POSTS

Beverly Press: Craft in America Center opens colorful exhibit on paper art

9/12/24

Original post in the Beverly Press here.

The Craft in America Center is holding “Erik and Martin Demaine: Puzzling with Paper” from Saturday, Sept. 14, through Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025.

Father-and-son Martin and Erik Demaine are featured in the upcoming Craft in America episode, “SCIENCE.” The duo has a stimulating generative practice that blends disciplines from math to zoology.

They fold pieces of paper by hand along geometrically derived lines and transform flat sheets into intricately curved constructions. The works at the same time prove math theorems. They plot out the pattern of a sunflower’s face, improvise pathways of hot glass on paper, extract Shakespeare’s words and write programs that generate threedimensional and animated fonts.

The Craft in America Center also presents “Lorraine Bubar: Papercut Perspectives” from Sept. 14-Jan. 4. Bubar creates lush imagery reflecting the hierarchy and intricate patterns of nature through the cutting and layering of fine Asian colored papers.

Hurricane Helene

We are thinking of those affected by Hurricane Helene, including artists, organizations, and craft schools like Penland School of Crafts.

Craft artists in need of emergency support should apply for CERF+’s emergency relief grant, cerfplus.org/grants/emergency-relief.

If you are in a position to donate, please consider cerfplus.org.

To support Penland’s cleanup and repair efforts, donate via fundraise.givesmart.com/e/mvl0Vg?vid=1802qj&mc_cid=ce4459699c

Craft in America Premieres New Season with Episodes: SCIENCE & COLLECTORS

[Los Angeles] – SCIENCE and COLLECTORS premiere on PBS December 27 at 9pm and 10pm, respectively (check local listings).

Streaming starts November 12th on the PBS App, pbs.org/craftinamerica, and craftinamerica.org.

The episodes comprise the newest season of Craft in America. The Peabody Award-winning and Emmy-nominated documentary series has produced 16 seasons since 2007, discovering the beauty, significance and relevance of handmade objects and the artists who make bring them to life.

“Craft in America…[has a] knack for telling big stories… about the formation of culture, the purpose of creativity, the idea that the pursuits of beauty and utility are foundational to humanity.” – New York Times

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SCIENCE

SCIENCE investigates the unexpected intersection between art and the sciences, spanning technology, engineering, biology, math, and the climate emergency. Nature, space, algorithms, and more serve as inspiration for artists connecting their work to the world around them, from the Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico to the computer science labs of MIT to NASA and the International Space Station. The featured artists are Erik & Martin Demaine, Joan Takayama-Ogawa, Chris Maynard, John Luebtow, Joseph & Sergio Youngblood Lugo and Karen Nyberg.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

Erik & Martin Demaine (Cambridge, MA)
We begin at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Erik and Martin Demaine combine math with art. Erik is an MIT professor of computer science and the father-son team takes inspiration from their research to create unique curved-crease origami sculptures from folded paper.

Joan Takayama-Ogawa (Los Angeles, CA)
We find ceramic artist Joan Takayama-Ogawa at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California. Joan is a passionate artist and educator who uses her work in clay to respond to the ongoing climate emergency.

Chris Maynard (Olympia, WA)
We travel to Olympia, Washington, to meet Chris Maynard, who creates intricate art entirely from bird feathers. Inspired by his love of the natural world and his background as a biologist, Chris hopes to give people a new perspective on nature through his art.

John Luebtow (Los Angeles, CA)
Back in Los Angeles, we meet John Luebtow, a glass sculptor and teacher. He introduces us to the founder of the modern kindergarten, Friedrich Froebel, and how Froebel’s geometric “gifts” inspired John and generations of other artists.

Joseph & Sergio Youngblood Lugo (Santa Clara Pueblo, NM)
The Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico has been home to a long tradition of Native potters, including brothers Joseph and Sergio Youngblood Lugo. Joseph and Sergio demonstrate the ancestral firing technique that produces their unique polished pottery.

Karen Nyberg (Salt Lake City, UT)
We end the episode with retired NASA astronaut and quilter Karen Nyberg. Karen brought quilting to the International Space Station and inspired the international quilting challenge that connected makers from all over the world. Karen continues to create art inspired by space and science.

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COLLECTORS

COLLECTORS reveals the essential role that craft appreciators play in the community. It examines how collectors affirm and inspire the artists they support and how the art enriches the lives of the collectors in turn. The episode highlights collections from Chicano art to teapots to wooden spoons, looking at what drives collectors and how their support furthers artists at all stages of their careers. The featured artists and institutions are Cynthia Lockhart, Carolyn Mazloomi, Sara Vance Waddell, American Craft Council, Peter Shire, Sonny & Gloria Kamm, Fleur Bresler, Judith Chernoff & Jeffrey Bernstein, Norm Sartorius, Cheech Marin, Yolanda González, Francisco Palomares, Frank Romero and Jaime “Germs” Zacarias.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

Carolyn Mazloomi, Cynthia Lockhart and Sara Vance Waddell (Cincinnati, OH)
COLLECTORS opens in Cincinnati, Ohio, with Carolyn Mazloomi, an artist, collector and curator and the founder of the Women of Color Quilters Network (WCQN). We meet Cynthia Lockhart, a quilt artist who has found community with the WCQN, and Sara Vance Waddell, a collector of women’s art, and learn how the three women have developed a friendship through collecting that has provided inspiration and encouragement in their lives.

American Craft Council (Baltimore, MD)
In Baltimore, Maryland, we meet several dynamic young collectors and the artists they support at the American Craft Council’s annual show, American Craft Made Baltimore. This celebration of craft provides an opportunity for artists and collectors to meet in person and connect over the art that brings them together.

Sonny and Gloria Kamm and Peter Shire (Los Angeles, CA)
We meet Sonny and Gloria Kamm and their vast collection of teapots in Los Angeles, California. They lead us to artist Peter Shire and discover the joy he finds in creating unique objects, from teapots to mugs to furniture.

Fleur Bresler, Judith Chernoff and Jeffrey Bernstein, and Norm Sartorius (Washington, D.C., and Parkersburg, WV)
In Washington, D.C., we visit the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and meet three collectors who have donated work to the museum, Fleur Bresler, Judith Chernoff and Jeffrey Bernstein. They explain why sharing their collections with the public is an essential part of their connection with artists and introduce us to Norm Sartorius, a wood artist who makes fascinating and original spoons.

Cheech Marin, Yolanda González, Francisco Palomares, Frank Romero and Jaime “Germs” Zacarias (Riverside, CA)
Returning to California, comedian and collector Cheech Marin takes us to the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum. Cheech has made a lifelong project of collecting and encouraging Chicano artists and found a home for his collection at the Riverside Art Museum. Yolanda González, Francisco Palomares, Frank Romero and Jaime “Germs” Zacarias are among the featured artists we meet from his collection.

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SNAG workshops

Workshopping With is a virtual programming series led by SNAG members on a variety of topics.

Learn more about an array of subjects ranging from technique-based skills to professional practices. Each workshop lasts approximately an hour, with an interactive Q&A session. Participants will receive a handout and access to a recording of the session.

These instructors are generously offering their workshops to raise funds for SNAG. You’ll not only acquire valuable knowledge, but also contribute to the health and vitality of our organization. Don’t miss this opportunity to enhance your skills and make a meaningful difference!

Learn more and register for each workshop here.

Final Getty Marrow Intern Blog Post – JD Davillier

Hello again, it’s JD (Craft in America’s Getty Marrow Undergraduate Intern). Unfortunately, though, this one will be my last post here. The classic line in situations like this is to be shocked at how fast it went by. I won’t break that tradition today; I really do feel like I was just writing my midpoint post. Still, when I think back to everything I’ve done at this position so far, it takes a while. I’ve done and learned a lot over this summer both in and out of work, and the fact that I need more than a few minutes to run through everything in my head is proof of that.
So, obviously I can’t summarize this whole experience in a blog post, but I will share some highlights and hopefully some insight from the past few weeks. One such highlight is working on diagrams for the various woodworking joints featured on the Craft Video Dictionary website, something I’m very glad I was asked to do. I didn’t expect to enjoy making those diagrams as much as I did, but it was so satisfying to engage with the joints I had been watching videos of for weeks in that way. Finding the best way to present those images was a motivating challenge, and that experience was so valuable for me to see how rewarding it could be to engage with that work in a professional capacity. I won’t list everything I’ve worked on because it would take too long, but I truly feel like I was able to learn something from every project, which is not something to take for granted.
Beyond professional development, I appreciated the community and people I met greatly. Whether it be fellow Getty interns, visitors to the center, or the staff at Craft in America and Freehand, it truly was a pleasure to meet everyone and gain those new perspectives. It was great to meet artists and be inspired by them, but it was just as valuable to meet art appreciators and people who work for art-focused organizations. The art world is complex and varied, and the understanding you gain from directly interacting with people in it cannot be replicated. Beyond insight into potential paths for my future career, meeting a variety of people has helped me become a more well-rounded person with a deeper understanding of the world, and that, too, is not something I will take for granted.
That understanding is something that should be thought about more with opportunities like these in general. There is a lot of pressure in our world to go to school and get an internship as ways to ensure your future career. A future career is certainly important, but it’s also crucial that degrees and internship experience have meaning in terms of development and not just because of their title. That’s why a large part of what I loved about this internship was being exposed to so many different situations and pushing myself to come up with solutions for them. My goal with experiences like these, and everything really, is always to grow in ways that can’t just be put on a resume. Those statistics do matter, but there’s so much to life that you miss out on if you let them define you. Being happy with the person you grow to become is a big deal because it affects you in all aspects of your life rather than just one. I hope that I and others can continue to remember that.
I’m so grateful that I had an internship where it was easy to make the most out of it in that way, for both my personal and professional development. Thank you so much to Craft in America, the Getty, and everyone else I’ve met and interacted with who shared experiences with me. And of course, thank you to anyone who is reading this, and I hope you got something out of it!

Best wishes,
JD

Decorative Arts Trust – Understanding Craft: A new digital tool debuts

8/2/24

Read the full article by Emily Zaiden on DecorativeArtsTrust.com

Three years in the making, Craft in America is launching the first ever Craft Video Dictionary (CVD), thanks to support from the Decorative Arts Trust’s inaugural Prize for Excellence and Innovation. The CVD (accessible at craftvideodictionary.org) is a free online resource that gives the public direct, close-up views of the craft processes and techniques behind the decorative arts. Instead of words and images, CVD definitions are conveyed via video. Clear and concise, these segments are edited to focus strictly on the artists’ movements and the transformation of their materials. By providing an intimate lens into the artist’s studio, each video entry is an accurate look at how the objects in our world come to be and the skills handcraft really entails.

The CVD consists of techniques demonstrated by artists with expertise across the spectrum of the crafts and decorative arts. Ceramics, metal, wood, fiber, glass, and other materials are among the represented media. Terms range from sgraffito to shaping hot glass and from coiling fiber to fullering. Each video features an artist shaping their work through methods that are historic and also very much alive. These videos provide a bridge to the past and shed light on how people have created objects over the centuries. Craft is a continuum that spans time and connects cultures.

The roll-out of this new reference tool includes an initial batch of 100 video definitions, and 100 additional videos will be posted later this year. The first collection of videos begins to flesh out the specifics of art and craft making across materials and media, and there is so much more to be recorded. The CVD has the potential to include hundreds of additional videos featuring the work of artists from across the country and beyond.

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Artful Attire: Smithsonian Craft2Wear Show, 2024

WHEN

First Night First Dibs Fri. Sept. 27 5pm-8pm
Show Days Sat. Sept. 28 – Sun. Sept. 29
Show Hours Sat. 10am-5pm Sun. 10am-4pm

WHERE

National Building Museum 
Washington, DC

The Show

Mark your calendar now, and check back soon for event details and the ticket link.
Sign up for the email list here.

The Smithsonian Craft Show is produced by the Smithsonian Women’s Committee. All proceeds from the show benefit programs and museums of the Smithsonian.

43rd Annual Smithsonian Craft Show: Call for Entries

SHOW:

The 2025 Smithsonian Craft Show will feature America’s finest artisans and celebrate their vision of what mightbe. It is a juried exhibition and sale of contemporary craft and design held annually in Washington DC. Three expert jurors, newly selected each year, choose 120 artists from a large pool of applicants. 

Previous exhibitors must re-apply each year.  No one is grandfathered into the show.  There is no quota for any category of Craft Art.  Artists are selected based on the originality, artistic conception, beauty, and quality of their work. The show is produced by the Smithsonian Women’s Committee. Proceeds from the show fund grants that benefit the Smithsonian’s education, outreach, conservation, and research programs.

The Smithsonian Craft Show is produced by the Smithsonian Women’s Committee (SWC) as a fund-raising event for the Smithsonian Institution. Since its inception, SWC has awarded more than 14 MILLION dollars in grants to Smithsonian organizations throughout the world.

The Craft Show does not charge sales commissions. However, accepted artists are encouraged to donate an item for the Show’s Online Auction or other fund-raising initiatives, the proceeds of which benefit the Smithsonian.

APPLICATION DEADLINES AND FEES:

Electronic applications are due by September 3, 2024.

The fee for applying is $50.  NOTICE:  The application fee is non-refundable and due at the time you fill out the online application and accept its terms and conditions.

LATE APPLICATIONS will be accepted until September 17, 2024 (midnight PT).  The fee for late applications is $75.  The late application fee includes the basic application fee of $50 and a late penalty of $25.  The $75 fee must be included with all electronic applications submitted after September 3, 2024.  Late electronic applications will not be accepted after September 17, 2024. 

More information and application here.

Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum Call for Submissions

46th ANNUAL CONTEMPORARY CRAFTS

The Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum’s Annual Contemporary Crafts highlights the finest in contemporary crafts from around the country. The annual crafts exhibition has become a benchmark of innovation and quality produced within traditional craft forms such as ceramics, fibers, basketry, metals, wood, glass, jewelry, papermaking and book arts.

Submission Deadline: Fri, Oct 18, 2024 at 5:00 PM

Entry Fee: $25

More information here.

2024 Getty Marrow Intern Midpoint – JD Davillier

Hi everyone, this is JD, the summer 2024 Getty Marrow Undergraduate intern at Craft in America. A few weeks ago, I remember talking to someone who, many years ago, did an engineering internship at a company where the engineering department was in a bit of an off season. The first half of their internship was going into the office, sitting at the computer next to their supervisor, and playing solitaire. Now, they did eventually get a project to work on besides “familiarizing themself with the Windows game suite,” but hearing that definitely made me grateful to have an internship where I’m learning about things I’m passionate about (not that there’s anything wrong with solitaire).

Jokes aside, I was genuinely surprised when I realized it was time to make my midpoint blog post. The first half of my internship has flown by because all of the projects I’ve been working on have felt very directly engaging, interactive, and interesting. A big part of that is that the team here truly values my input and contributions. Early on, I became interested in social media and online content, so I shared some of my thoughts with my supervisors which eventually led me to make a document with some ideas and analysis. They were encouraging of my ideas right away, and I ended up creating social media content. That was an exciting creative project that I got a lot of control over and was able to feel personally invested in very easily.

A few weeks in, I started to want to do more on the graphic design side, and the team very quickly had a project with me on that front. I was given the resources and guidelines I’d need, but ultimately I was encouraged to be creative and make the project my own. That trust in my abilities and perspective has been very exciting, and it makes the lessons I have learned through working here that much more valuable. It means a lot to know that the work I’m doing has a significant impact, and I find that roles like these where I can take on a higher level of responsibility are always the ones that lead to the most development.

Of course, the content itself is also an aspect that I have learned so much from. Even while I’m working on tasks that sound less creatively exciting, such as updating the website, I am able to stay engaged because I am constantly discovering new things about the craft world. Craft has such deep history and community, so I am often surprised by all the different ways artists use materials to make interesting objects. For example, just yesterday I was blown away by Joan Takayama-Ogawa’s ceramics. So many of the artists I’ve seen or even met have truly inspired me with their work and I find myself thinking about them, looking them up, or showing people their work even when I’m not on the clock. That level of direct interaction and connection to artists and people who know so much about the craft world adds so much depth to everything I learn about. I also had the chance to meet other people my age in the intern events through the Getty, which was great because there are so many interesting and talented people.

Opportunities like these are definitely a situation where you get out of it what you put in, but to a degree they also depend on what you are allowed to get out of them. The trust of my supervisors to give me tasks and responsibilities that they know I can handle has allowed me to get a lot out of this experience, so I truly am grateful for that.