Good afternoon and to our friends on Eastern time. Good evening.
Welcome to the 2022 American craft council award celebration.
I'm Andrea spec,
and this is my great privilege to serve as the executive director of
the American craft council.
A position I have held for just over four months.
I mentioned this to you because this is my first ever ACC award
celebration. And I am so pleased to be.
Sharing this event with all of our award recipients and everyone who
is joining us via zoom.
Across the United States and beyond.
I'm speaking with you today from St. Paul, Minnesota,
the fraternal twin city of Minneapolis, where ACC is based.
The twin cities are located on the traditional ancestral and
contemporary lands of the Dakota and Ojibwe people.
In making this land acknowledgement.
I invite you to consider the land on which you live and the complex
confluence of legacies that bring you to stand where you are.
Including through critical reflection and conversation with your own
community.
A few technical and logistical reminders before I continue.
Please make sure that your camera is off and that your microphone is
muted for this program.
We welcome you to share comments and kudos via the chat feature.
Closed captioning is available.
On the bottom of your zoom screen, you'll see a CC symbol.
Clicking on that symbol will turn this feature on and off.
This program will also be recorded and available for future viewing.
The American craft council is a national nonprofit working to keep
craft artists and the craft community connected, inspired,
and thriving.
One of the ways that we do this is by celebrating craft's legacy.
Through the awards program that brought us all together tonight.
Before I introduce our awards program chair,
I would like to thank and recognize my ACC staff colleagues.
Particularly programs, manager, legacy and editorial.
Rachel Messer who's commitment to this event is an inspiration.
It operations manager,
Jason Samuels for attending to the myriad technical details that make
this event possible.
Our marketing team and ACC librarian, Beth Goodrich.
Thank you also to the Windgate foundation for its support of our
awards program.
As well as the Institute of museum and library services.
The friends of the ACC librarian archives.
The Minnesota state arts board and all of the donors and members who
make all of our work possible.
Less, but not least I would like to thank the ACC board of trustees
represented at this event by board chair, Gary Smith,
and the person I will now introduce.
Is my great pleasure to hand the virtual microphone to ACC trustee.
Awards program chair.
Artist and ACC fellow in his own. Right?
Tom Lozier who joins us from his home in Madison, Wisconsin.
Tom, thank you so much for your leadership and your passion for these
awards and all the work that you have contributed to bring us to where
we are at this moment.
And Tom, if you could please turn your camera back on.
Hello? Hi.
I'm handing the microphone to you.
Thank you. Welcome to everybody.
And welcome the 2022.
American craft council award ceremony.
I'm Tom ser.
I'm a woodworker furniture maker and ACC fellow current trustee.
And I'm honored to be the current chair of the ACC awards program.
The American craft council awards began in 1970.
Five as a way to recognize.
Those individuals and organizations who are.
Advancing the field in a myriad of ways.
I love working on this program because it gives us a chance to
recognize and honor an amazing.
Group of artists and contributors.
That all have a long history of expanding the boundaries of our field.
When I received a phone call in 2012 telling me that I had been
selected as a fellow of the ACC.
To be honest,
I did not know much about the program and had only a general.
Idea that this might be a good thing.
Now that I've been more directly connected with the program from the
administrative side.
And have had a chance to look under the hood.
What makes me particularly excited and enthusiastic about the awards
program is how it identifies and honors.
A stream of creative talent over an extended.
Time period.
The ACC has been recognizing artistic legacy for almost 50 years.
The ever increasing pool of artists and contributors that the awards
committee recognizes.
Offers one evolving and very dynamic.
History of craft.
Today, we'll honor, a total of 20 individuals, the six gold medalists.
That's an honor bestowed on those who have been previously recognized
as fellows.
Will also recognize eight new fellows and three.
New honorary fellows.
All were nominated by their colleagues and peers in the field.
And selected by a subcommittee made up of previous award ease.
This year, the subcommittee is Susan Cummins. Tina old know.
Ann courier, pat Hickman.
Mary Lee, who and Beth Lipman.
We would like to thank them for their time,
passion and dedication to the field and to this program.
The two recipients of the Eileen Osborne web award for philanthropy
and the award of distinction,
honoree are nominated and selected by the ACC board of trustees.
So we have an awesome collection of creativity and talent in the house
today.
And we have a lot of ground to cover in what we think will run about
an hour and 40 minutes or so.
Today, the award recipients will be introduced by members of the award
subcommittee.
And that group will be joined by two guest presenters,
Roseanne Simson,
and Wendy Mariama who have particular connections to two of our
awardees.
Gary Smith.
The chair of the board of trustees will present the award of
distinction.
And Andrea spec who you just met.
The executive director of the ACC will present the Eileen Osborne web
awards for philanthropy.
As Andrea mentioned the entire awards program and the subcommittee's
work is supremely well,
overseen and supported by Rachel Merick from the ACC.
Staff huge. Thanks to Rachel.
This year, the award subcommittee was passionate and opinionated,
but also.
Collaborative and expansive in their thinking.
Successfully pushing for the recognition of a bigger group of awardees
than is the precedent of this program.
The committee did this in pre in appreciation of the large cohort of
artists representing decades of creative leadership that have clearly
earned this honor many times over.
And I think this bigger cohort is also an indication that we recognize
and acknowledge that we're still not able to celebrate all of the
artists that deserve this honor.
The awards.
Subcommittee makes its selection.
From a list of nominated candidates.
The nominators that submit those names for consideration are the pool
of previous award recipients.
Additionally in the two most recent cycle,
we've included a small pool of invited nominators with the goal of
increasing the range and diversity of the nominee pool.
When interesting aspect of the program is that the awards committee of
course considers the 2022 nominations.
But the committee also looks backwards at previous lists of
nominations to see.
Who may have been nominated over several award cycles.
None of the awardees that were celebrating today is receiving this
recognition based on just a single nomination.
They have all been pushed to the fore by numerous nominators.
And in multiple award.
Cycles. We're gonna start today.
We're going to start by watching a 10 minute video.
That briefly introduces each awardee.
Later towards the end of the program. We'll see.
Another 10 minute trailer.
These short trailers were put together by Chiara Moora.
Pulling brief excerpts from longer video interviews,
he prepared about each artist.
We hope the two trailer segments will tempt you to then venture to the
ACC website where each awardees, individual.
Profile page also includes the long play version of these
informative and moving videos.
They are fantastic.
The individual pages for each awardee also include images.
Of each artist's work and an additional hot links.
If you want to dig deeper.
After the initial trailer,
each awardee will be introduced by our team of presenters.
And then after part two of the trailer,
The awardees will all be invited on camera to open the physical award
that they received in the mail.
And then everyone in attendance today will be invited on camera for
toast and social time.
So thanks for being here and let's get started with part one of the
video.
I was doing ceramics.
At UC Berkeley, you know, it's downstairs on the first floor.
And then upstairs, they started a glass point department.
I went up there and watched, and I.
The guy he was in there working by himself.
As I was watching him. He push on.
The piece of glass and it broke, he cut his hand.
Really bad. Like, oh my God, here, let me take you. Let me take you.
He says, no, go away, go away, go away. So he left, he went to the,
he went down the hall to the office.
And I would just left him the glass shop.
And the doors were open and the pipes were up there and,
and nobody was around. So I just started blowing glass. I just,
you know, I was asked to take a elective out of my program area.
Was walking down the hallway one day and I think it was my sophomore
year. I saw the ceramic.
Ceramics studio and it was fascinating.
And I walked in there and I thought, well, I'll sign up for that.
Whoa. Once I.
Took that class I had never left. It was, it just was hypnotic.
I would stay there day and night.
I took a bus trip, Greyhound bus trip to Mexico.
And traveled all over and I went and saw a lot of indigenous.
People weaving.
Down in Chiapas and.
Various different parts of Mexico.
And that, that, that's what fascinated me. That's how I got my.
Inspiration. I had been on.
Working on a DCA project, which was Douglas's first jumbo jet.
And went to Europe on a mission to put missiles along the east
coast of England.
I was 27 years old. I thought of, I've gotta figure things out.
And that's when I got on the ship in London.
I got on a cargo ship and for $500,
I was able to go to Hong Kong.
Then in India is where it all happened,
where they had a tribute to Gandhi.
A pavilion in the park.
And here were people who were.
Spinning. They were waving and they were dying.
And I thought I want to be a part of this.
An undergraduate.
I was a sculptor. And after getting out of undergraduate school,
I moved to Albuquerque New Mexico.
And of course the whole.
Native American Southwest art.
Was very connected to leaving and blankets and also
baskets.
I went to art school to study painting.
I wasn't a particularly.
Good painter, but I married another.
Painter and we really couldn't afford to.
Buy furniture to put in our apartment.
And so I just went to the lumber yard and bought a few boards
and.
Made a little table and a little.
Couch table and you know, a few other things that we needed.
And pretty soon people started asking me if I'd make one of those for
them. And.
35 Years ago in my.
Regular job. I traveled a lot. I, I was an engineer.
And I would take in art shows.
And I saw quilts at galleries.
Selling at that time for enormous.
Prices and I wondered.
If those prices were trickling down to the makers of those
quilts.
I borrowed a friend's wood lave.
And fell in love with the process.
And realized that I was better suited to the lay as.
In turning because it is more intuitive. You know,
I found that I was comfortable with the subtracted process,
which is what wood turning is. And so I started selling my furniture,
making equipment and buying wood lays.
It's hard to sort of say when I started.
Working in my field while living in Queens in the sixties.
You know,
going to Manhattan was tantamount to like going to California,
you know, it was just so.
Exciting. And there were several of my art.
Histories majors with me and we started going to galleries.
I think it was 1977, my advisor and Morgan.
She was writing for the new art examiner in Chicago,
which is an interesting magazine.
Because it wasn't New York based.
And so she took me to see the.
Editor, the person who founded the magazine. So he said, well,
here's a couple shows you can review if you want.
So I reviewed these shows in Chicago.
And that's how it began in the mid eighties. I was very interested.
In ways to.
Create a sense of gender confusion.
It was with a circle of friends who were really interested in messing
with conventional notions of gender.
It would seem quite tame at this point, but.
I got interested in jewelry,
particularly just sort of thrift store finds and things like that.
I started beating when I was about eight years old.
My I grew up on the wind river reservation in Wyoming.
With the shone in Arapahoe on that reservation.
My mother had a training post for over 25 years.
And in that trading post, she sold lots of things,
but mostly bead work bead work that was made by the people from that
reservation, but also from all over the United States.
The process.
Where in which I work is.
It is all together cathartic. I mean, it is.
From the beginning to the end.
And then there are periods along the way that are especially.
Moving, you know, they're especially.
Poignant.
One is the gesture. When the gesture can work.
Right away. I get the feeling that this.
Is going to this character is actually going to live.
Or it has a potential spirit.
Where this is, this is where I.
I can see the life already in this character.
And then at the end, in the.
In the detailing.
I get a lot of that. Like, are you going to,
are you gonna live for me? Are you going to,
are you gonna come all the way into life?
After high school in 1982, Dante got me a job in a.
Glass factory called the glass eye studios.
Dante.
And I were very close and we worked together on the same team for a
number of years.
Making Christmas balls, paper weights.
We made, you know, small production where.
Vs and things like that. So we were really developing our.
Skills through working in the factory.
I hadn't been invited in 1988.
To travel to Tasmania,
to be an artist and residence at the university.
Of trans mania, the school of art.
So I was there for.
Four months. And then on my way home.
I stopped in Fiji to do the same.
And that was when I had the good fortune of meeting ma Tito.
I started out as kind of a preve.
Pre-vet major. It just didn't agree with me very well.
And so I, I ended up starting off in photography.
And gradually ended up in the ceramic studio.
And it was a place that.
More than any place I've ever been as ever had been as a young person,
felt like home.
I went three summers.
To skin more. I came home for a weekend.
And driving back, I drove.
Through.
Meaning and I mean, just,
it was like sheets of water over your car.
And this was really such an experience.
So I was.
Making a piece up there.
And what to do about this.
Rain. So I found some plastic tubing. I got it.
I painted it and then I, I had to attach it.
So I found some wiring in the studio and I used the wire to attach it.
I thought that was really interesting.
I liked working with that material.
So that was really sort of my first adventure.
With non-traditional materials.
I really began working in the field of textiles when I was a child.
Because my grandmother had been a seamstress in New York.
And she lived with us.
And so I remember at six years old bugging her.
To teach me how to sew.
By hand. And then later when I was eight,
my mother taught me on the machine.
I'm Charlotte Herrera.
And I'm.
Really a craft lover and collector.
I've been at the organizer of our fine craft show at the Memorial art
gallery in Rochester, New York, which is where I live.
My name is Patty young. I live in Kensington, Maryland.
I am a craft advocate.
I was weaned on American craft council shows.
Through a gallery in Washington that I had a friend who was a,
you know, she was represented by them.
And I worked for that gallery in my twenties.
Father built the family home in Malibu, California.
Using house facades of old Hollywood movie sets.
Which he brought home.
Imagine growing up inside a hodgepodge patchwork of different
house fronts.
Jim traveled home from England and the us army.
Via cargo ship, seeing people making things.
The textiles he experienced along the way.
Spoke to him,
the GI bill allowed him to get degrees from UCLA.
Where he came to mentor and foster generations of artists.
Through his teaching.
He was also greatly influenced by living in Oaxaca with his family for
10 years.
His work is part of the continuum of the world of textiles.
He is driven by ideas and processes using.
Very simple tools,
celebrating the honesty and beauty of the handmade.
In his work and in his life.
Jim draws on complex weave structures with historic reference.
Uniting the past with the present.
In responding to contemporary political.
And environmental issues.
Bringing nuance and humor to his sophisticated.
Artwork, Jim confronts our times.
As he weaves yet another flag.
Always fresh and new.
His latest piece expresses his deep sense of sadness.
And frustration he's woven stripes.
Using agave fibers colored with natural.
Dyes indigo.
Matter root and avocado pits.
And embroidered 50 stars.
Falling out of their field.
Seemingly unraveling.
He says of his own work.
Weaving is at the center of how I attempt to understand and.
Respond to this changing world.
It takes a lot of time.
Sometimes the outcome is not nearly as interesting as the journey.
To get there. Please join me in congratulating,
Jim Basler upon receiving the gold.
Thank you pat.
Beth and Leah, if you could please turn your cameras back on.
Thank you.
It is my honor.
To introduce Leah cook.
Leah cook has spent her acclaimed career.
Voraciously exploring aspects.
Of weaving and imagery.
She works in a multitude of media.
Combining weaving with painting.
Photography video and digital.
Technology.
Cook deathly incorporates data from behavioral.
And neurosciences complicating our relationship to the subject.
And co-opting the viewer's gaze.
Cook is concerned with our visceral reaction to an image in cloth.
As well as our bodily reaction to the material.
How does the reaction to a textile.
Differ from a photograph.
A computer screen, a painting.
In the mid nineties.
Cook began using Jaar looms to translate family photos.
Into woven narrative works.
Her use of the Ja card loom to construct and deconstruct an image.
Profoundly reflected the advent of the digital revolution.
The tapestries allude to a visual.
Vocabulary for the systems that now define our collective reality.
On a personal note.
I've closely followed the work of Leah cook.
Since I was a student at Tyler's school of art in the nineties.
Struggling to express myself through the process of weaving.
I was and remain.
Struck by her masterful subtle.
And contemporary portraits in tapestry.
Cook breaks, open the door.
To the representational in textile over and over again.
She trailblazers the way forward.
Through the process into the unknown.
Please join me in congratulating. Leah cook.
As she is recognized as a gold medalist of the American craft council.
Its highest honor for a lifetime of achievements.
Roseanne, please come home.
I have the talk on you. No.
Hi, it's.
Are we set? You are set. Go ahead, please.
It's a pleasure to be here to.
Introduce Judy McKee, who doesn't hardly need an introduction,
but to be here as part of this wonderful.
Opportunity for her to receive the gold medal from the American crafts
council, which is its highest honor.
And Judy is so well deserved of this award.
As a furniture maker and artist.
She has essentially created her own genre in the field of studio
furniture.
Making work that is so distinctively, Judy.
And that work includes materials of bronze and wood and paint and
stone.
But the consistent features of all of her work have to do
with this quiet.
Timeless elegance. That also has a bit of a sense of humor.
And I would say that those characteristics are very much like Judy.
Judy's Judy and I first met in the wood shop.
Some four decades ago and have remained colleagues and really close
friends ever since.
And it's just been awe inspiring to watch her work,
develop over those years.
And to, to think about.
The pieces that she creates almost as living in the world because they
have so much.
Of an animat sense about them, but yet.
They're so timeless and elegant that they can live as.
Objects on their own.
Anyway, I'm just delighted that Judy is here to receive this award.
And I wanna extend my deep congratulations to you, Judy.
Well, thank you very much.
I am delighted to be receiving this award and I appreciate it very
much.
I didn't prepare that. So.
I'm just saying. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And that's enough.
That's good.
Okay.
For the 1997 book I wrote on Richard Marquis known as Dick.
I had to supply a paragraph for the dust jacket.
And this is what I wrote.
Richard mark was a self described glassblower and collector of beat up
vintage objects.
Has had an extraordinary influence on the development of contemporary
studio glass in America.
And around the world as an artist,
he has admired for his understanding of color and form.
As well as for his humor and willingness to experiment.
As a glassblower.
He has influenced an entire generation of artists working in glass.
Who aspire to his technical mastery and the originality of his
vision.
And, you know, what can you really say after that?
So the short introduction for someone who's remarkable career.
Has spent more than 50 years will focus on some of the things that are
important to Dick.
He has always been a dog lover.
He has always been a maker.
And a collector of objects and he has pursued these activities in a
way that can only be described as extreme.
Artists or problem solvers says Dick.
We create our own problems and hopefully we solve them.
As a person, Dick is unpredictable.
Yet he is highly disciplined.
Similarly, his work is unpredictable disciplined.
And a rife with other contradictions.
It is humorous and intellectual.
Intentionally unintentional.
Sincere and ironic.
Practical and impractical.
Smart and dumb, elegant and stumble bomb.
Like the outsider artists that he admires.
Dick's world is unique.
And in constant invention.
His objects are an element, almost a byproduct.
Of an elaborate universe under construction.
Dick's distinctive style.
Love of material and engagement with the process of making.
Shines through the clever content of his pieces.
Resulting in charismatic objects that have their own logic.
Integrity and intention.
I cannot think of a more fitting person.
To award any kind of gold medal to than Dick marks.
And I am gratified that the American craft council has chosen to
recognize him with their coveted one.
Thank you, Dick.
Let's see.
Go hi, I'm honored and grateful.
And humble to be among my other prestigious colleagues.
And thanks, Tina.
Thank you.
I am overjoyed to be introducing John McQueen.
Basket maker.
John McQueen has been investigating the concepts of containment.
Presence and absence.
And exteriority and interiority in wildly innovative.
Small and large scale sculptures.
At times lyrical.
At times representational, the baskets confront and seduce the viewer.
With their raw materiality and unexpected forms.
Embedded text becomes distorted.
Legible and subverted in McQueen's vessels.
Taking on new interpretive power.
In McQueen's own words.
Even an idea, like a sentence is contained.
It has a beginning and an end.
Go down the list. There are thousands of things.
If you wanted to, you could connect them all to baskets.
Some of the sculptures nod towards the corporal.
Fibrous orifices suggesting organs or cavities.
For John McQueen.
Materials inspire concept as well as composition.
The work of weaving or assembling a basket parallels,
other life processes of gathering.
Refining and building.
John.
I took a workshop with you in the early nineties at Peters valley
school of crafts.
Your generosity and vision deeply inspired my practice.
I gained a sense of freedom and spontaneity.
That was unaccessible to me prior to working with you.
The vitality of your practice and the generosity of your spirit
altered the trajectory of my practice.
In a very short period of time.
Thank you.
Please join me in congratulating, John McQueen.
As he's recognized as a gold medalist of the American craft council.
Its highest honor.
For a lifetime of achievements.
I should do this.
Okay.
It is also my honor to introduce Patty.
Where Sheena.
Sheena closely studies, the human condition.
Her figurative sculptures capture the absurdity of the corporal and
its escapades.
Her work processes and filters.
Current sociopolitical events.
Through an autobiographical lens.
The stylized reductive figures.
Engage in actions that defy a singular perspective.
Freeing the viewer to interpret the work in diverse and expansive
ways.
Her sustaining interest in the human figure generates from her own
daily.
Existence,
the sculptures captured the time and place that she inhabits.
Patty has asked me to share this statement.
With you.
As a Seattle art student during the early sixties.
I recall anxiously awaiting the next.
Craft horizons magazine to read about the evolving.
Experimental development of the craft and ceramic movement within the
United States.
Whose cultural history was still young.
My admiration for the innovative.
Pioneer artists of this time was inspiring. An elusory.
But most compelling.
Therefore,
I want to thank the members of the American craft council for this
unbelievable honor.
For, without those early innovative visions.
Publications and organizations to support the United States
and later the.
International craft movement by the council.
I would not be here today.
Thank you for giving me this creative life.
Please join me in congratulating.
Patty war Sheena,
as she's recognized as a gold medalist of the American craft council.
Once again, its highest honor for a lifetime of achievements.
Thank you so much. .
I'm speechless. .
So great.
Terry, please turn your camera on, please.
Hi, Terry.
It is my deep pleasure to be introducing Terry griefs.
Terry griefs is a masterful bead worker whose multifaceted
work, celebrate aspects of historical.
And contemporary Kyle life.
By depicting anecdotes of oral history and archetypal patterns.
In exquisitely, rot, canvases, and beads.
Her work at times.
Appropriates iconic symbols of mass culture.
Such as Chuck Taylor sneakers.
As platforms for traditional bead work.
And enrolled member of the Kawa Indian tribe of Oklahoma.
Her work is steeped in the tradition of her family and ancestors
and pays tribute.
To the unseen labor of women.
A graduate.
Of UC Santa Cruz.
Grieves has won best of show at Santa Fe Indian market.
Was featured in PBS's craft in America.
And was named a United States artist,
distinguished fellow in traditional arts.
Her work is in numerous public collections,
including the museum of arts and design in New York.
The Denver art museum in Colorado.
And the national museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian
institution in Washington, DC.
Grieves is known.
As a curator and scholar, as well as a maker.
She co-curated.
Hearts of our people, native women, artists.
With Jill Oberg. Yohi.
Hearts of our people was the first major.
National traveling exhibition.
Devoted to the art of the native American women.
Grieves and yo he's claim that the majority.
Of museum held native American cultural artifacts.
Were in fact made by women.
Has brought a foundational.
Change in the ways that these collections have been recontextualized.
Please join me in congratulating Terry Graves.
As she's recognized as a fellow of the American craft council.
Congratulations.
Oh, thank you very much.
Thank you for this honor for recognizing me.
And thank you to the American craft council.
For recognizing native American bead work.
As a viable form of American craft.
A hope.
Karen Hampton.
Is committed to creating.
Artwork that responds to the lives of her ancestors.
Through her lens of anthropology and genealogy.
She travels in her ancestors' footsteps.
Exploring plantations, where they were enslaved.
Doing extensive primary.
Research walking the roads where they lived.
Karen puts herself in her work.
She is a gifted storyteller pricking with needle on cloth.
Whether digitally printed.
Hand woven died or on age linen.
Her cloth carries the hopes and visions of African American lives.
Telling their stories from her perspective.
The power of her.
Conceptually based narrative fiber art.
Has won her major commission for Metro art, Los Angeles.
The purple D line.
Extension transit project.
Is replacing a bus line. She took when she was growing up.
It will open in 2027 at the Westwood UCLA station.
Karen's visual examination and investigation of the multilayered
and complicated history of America.
Will be translated into mosaic tiles.
Celebrating Los Angeles and its diversity and vibrancy.
Of culture and communities.
Please join me in congratulating. Karen Hampton.
I'm sorry. Karen, can you please unmute and say that again, please?
I was saying, thank you, pat.
And I also wanted to really thank the American craft council.
Because this has been truly felt in my heart.
Thank you and Nancy, can you please turn your camera on, please?
Did you turn our wall? Yeah. Okay.
Nancy cunning.
Is urban New York.
In her artwork, she reflects the city.
With its complexity and TLE of people and traffic.
Racing crossing layering.
Interlocking Nancy used to work in soft materials.
Yarn and fabric knitting and crocheting them.
Now it's copper and steel.
Narrow gauge industrial wire.
Strong flexible materials,
which lend themselves to the manipulation necessary.
As she makes nots and nets.
Drawing and wire.
The end results in her, two dimensional,
three dimensional lace like work are both delicate and fragile.
Containing shadow and light.
Reserving space for air.
And breath, Nancy.
Is also the textile study group of New York.
One of its founders 45 years ago.
Her presence over the years has enabled that organization to
thrive.
She generously hosts.
Speakers encourages national and international programming.
And supports others in the field. Oh, nice.
The standard of excellence that Nancy.
And genders has created a membership.
Across the country,
her commitment to the field and her ongoing.
Active making are an inspiration.
Present in every fiber of her 95 years.
Please join me in celebrating and congratulating Nancy cunning.
Thank you.
I'm I'm so delighted that you're the one who saying these words,
because you have really been an inspiration to me, pat.
And.
This award means a lot to me.
And to the organization, that textile study group to which I have.
Given a lot of.
Time and love.
Thank you. Thank you.
I've known Keith Lewis since he was in graduate school in the 1990s.
In fact, I showed his thesis work in a gallery. I ran in mill valley,
California.
In 1993, the year he graduated from Kent state.
He's work was exceptional and provocative.
I had no idea what my audience would think of it,
but I thought it was fantastic and courageous.
His jewelry at the time, dealt with issues.
If we are identity as well as sexual freedom politics.
And larger questions about loss, memory and history.
These were not the ornamental objects we think of as jewelry. In fact,
they were far from it.
Tackling the weighty themes and demonstrating how ambitious jewelry
could be when it came to subject matter.
These broaches and necklaces screamed out loud about the injustice of
the aids pandemic and the oppressive treatment of homosexuals by the
public.
In one necklace,
he memorialized 35 specific people who he knew died from aids.
Can you imagine 35 people gone from your life and the fear you
also carry of catching the virus and dying too.
The 36th soul in the necklace is Keith himself.
In other broaches people he knew were remembered by name and given the
head of an animal whose essence was most evocative of that person.
A dog, a stag, a mouse, a cat, and so forth.
Many of these figures have sizable erections.
Indicating the pleasure and joy, the experience from sex.
Keith is all about sex from the politics that surrounded sexual
freedom and the gay community and the aggressive attempts by
conservative politicians.
And religious leaders to use aids as a weapon against sex itself.
To the visual codes that depict sex in different cultures,
such as porn in our own time or sexually explicit murals and phallic
objects that were buried in Pompe. When Mount vest, studious erupted.
This is a topic that makes most.
Americans squirm, but Keith reveled in it.
At the same time he had conflicting feelings about sex too.
He was discussed. He was.
Discussed in artist talks, he has discussed an artist,
talks his experience.
Of survivor's guilt and ambivalence that comes from.
Any sexual encounter, possibly being a vector for infection.
Why didn't he get the virus?
Is it okay. That he makes a living from commemorating,
those who died of aids.
And Keith Stewart.
Keith's jewelry. Sex expresses the fully vulnerable.
Contradictions and richness of being human.
Of our desires and fears and the fragile wonder of reaching out to one
another.
Seeking comfort and pleasure and another body.
Controversial topics have never been welcomed subjects into cozy craft
world.
We don't like to be provoked or have struggled,
have to struggle too much with our feelings about objects. We own.
Especially if we wear them on our bodies.
I have to applaud Keith for the courage she's shown to expose himself.
And us in this way from 1994 to the present, Keith has taught.
At central Washington university in Ellensburg, Washington.
It is a school in Eastern Washington.
That has a hollowed place and a history of America jewelry.
Ramona Solberg and Ken Corey taught there before him and the school
is known as the birthplace of Northwest funk jewelry.
Although Keith has only had a few solo shows.
He's been in countless regional national and international
exhibitions.
And his jewelry has been featured in many articles.
A book on Keith and his work is in the making.
Which should be released next year.
And it includes a number of his wonderful artists talks as well as
insightful observations by art historian, Damien Skinner.
His work is held by the following museums,
the Los Angeles county museum of art, the metropolitan museum of art.
The museum of arts and design the Houston museum of fine arts.
The rose British bra scene.
Bain art museum, the Renwick gallery, the Tacoma art museum,
the Pentago techno modern in Munich and the Victorian Albert museum in
London.
For Keith, the making of jewelry is a political act.
And an expression of his.
Personal relationship to human illness.
Memory vulnerability and death.
He says a lot with his jewelry.
Please joining me, please join me and congratulating Keith.
On joining the college of fellows.
Thank you very much, Susan. And thanks to the ACC for this honor.
It means a lot to me.
It's my, my name is and it's my.
Honor to be able to introduce.
Christina milk and.
A young girls, you know, we've learned.
To much friendship between other girls.
Started at very young age.
Later the foot poop to be.
An in bag, but lesson.
And if you.
Progress along friendship with other women.
Unique and.
Support, this would prove to be true.
Amongst women with workers.
I first met Christina mad in 1977.
And we Trudy McKee.
The van something and gay figure.
A friendship of.
Mutual respect of sharing.
Anding overall.
These year in that early years kill only a
handful of women in our field.
And this made a friendship even more and well.
We are certainly.
Encountered such them in full Folo.
It was not. You see,
but it was great to have people to share that experience.
With, and I think it made a thought stronger.
And more.
Has extreme linear, just.
Practitioner.
She learned needle work from the woman in her family.
Became highly skilled with handbook.
At a very early age.
It's the work with digital lineage.
Continued which started with David power.
Poer who, who had himself been a pupil?
Of of.
A very well known British.
Funny to make name Edward Burnley.
In addition Castillo.
You cook a master cover from.
Future Christina.
Christina's family.
For nine months absorbing night, only the car,
the dollar of Harvey.
But also the culture.
Of Fiji.
But with.
Talking was an incredible mash up between.
All three of those influences.
And that became Christina.
Signature work.
No other design maker.
Like Christina.
Each decade of work.
Short amazing.
Growth started with.
Supreme school.
The furniture maker.
And refinement, design and proportion.
And experiment.
With touch.
Code and surfaces.
Being able to turn the skill of the future and coping.
Technique into her own palette.
Incorporating through the use.
Of.
Speed carbon through different layers of.
And pigment.
I can't make you. She does in the next decade.
Please join me in welcoming and congratulating.
Christianity and into the college of fellows.
Thank you, Wendy.
Thank you.
I'm standing in for Anne courier.
Anne courier very much wanted to be here to introduce mark Ferris.
She cared passionately. She cares passionately about this nomination,
but she has a conflict that prevents her from joining us.
And she's prepared the, these kind comments and given me.
Permission to read them for her.
So Anne wrote this for the ACC newsletter. When we,
when that when first announcing the 2022 fellows.
Over the past decades, mark Ferris has brought an invigorating and.
Contemporary vitality to the traditional conventions of pottery,
finding shape, surface, and color through a lens.
That playfully captures and interprets architectural and geometric
references.
Generous as an educator,
mark is highly respected by individuals who feel fortunate to have had
him as a teacher.
And then for today's occasion,
she sent us the following additional materials.
While preparing additional remarks to introduce mark Ferris.
I remembered that in 2011,
the FSIC Nelson gallery at the New York state college of ceramics at
Alfred university mounted an ambitious exhibition.
Called table space, a framework for contemporary ceramics.
Was curated by the nurse, Linda Secora and Albian Stafford.
And mark was one of 14 artists invited to participate.
The exhibition was accompanied by a comprehensive catalog.
And the forward to that catalog was written by the scholar Howard
Rosati.
A wonderful coincidence to note on this occasion today.
And the catalog included statements by each artist.
In rereading Mark's comments in that catalog,
I've concluded that his own words.
Refreshingly open and unpretentious offer a clear glimpse of who he
is as an artist and craftsman,
and why his recognition as an ACC fellow was so important.
So in Mark's own words.
I have been making functional pottery.
Outside of, and as part of an academic career for a long time now.
I am particularly interested in the wide range and vigor of objects
found in the domestic.
Space I revisit,
but I think of as the architecture of vessels and the spaces in which
they're found and used quite often,
Even though I sometimes don't know quite what architecture means in
relationship to this inherently amorphous material.
The notion of architecture.
Agricultural storage buildings in particular.
And structure is almost always part of my vision and thought process.
I like the idea of making pots that securely.
Take up residents at the table.
And in doing so provides symmetry and equality.
Among the seated guests and whose role in the meal is to do the work.
And also to stay out of the way.
Please join me and congratulating.
Mark Ferris.
Thank you, Tom. Thanks to Anne and,
and thanks to the American craft consult. It's a great honor.
Hi, Preston.
Preston single Terry's work is imbued with the vibrant native American
artistic traditions.
Of the Pacific Northwest coast.
Preston studies old Northwest coast designs made in traditional
materials.
Such as Cedar shell bone bark and roots.
And he gives them new life in a contemporary.
Non-traditional medium glass.
A clink of tribal member who was raised in Seattle.
President's journey in glass has been a unique one.
While his great-grandmother kept a pet grizzly bear as a child at her
home in Southeast Alaska.
Preston grew up in an urban environment, unconnected to his roots.
Building a career as a glassblower,
interested in Italian and Scandinavian design.
He had a life changing experience, what he meant,
the native American glass boat blower.
Tony Hola who urged him to explore his clink ancestry in his
work.
Through teaching and collaborating with other native artists.
Preston discovered that glass could bring another dimension to
indigenous art.
My work with glass transforms.
The notion that native artists are only best when traditional
materials are used.
Preston says it has helped advocate on behalf of all indigenous
people.
Affirming that we are still here.
And that we are declaring who we are through our art.
In connection with our culture.
In 2001 Preston embarked on a new direction as art by working with the
Alaskan sculptor,
David Fenson to realize a monumental totem pole commissioned by the
pill check glass.
Since then Preston has continued to create architecturally scaled
works.
In addition to immersive environments.
Such as his recent traveling exhibition.
Raven and the box of daylight.
His work has become increasingly collaborative.
At, as it has increased in scale and scope.
A recent work in cast class.
Killer. Well,
totem stands over eight feet high and weighs more than 2000 pounds.
A trustee of puck end of the Corning museum of glass.
Preston is an exciting addition to the craft council's college of
fellows. Congratulations, Preston.
Chief. Thank you so much for this honor.
I'll just start out by proclaiming what I believe to be true.
That tip ton is one of the most,
if not the most courageous ceramicists working today.
Her raw sensitive and scary figures are truthful and painful.
She tries to show the reality of being human through the excellent
rendering of the reality of a body.
No words or explanations,
just a title and impeccable technique to shape.
And imagine the body in torment or.
Unselfconscious expression.
Her compassion is so strong for these individuals that it.
Extends to us, the viewers, we feel that what they are feeling.
And we are sympathetic disgusted.
Or provoked to react in some way.
Kif says, tip says she wants.
The reality of the figure to be close enough that you can almost feel
the heartbeat, even though, you know, it's a sculpture.
You're touched by the figure.
Empathize more fully with the person.
They are not easy to experience.
Tips work is unusual in the ceramics field.
It's very rare that you see figurative work or really any work in the
craft field that reckons with such raw emotions.
Or the weathering process of the body as it is aging.
The craft field is usually not extreme enough for that.
It's a nice place for the most part where the violin horrific.
Aspects of life are just not discussed.
But she does discuss them.
Old age with alts, wrinkles and saggy skin.
Especially is depicted.
Fear and silliness come through as well as.
Joy and illness.
Old age is hard to look at in this culture of youth.
So just that alone is more than enough to distinguish her work.
The figures seem to suggest a narrative about their lives.
You can't help, but immediately trying to place them in a story.
Which ki tip does as she's working on them.
Mostly, she says they're self portraits.
Who is this person and how did she develop this attitude towards
making.
Tip earned her F BFA in ceramics at the university of Colorado and
later received an MFA in ceramics from.
Montana state university.
She started out mostly making cartoons with people,
and then she became interested in clay.
She experimented with the interaction between the drawings.
And the ceramic sculptures.
And then she did something most Ramis never did at the time she
painted on the clay.
Was almost a forbidden thing to do here again,
she has gone off the rails of the craft world and courageously pursued
her own path.
Kip ton's previous accolades include a visual arts fellowship from the
national endowment of arts.
Yards artists and residences in.
Wyoming, Oregon, Montana and Washington.
And artists trust gap award, and the Virginia,
a group foundation grant among others.
Also among others.
The museums that hold her work include the metropolitan.
Museum of art, the museum of arts and design,
the Herberger Institute of design and the arts.
Yellowstone art museum.
Dumb museum of contemporary art and the Archie brave foundation.
Tip says at times,
One wonders in the many months of making.
In one's it's alone. If this is nuts or not.
My belief is that it is nuts. And at the same time, it's a calling.
Congratulations tip on receiving this honor,
belonging to the college of fellows from the American police council.
Thank you, Susan.
So kind and honored to be part of this.
This company of artists.
Thank you so much.
Dr. Carolyn.
Mame received her doctorate in aerospace engineering.
It's a stretch to imagine leaping from engineer to quilt maker.
Storyteller, but.
She is a force. And when she sets her mind to something, it happens.
Immediately after the George Floyd murder out of her outrage and pain.
She knew and exhibit had to happen.
And the idea for we are the story of visual.
Response to racism was born.
Seven venues in the twin cities.
In collaboration with the textile center in Minneapolis showed the
work, which was created.
And became a traveling exhibit.
She founded the African American Quill Guild of Los Angeles.
And the women of color quilters network.
Her impact is felt across the country.
Her generosity and support.
Encouraging maker's voices.
And quilts has been visibly.
Evident in many museum.
Exhibitions curated by Dr.
Malu may black pioneers.
Legacy in the American west.
Has just opened in St. Petersburg, Florida.
At the James museum of Western and wildlife art.
Uncovering black.
History 60 quilts from her own.
Extensive collection will be shown at the international quote museum
in Lincoln, Nebraska.
October 21st through March 25th.
In her own narrative quilts in black and white.
She tirelessly confronts the tough stuff.
Giving voice to African American history.
Speaking eloquently and powerfully of the need.
On the part of all of us to work toward diversity in our lives and
in our institutions.
Please join me in expressing our gratitude and congratulations.
To Dr. Carolyn Miles Lumi.
Thank you pat.
And I would also like to thank the American craft council
for this honor. Thank you.
Scholar writer and curator.
Howard Rosati has been instrumental in defining our collective
understanding of craft and contemporary society.
He is emeritus professor of contemporary art and critical theory.
At Virginia Commonwealth university,
where he served as chair of the department of craft material studies.
From 2001 to 2005.
He is the author of numerous books, including.
Skilled work, American craft in the Renwick gallery.
Which he co-authored with Kenneth trap.
The mountain lake workshops.
Artists in locale, which accompanied the exhibition.
He curated of the same title.
Postmodern perspectives issues in contemporary art.
And new music vocabulary.
In his best known book.
A theory of craft function and aesthetic expression.
Reside compares handmade ceramics.
Glass metal work, weaving and furniture.
To painting sculpture,
photography and machine made design from Bowhouse to the Memphis.
Group craft.
He argues uniquely integrates function with a profound.
Aesthetic expression of human values.
That transcend time and culture.
Reside has co-curated exhibitions,
including art and artifice.
At James Madison university.
And ambiguity and interface at Topman museum of art.
He contributed to many journals.
Including new art examiner.
Art journal art forum.
And Blackbird, an online journal of literature and the arts.
Please join me in congratulating Howard Rosati,
as he is recognized as an honorary fellow.
Of the American craft council.
We travel business adversely impacted by COVID-19.
Prosecutors alleged most these defense did not appropriately disclose
that testimony and the time defined a rebuttal witness.
Prosecutors also wanted to place again. I loudly .
Hi, Tina. .
And internationally respected specialist in modern and contemporary
art.
Dr.
Lowry Stokes Sims has had a long and successful cur curatorial career.
Focusing her gaze on.
African African American Latinx.
Native and Asian American artists.
At a time when few curators did.
During her tenure as curator and chief curator at the museum of arts
and design from 2007 to 2015.
Her exhibitions and her writings.
Contributed new and important scholarship to the field of contemporary
craft.
She brought expanded and diverse perspectives to craft.
Erasing divisions between art and design.
High and low and individual and collective.
How does most of the art world know Lowery?
As an award winning American historian and curator of modern and
contemporary art.
Art slow has written about include Wilfredo lamb, Fritz shoulder,
RO Rome. Berden Robert Koski, Fred brown.
Sonya Clark, Wendy Maruyama.
John quick to see Smith and Betty and Allison Sarr.
She is also organized exhibitions on the work of Stewart Davis.
John Marin Ellsworth Kelly.
Bola fry and Joyce Scott.
She is a founding board member of the national organization,
art table, Inc.
Larry's knowledge of modern and contemporary art is vast.
And is in large part, the result of having spent.
24 Years as a curator of 20th century art.
From 1975 to 1999.
At the metropolitan museum of art in New York.
After leaving the met.
Larry served as the director and then president of the studio museum
in Harlem.
From 2000 to 2007.
And before moving onto the museum of arts and design.
She served as a visiting professor and scholar.
At several well known American colleges and universities.
As you can see.
Lowry brings much distinction to the college of fellows.
Representing someone who may not be from a craft background.
But who has significantly impacted.
And broadened our world.
Congratulations low.
Thank you so much, Tina, it's a joy to receive this honor from you.
And I thank the American craft council for.
Recognizing someone who is essentially a genre s**t.
I just go from art craft to design and love every minute. Thank you.
Do it.
Sorry, Stony. If you could please turn your camera back on.
There he is.
It's my great pleasure to speak about Stony Lamar. I'm Gary Smith,
the chair of the board of the ACC.
Stony is of course,
a consummate artist with a large body of bold and imaginative work,
speak for him far better than I can.
You can see a couple of his pieces behind me on the shelf.
Cuz work is original end daring.
He respects the material,
but finds inventive ways to make it express his,
his ideas and emotions.
I suspected everyone who studied his work has had a,
how did he do that moment?
What I think people resonate to however,
Is that there's a soul to his work.
Something touches you about the precarious balance you see in these
pieces.
This is, if he's speaking to the struggles,
we all have fighting balance in our lives.
But we don't honor Stoney just be just for his work,
which is certainly worthy of honor.
In addition to his life as a maker,
Sony has been consistently a generous contributor to the field of wood
art.
And the craft community at large.
He served as the president of the Southern Highlands crap handcraft
Guild.
He was a founding board member and president of the center for craft.
And a trustee of the American craft council.
All of us have benefited from his wisdom.
And insight. Stony has been a teacher on a mentor to aspiring artists,
such as Mark Gardner, and many others.
Who've gone on to become successful makers in their own. Right.
And I know how important him are.
The Windgate Lamar fellowships of the center for craft.
That support the bright future of craft.
Most importantly for me, however,
Is that Stoney is a friend.
We met.
We met in the mid nineties and it was through him that I met Robin
horn and became involved in the creation of the collectors of wood art
organization.
Sony's one of the people who opened my eyes.
To the beauty and the inspiration that can be found in a carefully
crafted object.
Objects Stony you've enriched my life and measurably.
And your work has enriched the world.
Please join me and congratulating still for his lifetime of
multifaceted contributions to American craft.
For which the American counts a board of trustees.
Has awarded him our award of distinction.
Congratulations Stoney.
Thank you, Gary. That's it's really a great honor to, to,
to be recognized by the council and.
And by and by you in particular.
Thank you very much. I do appreciate it.
Hello, Charlotte.
Hi, Andrea.
It is my honor to present our two Eileen Osborne web.
Awards for philanthropy named for the visionary founder of
ACC.
This award honors exceptional philanthropic contributions to the field
of craft.
Our first recipient is Charlotte Herrera.
Charlotte is a craft enthusiast and collector.
22 Years ago.
She co-founded the fine craft show at Memorial art gallery in
Rochester, New York, an event.
She has continued to advance as an organizer and a passionate
volunteer.
Charlotte's love of craft began in childhood.
When she made clothes that garnered awards of excellence.
As an adult,
Charlotte volunteered at a fundraiser that included the sale of
exquisite.
Handmade glass objects and sculpture,
and that set her out on the collecting path.
Charlotte's long dedication to the fine craft show has been driven by
her desire to support craft artists by providing them with a venue for
exhibiting and selling their work.
In the true craft tradition.
She and her team also host artists in their homes,
provide dinner and conversation.
And willingly offer any support that an artist might need to achieve
success.
Charlotte served for nine years as an ACC trustee and four years as
the board show chair.
She is a member of the Memorial art galleries,
board of managers and an advisory board,
the advisory board of the Alfred ceramic art museum in Alfred
New York.
Charlotte has said of her love for craft.
Quote, my husband and I are collectors,
but we've never collected because someone said a piece was important
or significant.
We collect what we're visually attracted to what creates a special
feeling.
Not something mass produced.
But one beautiful piece someone made.
In doing so we've been able to meet artists.
Discuss materials and techniques and support craft makers,
livelihoods.
Congratulations Charlotte.
Thank you.
And I now.
Present the Eileen Osborne web.
Award for philanthropy to Patricia Young. Hi Patty.
Patty is a retired clinical social worker who is also an ardent craft
advocate and collector.
She views herself as a craft chaplain.
A role that involves.
Always thinking of and implementing new ways to strengthen and keep
the craft village together.
And inspire emerging artists along with the next generation of
collectors.
Patty developed a passion for craft shows in her early twenties.
She has since traveled the world,
learning about craft through hands on classes,
meetings with makers and collectors and studio visits.
Supporting the makers on their work is what brings Patty the greatest
joy and the depth of her commitment and knowledge is what led her to
become a show judge for the ACC.
The James Renwick Alliance for craft and the national capital art
glass Guild.
Patty is intrigued by all craft mediums.
She donated a Marvel piece by Sebastian Marana to the Renwick
galleries, 40 under 40 show.
In 2019, she responded. I'm sorry.
She sponsored the Renwick Alliance's Chrysalis award for emerging
artists, which was presented to mixed media sculptor, Richard, James.
She has also supported fiber art glass.
Clay and wood turning organizations and artists.
Patty has served on the boards of the American craft council Renwick
Alliance and the craft emergency relief fund.
According to Patty what's special and unique about being involved in
craft is supporting artists.
So they can do what they do best.
Well said, congratulations, Patty.
Thank you for this honor.
At this time.
Please join me in enjoying the second part of our two part awards
video.
Well, I had, I had this whole ceramic.
Background. So it was like, I knew.
Things shapes and things I wanted to make.
And, and I figured out I could do,
I could do a lot of that in glass, even though there's, there's not.
A lot of it. I've never seen anybody do before,
but I figured out how to do it.
And it, it kept me entertained for.
Decades. Yeah, the first human figure. I, I did.
You know, that was realistic was called a close line robbery.
It's a woman who's sitting on a car.
On the hood of a car and.
So that was kind of a key piece.
Because I was doing this.
Realistic figure this woman who's flashing through this clothes line.
so that piece led on to this bridge piece
and it's has 72 Northwest a in it.
That piece was kind of a key piece for me, because first of all,
I worked on that series of, of figures for about 10 years.
So I was given this commission, so I decided to,
that I would celebrate.
Seattle in that all of a sudden Seattle.
Was starting to open up, became more of an, you know, very,
very established art center. I think it was six pieces.
They were, I was doing golf faces then.
It was the same image, you know, it just translated differently.
Textile wise.
This one's sad. This one's happy. This one's angry. This one's,
it just blew my mind.
That it could have people could have such a different response.
To the same image just translated slightly differently.
And so I started building a piece eventually.
It turned into a 32 piece.
And then I kind of had enough.
.
Jason,
I think this is the point that I invite all of the awardees to turn on
their cameras.
For some award unwrapping. Am I on the right? Oh,
Okay. I thought it was the end of the video, but we can do that now.
I maybe I, I wrongly thought we were at the end of the video.
All right. I'm I'm gonna take silence.
From our, from our runner of the show to say,
this is the point that I am going to ask all of our awardees.
To please turn on your cameras.
We're gonna see if we can make this work by understand how,
how it would work.
You we'll more or less all be on the screen together.
And for those who are.
Who are here to celebrate with us.
I'd like you to know that all of our award recipients have received by
mail.
A beautiful award commemorating the event today,
you should all have an envelope. If you could please.
Take that, and I'll just give you all a kind of a minute to,
to be ready.
And I invite you.
I invite you all to open your awards.
There you are, you can show them.
And please give us a moment to get everyone on the screen. Oh,
alright. I'm Andrea. I do apologize. I did not see the,
the note that the screen sharing had stopped.
I was still hearing the video. So that was my confusion.
I apologize for that.
We're gonna get everyone on screen and moved to the next portion.
Yeah. And as you can see, we are, you know,
we did not have a dress rehearsal. We've done our best.
So thank you for bearing with us,
everybody on the improvisational nature,
special events always have the unexpected.
So mm-hmm .
I hope you all. As I see you again,
coming onto the screen and looking at your beautiful awards.
Congratulations again to all of you and.
Please enjoy these and, and treasure them.
Beautiful. Thank you.
Thank you. We have congratulations.
and I too apologize. I wanna come in with one more note here,
which is that we have also hit a zoom limit.
I was unaware of which is only nine.
People can be in the spotlight at a time.
What I'm gonna do is remove these spotlights all together so that we
can have everyone on screen who is on camera.
Okay. And give me just a moment to finish that here.
And we, we will, of course send out a link to view the video as well.
Once again, apologies for that.
Now we should have everyone back on screen.
For this moment. All right.
And I think this is when I hand over the Baton here or the microphone
back to Gary Smith for a toast.
Yeah, they're all. And give us just a moment.
I'm going to mute all and then unmute Gary.
Gary you are on. I'm going to put you in the spotlight here.
Thank you very much.
What a wonderful.
Group to be celebrating here today.
And I am so pleased to be part of this and.
So grateful for on behalf of ACC for everyone who has come to.
Join us in this celebration.
So I invite all of you to find a glass and.
Get ready to join me in this toast.
All of these people here today have unquestionably.
Earned the awards we've bestowed on them on behalf of the craft
community makers.
Teachers mentors, scholars, benefactors. They've all made important,
even essential contributions to the world of craft.
Thanks to the makers.
Our world is full of objects to which we can turn for the pure joy of
experiencing beauty.
But in which we could also find inspiration and challenge and comfort.
To those who are teachers and mentors,
we're grateful for what you've given to the future of craft.
And to the scholars who've given us.
A language for expressing our thoughts about craft.
And to Patty and Charlotte and others who so generously supported
institutions like ACC is because of you,
that there are support structures and advocates for this important
work.
We celebrate today decades.
Of wonderful important work by these.
Award recipients and thank them for their contributions to the history
of craft.
And for laying the foundation for the bright future of craft.
To them all we say. Thanks. And congratulations.
Thank you.
Here here. Cheers.
And.
Congratulations again to all. And Rachel,
I see you've placed a note in the chat. Again,
we did run into a bit of a technical glitch with our video.
So we're going to try to, to get back to where we left off there.
We don't want anyone to miss an anyone to miss the great video if we
can, if we can queue that back up. So.
Let's see if we can make that happen. I am queuing that up right now.
Give me just a moment and we'll be back on.
you can see it.
Well, I had, I had this whole ceramic background.
So it was like, I knew things.
Shapes and things I wanted to make.
And, and I figured out I could do,
I could do a lot of that in glass, even though.
There's, there's not a lot of it. I've never seen anybody do before,
but I figured out how to do it.
And it, it kept me entertained for.
Decades. Yeah. The first human figure I did, you know,
that was realistic was called a close line robbery.
It's a woman who's sitting on a car on the hood of a car.
And so that was kind of a key piece.
Because I was doing this.
Realistic figure this woman who's flashing through this clothes line.
so that piece led on to this bridge piece.
And it's has 72 Northwest artists in it.
And that piece was kind of a key piece for me.
Because first of all, I worked on that series of,
of figures for about 10 years.
So I was given this commission, so I decided to,
that I would celebrate Seattle.
In that all of a sudden Seattle.
Was starting to open up, became more of an, you know, very,
very established art center.
I think it was six pieces. They were, I was doing doll faces then.
There was the same image, you know?
It just translated differently.
Textile wise, this one's sad. This one's happy. This one's angry.
This one's, it just blew my mind.
That it could have people could have such a different response.
To the same image just translated slightly differently.
And so I started building a piece.
Eventually it turned into a 32 piece.
And then I kind of had enough .
From the technique that I've learned.
I learned how to make cubes.
And then by looking at a digital.
Clock on our microwave.
I figured I could weave those.
And have them turn and wrote tapes.
So I made 16 cubes that if you turn them around,
You get either the date.
Or you get initial.
Initials cuz you can really sort of spell with them.
I'm not striving for anything it's the, the work is so personal.
That I'm just trying to, I'm trying to find out.
This has been said a million times who I am.
A basket is just layer that when you put 'em in it,
And the body has a same idea, has an.
Outside surface that everything goes inside of it.
So that skin layer.
Is nothing more than a container that holds that person together.
And that's what baskets do. So.
I could start to feel like no matter what I made was both.
A container like a basket is, and there were also containers.
Of many different things. And even, even an idea,
like a sentence has a beginning and a hand. So it's a sentence is,
is contained.
And you can just go down the list of thousands of things. Gary knocks,
Bennett, Gary, and, you know, he called.
Me one day and said, you know, I have.
This piece of yours that I could take to the Foundry and see
if they could.
Cast it in bronze. Mm-hmm how would you,
how would you like that? and I said, I'd love that,
but I'd like to.
Design a piece of furniture.
That was meant to be in bronze, not.
Meant to be in wood. Mm-hmm cause this is great.
Because you can do things in bronze that you cannot.
Do and wouldn't,
mm-hmm because of the wood will break if it has a big
curve in it, but I could, you know,
make that in bronze and it could be any shape I wanted.
And that was a really exciting.
Thing, because, you know,
I liked making these animal forms and I could suddenly make an
octopus. .
For the.
Quadri Centennial anniversary of the first landing of.
Africans in this country in 16, 19.
I curated an exhibition called.
And still we rise.
Where I trace that.
History from 16, 19.
To present day, that show made a difference.
Because people from outside of the culture knew the
contributions of African Americans,
all the trials of tribulations that they'd been through.
It makes a difference.
It makes a difference when people know you and that's what the show.
And still we rise.
Was about this came about as a friendship.
With some folks that, that were,
were in involved in philanthropy in, in the, in the field.
And I started doing some kind of pro Bon bono work for them,
just kind of going around the country and, and seeing what, what,
what was happening. And.
That led to me, actually working for them folks can,
they could call and talk to me and I could give them a sense of
whether or not.
What they were talking about was, you know,
it would be possibility for funding.
Just was so rewarding. Cause you know,
it put me in touch with tools and institutions that are doing,
just doing fantastic work, you know, in terms of.
Educating these people really, that all started.
In the late eighties and I've been doing it ever since.
Two big exhibitions.
I organized while I was at the museum of arts and design,
the first was the global.
Africa project in 2010.
And then 2014 new territories laboratories for design craft and art
and Latin America.
By the time I did Latin American show.
It was like, you know, something, the Zenni.
The time when designers were sort of really.
Coming to grips with the marketplace.
Their collaborations with traditional designers and family
fabricators.
I thought a lot about machine made things which.
It seems to me like MIS Wanda rose Barcelona chair,
which I really like. It's a beautiful chair.
He made it for the bars of Lona pavilion in 1929,
you can still buy that chair.
You can't buy a Sam Maloo chair.
You can't buy an SMA chair.
When he dies, they stopped.
So the craft objects are connected to people's lives.
To the artist to moments in time.
And I think to hold those objects is to have some connection to
somebody in a moment in time and can't be replaced.
Jewelry turns out to have an extremely rich.
And deep history.
Of connections, of course, with the personal, with the bodily,
with the, the intimate, with the sentimental.
And all of those were were.
Attributes that I felt would be very useful.
In pursuing the subject matter, I was most interested in, which was.
Gay male identity.
Queer identity in general.
And the situation that I found myself in the mid eighties,
which was smack dab in the middle of the, of the aids pandemic,
along with all other.
People.
In the queer community at that time.
The impulse, the artistic.
Impulse is, is the truth.
The medium comes and goes through human history.
So I don't care what things are made out of that is a huge lesson over
the last 50 years of life.
It doesn't matter what things are made out of.
What matters is the story behind it and the intentions behind it.
That's it.
That's the human spirit that is placed into those objects that
we give away. Right. That's what we're doing.
It's it's that movement.
It's so.
Compelling.
To see if you could make.
A character and.
Have them live, you know, like really like come to life. It's sort of.
It's just the most profound.
Feeling if when it can happen.
And have, have some sort of an energy.
Like bring something into this world with.
Energy. This just blows my mind. Really one guy.
Referred to it as modern heritage art,
which I think that is really a good way of putting it because it is.
Modern art, but it's connected to my heritage.
And so, you know, that's, you know, essentially what I do is, is.
Sometimes trying to represent.
The cultural objects, you know, in their traditional form, but then.
You know, over the years I've tended to go.
More abstract with it. And.
Learned how to play with it in different ways.
But I think that that was.
Really a defining moment.
Every new piece that I.
Design I design.
As a challenge whenever I design a new pattern.
It's a lot of work and it starts off.
With research and then.
Sometimes even just picking.
A mark or two or a shape or two. And then I start putting.
Things together and it's that.
Reflected light off of the facets of the carving.
That for me is the magical part of the work.
So I, I started to pursue a.
A tad program.
That would fold and unfold.
A volume.
So I could design a volume on the screen.
And unfold that volume into a two dimensional pattern.
And then print that out, but that was transformational.
There. That was a, it was.
In a kind of epiphany.
It just gave me another way of seeing the world.
You know, and, and it opened a, opened the doorway to form.
That is that wasn't possible on the wheel.
Ha when I began to wanna make.
Freestanding things. It just wasn't working so well.
But I have this wire already.
So I tried it.
And I really liked it, and I've always been very interested in.
In architecture, it was kind of a natural.
Fit the geometrics of this city.
Are are really quite wonderful.
And it's something that.
Yes, definitely influenced my work and I.
Have done a lot of free toll, free standing pieces.
My biggest thing. I'm always looking at.
Is how does this world work? What is.
Our, you know, where these humans that are here,
what is it that we're doing?
And.
You know, and how can we save the world?
And so I'm.
Do it by digging into the history and pulling out the history.
And making the work that.
That then helps other people to see.
You know, our history.
I think it's a privilege to be able to participate.
Both in sharing knowledge.
To me, there's giving in two senses.
There's giving whatever you can give.
To organizations in a monetary.
Point, but I think philanthropy goes.
Far beyond that, it's not just giving and then forgetting.
About the organization that you're giving to, but giving something.
Back to the organization.
When you have the opportunity.
From a personal standpoint. I, I do it because I can.
Because it's my passion.
Because even though it may be a little drop in the bucket here,
it does make a difference.
And I, I do it.
Because I appreciate.
Where I am.
In the world of craft.
And my modest.
Influence means even more.
To some of the makers.
And, and I don't want to.
Waste that.
I wanna honor that for them and for me,
I don't think without the American craft council that.
Clay and.
Jewelry and some of these other areas like fiber.
Would have the recognition.
And the popularity that it does without that organization is hugely
important.
And that is the true end to the video.
So thank you for bearing with us,
everybody as we got that working again. And.
I am inspired. I'm humbled.
I'm grateful.
And I suspect I am not alone in all of those things.
So someone had put in the chat earlier that they had hoped we would
have a chance just to do a bit of a social, which is hard on zoom.
But we're going to try it.
And Rachel tells me it actually works relatively well.
So at this point, I wanna bring the official program.
To a close, thank you again to our presenters.
And our awardees. Congratulations. Thank you to everyone for.
Attending and I invite all of you, including attendees.
To stay on and unmute yourselves.
And we'll see how this works to have a little, a little social moment.
But this is the official end to our program.
Thank you again. It's an honor.
And it's been,
it's been an honor and a privilege to spend this time with all of you.