Artist Talk: Cary Schwarz
In person and online
Saddlemaker and leather artist Cary Schwarz will present on the development of his craft.
Schwarz is featured in the Craft in America episode, WEST. Schwarz attended a saddlemaking trade school in the early 1980s and continued to diligently pursue his studies, crediting influences such as Ray Holes Saddle Company, Dale Harwood, and Chuck Stormes for shaping his approach, which prioritizes both function and art. Schwarz is a founding member of the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association (TCAA), a non-profit dedicated to preserving and promoting traditional cowboy crafts. He has received recognition for his work, including the Governor’s Award for the Arts by the Idaho Commission on the Arts in 2010 and being named Saddlemaker of the Year by the Academy of Western Artists in 2009. In 2026 he was named an NEA National Heritage Fellow.
Please email rsvp@craftinamerica.org to attend in person or register to join the webinar online.
This talk is presented in conjunction with the Craft in America Center exhibition, Cowboy Craft: Traditional Art of the West, on view June 13 through September 12, 2026.
Reading Craft: “Pitchers of American Life,” an online discussion with author Ezra Shales
The Craft in America Center is pleased to present an interactive online discussion with distinguished Professor Ezra Shales on his new book Pitchers of American Life: Art Within Reach (2026). The book is available for purchase directly from Bloomsbury or your preferred bookseller.
Shales’ vision of design/craft/art intersecting provides a deliberately provocative strategy to move beyond inherited limitations and prejudices by exploring tactile pleasures and tacit knowledge, as well as the agency of artifacts. This presentation asks if a history of art extracted from our common cupboards might be liberating as it departs from the usual hierarchies of civilization, and digitized images of artifacts far away. How can we make the experience of art/craft/design more accessible and relevant?
To participate in the Zoom discussion, please register.
About the author
Professor in the History of Art department at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Ezra Shales, Ph.D., is the author of The Shape of Craft (Reaktion, 2017) and Made in Newark: Cultivating Industrial Arts and Civic Identity in the Progressive Era (Rutgers University Press, 2010), his dissertation revised for publication. He has written numerous articles and contributed to exhibition catalogs for artists Polly Apfelbaum, Neil Brownsword, Kim Dickey, Shari Mendelson, and Dan Walsh and published in the Journal of Modern Craft and Journal of Design History. He learned more about art while working in New York City’s flea markets, as a museum preparator/art handler, and as a gallery docent for elementary school students at The Brooklyn Museum, than in classrooms.
About the book
Pitchers of American Life: Art Within Reach (Bloomsbury 2026) discusses vessels preserved from ancient indigenous American cultures, those caught in the spiderwebs of antique shops, and common tools used for drinks lurking in modern kitchens. Each chapter interprets a single object as a revealing time capsule, a collective relic that, if regarded closely and with compassion, still resonates with our yearnings for sociability and communion.
Artist Talk: Marques Hanalei Marzan
Marques Marzan presents on his wide-ranging fiber-based artwork using techniques such as twining, hand-weaving, knotting and looping as inspired by his Hawaiian ancestors. Marzan’s forms reference garments and other bodily adornments.
Marzan is featured in the Craft in America episode, WEST. He is a Hawaiian and Oceanic fibers culture bearer and contemporary visual artist. He is highly regarded in his community for his skill, knowledge, and experience and serves as a mentor and advocate, promoting sustainable gathering practices, perpetuating Hawaiian fiber techniques, and instilling indigenous values in his students. Marques bridges the innovations of the past with those of the present, creating dialogues within his work and community engagement that speak to the vibrancy and dynamism of culture.
This talk is presented in conjunction with the Craft in America Center exhibition, Marques Hanalei Marzan: Entwine, on view June 13 through September 12, 2026.
Photo by Jordan Fong.
Online Artist Talk by Conceptual Skateboarder Abe Dubin (Orange Man) and Friends
Abraham Dubin, better known to the international skateboarding community as Orange Man, is a professional skateboarder for the Boston-based experimental skateboard troupe Fancy Lad. Dubin, who is the exhibition advisor to Vehicles of Expression, will speak about skateboarding as a world of pure imagination. Dubin will be joined by fellow artists, performers, and skaters Alice Hixon Kirk and Joe LeDoux who will also discuss their own work.
About Abe Dubin:
As a youth Dubin studied theatre, drawing and painting, and begrudgingly participated in team sports. Upon receiving a fluorescent green skateboard from the used sports store, a shift occurred in which suddenly self expression seemed to harmoniously infuse with rigorous physical exertion. Parking lots became stages for balletic performance, transforming the mundane modernity of suburban life into a playground of limitless potential.
Dubin has exhibited his skateboard artwork and made live demonstrations across the US from the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston to galleries and skateshops in Pittsburgh, PA, Iowa, Las Vegas and Seattle. Abraham has collaborated on video projects for Adult Swim, Vice, Thrasher Magazine and Red Bull and premiered short films at the Vladimir Film Festival in Croatia.
As a husband and father, Dubin’s home studio serves as a woodshop and laboratory for abstract kinetic sculptures the he and his contemporaries refer to as “board manipluations.” Deeply influenced by the Duchampian ethos of the ready-made and Jim Henson’s warm rich world of play and imagination, Abraham’s practice is one of reinterpreting everyday objects and architecture and allowing his skateboard puppetry to organically flourish.
Alice Hixon Kirk is a musician and fabricator based in Western Massachusetts. She creates experimental skateboards to encourage speculation, improvisation, and play. She is passionate about using design to facilitate new strategies for exploring the world. Kirk has engaged with her local skate community through teaching skateboard design and fabrication workshops and fabricating custom park features for Skate Haven at MASS MoCA.
Joe Ledoux grew up in Hubbardston, MA and received his BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Ledoux is a visual and performance artist who blends his three favorite artforms: sleight of hand, skateboarding, and painting. He is a member of the McBride Magic and Mystery School in Las Vegas and performed with Le Grand David, which held the Guinness world record for the longest running magic show. Ledoux has exhibited at The West End Museum and GBH’s Digital Mural. He performed at The Institute of Contemporary Art and was featured as a Polly Thayer Starr Artist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
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Skateboarding the Canyons, Plains, and Asphalt-banked Schoolyards of Coastal Los Angeles in the 1970s
Pioneering skateboarders reacted to newly created subdivisions throughout Southern California in the 1960s and 70s. In their pursuit of new surfaces upon which to express bodily movement, they exploited a capital-intensive urban landscape to create a sport that today has tremendous economic, political, and cultural implications. This talk will focus on archival material drawn from Skateboarder Magazine from 1975 to 1980 to help situate the ways in which skateboards sought out particular urban spaces and responded to them in particular kinetic ways. The skateboarders and those who documented their emerging sport through photography and writing, expressed deep awareness and understanding of urban space. Topography and new suburban morphologies influenced their understanding of, and reaction to these spaces. The asphalt-banked schoolyards of Los Angeles in particular provided an unintended playground for skateboarders and served as a starting point for the modern-era of the sport.
Lorne Platt focuses on urban history, city planning, and cultural geography. Over the last few years, he has examined skateboarding and suburban development, alongside other forms of alternative movement and micro-mobility (including scooters and e-bikes). Another area of interest is the transformation of semi-natural landscapes into cultural/human spaces, including golf courses, university campuses, and sports stadiums. Lorne holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and is currently a Lecturer in Urban Planning at UC Irvine and Geography at UCLA.
Images courtesy of Hugh Holland (M and B Photo)
In Conversation: Build it and Ride it—How Skateboards Began
Todd Huber, skateboard historian and founder of the International Skateboarding Hall of Fame, will present a brief look into the handspun origins of one of the world’s most popular sports. From metal wheels and 2 by 4’s, stolen roller skates, and a plethora of makeshift materials and construction approaches, skateboards are rooted in the DIY, from how they are made and built, to a total outlook, philosophy, and culture. This talk will explore how sidewalk surfing and American ingenuity went from garages to the Olympics.
Huber is the Founder and CEO of the International Skateboarding Hall of Fame and a lifelong advocate for skateboarding culture. In 1997, he opened the world’s first Skateboarding Museum in Simi Valley, California, preserving the sport’s history and honoring its pioneers. Through the creation of the annual Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, Huber has built one of skateboarding’s most respected institutions, attracting thousands of fans and industry legends from around the world. His leadership continues to elevate and celebrate the legacy of skateboarding globally.
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Blacksmith to Hollywood, Tony Swatton Studio Tour
Master Blacksmith Tony Swatton is a self-educated blacksmith who started making his own armor at the age of 17. Nine years later, he opened his first shop, where he made products for Euro Disney and Michael Jackson. He did his first film work for Hook in 1991. In over 30 years he has forged pieces for over 300 feature films and some of the largest franchises on the planet. His work can be seen in many films and TV shows, including Pirates of the Caribbean,Thor, Star Trek, Batman, Hellboy, The Last Samurai, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The tour will begin with a forging demonstration by special guest silversmith, Randy Stromsoe.
Tony will guide visitors through his showroom area of many famed props for movies and TV, and then demonstrate his specialties in his vast metalworking facility.
$20 fee for tour
By attending this studio tour, participants agree to hereby release and discharge Craft in America and Tony Swatton from any and all liability, claims, demands, or causes of action for injuries or damages arising out of participation in the studio tour.
Randy Stromsoe: Silver Stories & Restoration Roadshow
For over five decades, Randy Stromsoe has been crafting one-of-a-kind pieces in sterling silver, pewter, copper, gold, and wood.
Trained under renowned silversmith Porter Blanchard, Randy began his career working on prestigious commissions, including custom gold trophies and ceremonial pieces. His craftsmanship has since earned a place in the White House Collection of American Crafts, the Smithsonian Institution, and private collections around the world.
Randy will share about his experience of “baptism by fire” in the business and practice of working in silver and pewter in the 70s, when he was first emerging from his apprenticeship, as well as stories of working with Blanchard in his studio. In addition to talking about the legacy of silversmithing in California, Randy will open up for an Antiques Roadshow-style show and tell, in which the audience is invited to bring their own purchased or inherited silver pieces for Randy to explore and explain. He will discuss fabrication, form, history, and restoration, as applicable.
This will be the first of two consecutive days to learn about Randy’s process. The following day, Sunday Mar. 1, he will make a cameo appearance demonstration during the tour at Tony Swatton’s studio.
Online Tool Talk #2
Tools of the Trades artists James Austin, Seth Gould, and Thomas Latané will present on their practices as blacksmiths, sharing about how their toolmaking dovetails with their studio practice and how they continue and build upon historical traditions. Craft in America Curator and Director Emily Zaiden will then moderate a panel discussion on the contemporary practice of toolmaking in this age of increasing digital technology.
Online Tool Talk #1
Tools of the Trades artists Brien Beidler, Spencer Hamann, and William Robertson will present on their individual practices of book binder, luthier and tool historian/miniaturist respectively, sharing about how their toolmaking dovetails with their current studio practice and how they continue and build upon historical traditions. Craft in America Curator and Director Emily Zaiden will then lead a panel discussion on contemporary practice of toolmaking in this age of increasing digital technology.
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