invites you to our new exhibition from December 10, 2022 – March 11, 2023.

This dynamic show features woven and embroidered textiles, ceramics, woodwork, found object architecture,  and intergenerational talent from Anishinaabe knowledge holders, Hmong matriarchs, woodworking folk schools, rogue architects, and more.

View a sneak peek of this exhibition featuring work from our latest Craft In America episodes (linked here): HOME / INSPIRATION. Stay tuned for upcoming events and Artist-run workshops we’ll be offering in the new year! 

Craft in America Center Education Coordinator

The Craft in America Center seeks an Education Coordinator to manage its education outreach program, Craft in Schools, with local K-12 underserved students, and to help maintain and manage the small museum’s operations with a multitude of other projects.

Craft in America is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the exploration, preservation, and celebration of the handmade and its impact on our nation’s cultural heritage. The Center is a museum and programmatic space with a library located on Third Street in the heart of Los Angeles. The Center generates rotating contemporary craft exhibitions (physical & virtual), research, lectures, education outreach, publications, and hands-on art workshops. Craft in America produces a Peabody Award-winning and on-going PBS documentary series. Visit www.craftinamerica.org for more information about the organization.

The Education Coordinator is articulate, friendly, and organized. The Coordinator will have experience teaching students at various grade levels and working knowledge of standards-based art education practices. Knowledge of the contemporary crafts movement is a plus. An undergraduate degree in art history, museum studies, art education, studio art, or a related field is required. The Coordinator should have strong verbal and written communication skills. The Center has a small team and the candidate must be hardworking, detail-oriented, excellent at multitasking, tech savvy, resourceful, and flexible. The nature of the position involves various additional aspects of museum operations including but not limited to: collections management, library management, and exhibition planning and implementation.

Regular tasks and responsibilities include:

• Developing, writing, and facilitating standards-based lesson plans for site/virtual visits and workshops
• Administering virtual meetings and webinars with students and public
• Coordinating logistics, scheduling, and communicating with artists, educators, administrators and
• transportation companies
• Creating and implementing hands-on activities for children
• Assisting with event/program management and planning
• Interacting and engaging with in-person visitors
• Writing and posting social media and website content
• Assisting with exhibition logistics including loan agreements and shipping
• Assisting with deinstallation and installation
• Maintaining contact and library databases
• This is a part time position that entails working some Saturdays each month
• Involves intermittent travel to participating local school sites
• Requires moving/lifting up to 40 lbs. of weight
• Salary commensurate with experience, $18-25 hourly

Please submit a cover letter, cv and short writing sample to: center@craftinamerica.org

Piñata Memory Project

What is your most vivid piñata memory? Whether it is breaking one at a birthday party or picking one out in the piñata district, we invite you to share your piñata memories and photos with us. Come to the Craft in America Center to add your memory to our community piñata, or send us an email with your piñata story and/or photo to rsvp@craftinamerica.org. Be sure to include your name, age, and where you are from.

When I was little we lived in a little town north of Denton Texas. We lived on a dairy farm  and didn’t even have a bathtub in our tiny house. My mom wanted me to have a special birthday since it was in December- so she bought a piñata for me!  It was so cool and special and shaped like a bear with green fringe. At my party, my friends and I hit it and hit it and hit it but it wouldn’t break open. So we tore it open and it was only filled with newspaper. My mom thought it was already filled with candy and prizes because it was so expensive for us. We still laugh about that to this day. It was still a great party and I still love piñatas!

Kati Odom, Kansas City MO, Age 55

Tios standing in the roof pulling the piñata rope! from @jen.mar10 from Instagram

Welcome Back to the Craft in America Center

Our top priority is the health of our visitors and staff, and the Center team has been working diligently, and in accordance with the State of California and Los Angeles County to make sure that visitors have a safe visit.

Please read our COVID-19 safety protocol list below before visiting the Craft in America Center.

COVID-19 SAFETY PROTOCOLS

• Walk-ins are welcome.
• Effective November 4, 2021, we will require that all visitors age 12 and older show proof of full vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test taken within 48 hours prior to visit.
• If you or anyone in your party feels sick or is exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19, please stay home and visit us on a later date. For a list of COVID-19 symptoms, click here.
• All visitors (except for children under the age of 2) will be required to wear a mask. Masks must be worn over the nose and mouth the entire time. No neck gaiters, bandanas, or face coverings with valves, mesh, or holes are permitted. If you do not have a mask, a staff member can provide you with a disposable one.
• Before you start exploring, please use the hand sanitizer on the table next to the entrance. Please do not touch anything inside the museum.
• While in the gallery, visitors must maintain 6-ft of distance at all times from other parties.
• Restrooms will not be available for public use.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email rsvp@craftinamerica.org