POSTS
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.
![Jd, Getty Marrow Intern, pictured in an outside environment](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/jd-intern-midpoint-picture-1024x576.jpg)
Summer 2024: Building Blocks, Woodworking, and Family Fun!
Summer’s here and school’s out! Even while our Craft in Schools program takes a short summer break, our Craft in America Center team is hosting all kinds of eclectic crafting workshops, artist-musician events, and talks – not to be missed!
Drop-In Fun: Summer ‘24 Family Activity Sheets
We welcome young creatives, their friends and families to come enjoy our AC alongside this summer’s Building Blocks: Process & Wood exhibition (all free of charge). We’re excited to host some creative and fun activities, suitable for youth ages preK-8th grade; with past times that will entertain young visitors with (pictured below):
- a drawing/coloring station
- a playful scavenger-hunt through our exhibition
- an intro to woodworking ideas
- short technique-video clips on how craft artists make their art in studios
- & small surprise prizes!
![various coloring and game-worksheets with a basket of coloring supplies sit on a wooden table with colorful craft and woodwork magazines](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024-Summer-CVD-Building-Blocks-Family-Activities.Wood-Package1.jpg)
![one variation of family fun worksheet for Summer '24 Woodwork exhibition, featuring question to colorful carpentry/woodwork pictures and phrases](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024-Summer-CVD-Building-Blocks-Family-Activities.worksheet1.jpg)
![another one variation of family fun worksheet for Summer '24 Woodwork exhibition; showing woodwork techniques and fill in the blank phrases](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024-Summer-CVD-Building-Blocks-Family-Activities.worksheet2.jpg)
For more explorative crafters and learners, we encourage taking an inspirational dive into our PBS Craft in America docuseries: full episodes, and artist storytelling shorts. In between summer adventures and much needed rest ~ we hope you’ll drop by and connect with us soon!
Summer Library: Woodwork, Design & Craft Video Dictionary
This summer Craft in America invites you to the Center’s woodwork, furniture, and historic design exhibition. Our Building Blocks: Process in Wood show highlights both regional and international artistry across cultures and time periods, focused on handworked wood fabrication. Complementing this dynamic show, we encourage visitors to learn more about our dynamic and educational Craft Video Dictionary woodworking videos and library-magazine woodworking displays.
Library Highlights on Woodworking
Our easy-access craft art library features regularly rotating displays, and our range of materials span from rare books, artist monographs, exhibition catalogs, art-magazines, to craft-techniques/technical manuals.
This summer’s featured woodworking books on display range from the 18th Century American Shakers woodworking and legacy designs, to American Mid-Century Modern legacy schools of woodworking (a la The Furniture of Sam Maloof, header image), to more internationally renown sculptural/vessel focused approaches to wood fabrication (a la Keiko Hirohashi’s design book Wood Package). We’ve also pulled woodworking periodicals dating back decades, including magazine runs from 1970’s-2020’s American Craft, 1980’s Woodworker’s Journal, 1980’s Fine Homebuilding, Fine Woodworking 1980’s-90’s, Woodworker West (2007-2023), and more — all previewed below!
The American Shakers and Their Furniture in (1982) black and white format, boasts fascinating historic perspectives on this ascetic, minimalist-design oriented religious community’s contributions to woodworking and design over the last 200 years. This book features dynamic, near timeless diagrams, measurements, and instructions for recreating their highly functional and visually stunning wood-based pieces centuries later. Nodding to this lineage, our Woodwork exhibition also features artist Ryan Taber’s Stofa Pattern #2 after Tony Smith’s Batcave 1969-1971 and the Shaker Super Heater, 1820-1830; made from White Pine.
![Hand-caned geometric seat cushions found within The American Shakers and Their Furniture book, by John G. Shea](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024-Library-Shakers-5.jpg)
![diagram and gridded measurement instructions for how to build a candle sconce-shelf from the book The American Shakers and Their Furniture, by John G. Shea](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024-Library-Shakers-4.jpg)
![Greyscale photos of wooden spindle wheel, and various wooden desk and chair furniture photographed with notes; from The American Shakers and Their Furniture book](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024-Library-Shakers-1.jpg)
![Greyscale photo of stretcher table photographed with diagram of measurements and fabrication notes; from The American Shakers and Their Furniture book](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024-Library-Shakers-2.jpg)
![black matted Shaker-style wooden stove with 4 distinct legs](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024-Library-Taber.Stove-copy-2.jpeg)
![greyscale photo of Hanging Dish Shelves diagram and measurements wooden shelf photograph; from The American Shakers and Their Furniture book](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024-Library-Shakers-3.jpg)
Wood Package, highlights innovative Keiko Hirohashi’s design and surreal woodwork. Much like Martin Alexander’s own cultural woodwork homage and nod to the playful interpretation of wood as both a sculptural and playfully reverent “Florecita” vessel, Hirohashi’s work explores whimsical and diasporic design of wood containers. Wood Package asks each viewer to consider how woodworking forms and their outer layers are just as important (vessels) as to what is housed within.
![book cover of Wood Package by Keiko Hirohashi](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024-Library-Wood-Package-3.jpg)
![multicolored, surreal colorful wood boxes with various wheels and bauble details; from Wood Package book, by Keiko Hirohashi](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Summer-Wood-Package-5.jpg)
![black and red/maple ornate figurine boxes in the shame of silhouettes, body parts, and jumping cats; from Wood Package book, by Keiko Hirohashi](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024-Library-Wood-Package-4.jpg)
![more greyscale photos of finely carved wood boxes recessed as a "wall pocket" and as animal figurine forms](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024-Library-Wood-Package-2.jpg)
![greyscale photos of Wooden curved ornamental delicately carved boxes photographed; from Wood Package by Keiko Hirohashi](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024-Library-Wood-Package-1.jpg)
Come visit us and browse our extensive craft library! With over over over 3000 books, exhibition catalogs, and more than 2000 periodicals dedicated to the art of craft and related topics — there’s something here to delight any curious reader. Come visit us this summer and explore the expansive world of craft art and woodworking!
![Colorful magazine covers of Crafts, Woodwork, Fine Woodworking, and various Furniture woodworking journals](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024-Library-Periodicals.jpg)
2024 Nest Heritage Craft Prize: Women of the West
Nest is inviting all women makers and artists located in Wyoming, Nevada, Idaho, New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona, Utah, and Montana to enter a submission to demonstrate their technical mastery, as well as a thoughtful connection to cultural tradition through a singular, one-of-a-kind handcrafted piece.
The Nest Heritage Craft Prize aims to help advance the craft pursuits and/or craft-based business with the winner receiving a grant of $25,000 and four finalists receiving a cash prize of $2,500 each.
Submissions will be judged by a panel of experts who will evaluate excellence in technique and connection to heritage through storytelling and design.
Submissions are due by Monday, August 5, 2024. For eligibility and more information, visit https://buildanest.iad1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eFIyWAVEbXAiXH0
2024 Getty Intern Announcement
Hello everyone, my name is John Davillier (I usually go by JD), and I am very excited to be starting the Digital Communications Intern position for Craft in America through the Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship Program! I am currently going into my senior year at the University of Southern California’s Roski School of Art and Design studying BFA Art with a minor in computer programming. I am mainly interested in telling stories with my work, so I am interested in a wide variety of fields whether it be animation, painting, fashion, or design.
I was born and raised in New Orleans, where I was constantly surrounded by artists working on their craft and expressing themselves, so it became very apparent how art can be used to express ideas with a level of spirit that is often not possible with logical understanding alone. The power that art has to make someone not just learn things about someone else’s human experience but to actually feel those things is what makes it such an effective method of communication. Craft is one of the areas where I feel this the most, as it has been a core area of human experience since the beginning of our existence. We as humans have always stood out because of our ability to merge with the tools nature provides us and create something new in tandem with it. A large topic of interest to me at the moment is how this core experience shifts and changes as a result of the heavily digital world we live in today.
Craft in America has offered complete immersion into that topic, and I consider myself very lucky to have joined the team in time to see some of the background work for the upcoming show and help participate, which has exposed me to the work of a group of very skilled woodworkers. Although I have just recently started, seeing the show and the various online content I have worked on so far has already significantly demonstrated how important the connection the artist has with their craft is, and how the spirit they pour into it translates into a unique final object. I really enjoy Craft in America’s emphasis on showing process for that reason. Often from the perspective of a consumer, the final product is everything. However, for the artist, the process: the feeling of using their tools, the texture of the objects they’re working on, the sounds that reverberate through their studio, might be more important than any possible result.
As I continue to work this position, I am very excited to learn more about the connection all kinds of people have with their craft, and how that can lead them to connect with each other. For my generation, the threat of alienation and overconsumption seems to loom over the heads of many. There is a fear that the work we as humans do will become irrelevant as technology takes on more and more roles in our place. Still, for me personally, I have hope, and I feel that working with an organization like this one, where I am surrounded by artists who are passionate and longing for connection, only further strengthens that hope. There is no better demonstration of the idea that, no matter how hard it gets, humans will always have a desire for and love for the act of creating things and expressing themselves than experiencing the communities that are based around those very acts.
![A gouache painting done by the intern depicting a blue and green underwater scene.](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/JD-CiA-Art-resized-1024x576.jpg)
![](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/jd-headshot-websized-1024x576.jpg)
Sunday “Gayle on the Go!”, June 9th, 2024
June 9, 2024
KTLA 5
Woodworking Network: Craft in America Launches Craft Video Dictionary
5/13/24
Full, original article by Dakota Smith on Woodworking Network here.
Craft in America has launched the first-ever Craft Video Dictionary (CVD). The CVD is an online resource that gives the public a direct, close-up view of craft processes and techniques. Instead of words and images, CVD definitions are conveyed via video. Clear and concise, these videos are edited to focus on the artists’ movements and the transformation of materials. The project was initiated with support from The Decorative Arts Trust through their Prize for Excellence and Innovation in late 2020.
The first rollout of this new reference tool includes an initial batch of one hundred video definitions. This initial collection of videos begins to flesh out the ins and outs of art and craft making across a range of materials and media. Two hundred videos will be posted in total later this year.
The CVD includes techniques as demonstrated by artists with expertise in ceramics, metal, wood, fiber, glass, and more. Each video captures an artist manipulating material with their hands and tools through methods that are traditional, historic, and also very much still alive. “The CVD videos are intended to clearly define a craft technique, rather than demonstrate a how-to process. We hope this project will be useful to educators, museums, and everyone interested in craft,” says CVD project producer Denise Kang.
Thus far, 14 artists have been filmed across Southern California, and many of them are teaching artists at colleges in the region. The CVD includes definitions of terms ranging from sgraffito, which is a ceramics process, to glass blowing, and from cabinet making and joinery, to spindle turning, and blacksmithing.
By providing an intimate lens into the artist’s studio, CVD video definitions provide a sense of how the objects in our world come to be and what their craft entails. On creating the videos, CVD Project Director Emily Zaiden noted, “each artist during filming was able to take a step back from their second nature process and think about what someone unfamiliar with their craft might need to see and understand their work.”
A NEW, FREE ONLINE DICTIONARY OF CRAFT DEBUTS
This reinvented dictionary brings word definitions to life through videos of artists making objects.
About the Craft Video Dictionary
Three years in the making, Craft in America has launched the first ever Craft Video Dictionary (CVD), craftvideodictionary.org. The CVD is a free online resource that gives the public a direct, close-up view of craft processes and techniques. Instead of words and images, CVD definitions are conveyed via video. Clear and concise, these videos are edited to focus strictly on the artists’ movements and the transformation of materials. The project was initiated with support from The Decorative Arts Trust through their inaugural Prize for Excellence and Innovation, which was received in late 2020.
The first rollout of this new reference tool includes an initial batch of 100 video definitions. This initial collection of videos begins to flesh out the ins and outs of art and craft making across a range of materials and media. 200 videos will be posted in total later this year.
The CVD includes technique definitions as demonstrated by artists with expertise in ceramics, metal, wood, fiber, glass and more materials. Each video captures an artist manipulating material with their hands and tools through methods that are traditional, historic, and also very much still alive. “The CVD videos are intended to clearly define a craft technique, rather than demonstrate a how-to process. We hope this project will be useful to educators, museums, and everyone interested in craft,” says CVD Project Producer Denise Kang.
![Heather McLarty and Mary Jane Verniere at Adam's Forge demonstrating blacksmithing for the Craft Video Dictionary CVD](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Heather-McLarty-Mary-Jane-Verniere.jpg)
![Kazuki Takizawa, Deshon Tyau, The Craft Video Dictionary Project, Craft in America](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/F2631157-9884-4A03-B3DA-D0F9EB679513.jpg)
![David Johnson caning a chair at Allied Woodshop for the Craft Video Dictionary CVD](https://www.craftinamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/DavidJohnson.jpg)
Thus far, 14 artists were filmed across Southern California, many of them are teaching artists at colleges in the region. The CVD includes definitions of terms ranging from sgraffito, which is a ceramics process, to glass blowing, and from cabinet making and joinery, to spindle turning, and blacksmithing.
By providing an intimate lens into the artist’s studio, CVD video definitions provide a sense of how the objects in our world come to be and what craft really entails. On creating the videos, CVD Project Director Emily Zaiden noted, “each artist during filming was able to take a step back from their second nature process and think about what someone unfamiliar with their craft might need to see and understand so as to appreciate their work.”