Crafting Your Legacy

The Everson Museum of Art’s ceramics curator explains how artists can get their work into museum collections.

By Garth Johnson
February 4, 2026

Digital Only

Essays

Free To Read

Photo by Tom Grotta

Toshiko Takaezu in 1998 with works later combined in the Star Series (c. 1994–2001), including (from left to right) Sahu, Nommo, Emme Ya, Unas, and Po Tolo (Dark Companion).

As the Paul Phillips and Sharon Sullivan Curator of Ceramics at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York, I’m one of a small handful of contemporary ceramics curators in the United States. Last June, I had the pleasure of presenting at the Furniture Society’s annual conference with curator and gallerist James Zemaitis. Our talk focused on peeling back the curtain on museums and their inner workings, and we tried to give practical advice for everyone in the audience, which included students, educators, and seasoned makers.

Zemaitis has over 30 years of experience in auction houses and design galleries. As a Senior Vice President for Design at Sotheby’s, he directed some of the most iconic craft and design works of the 20th century into both private and public collections. In 2016, he took a position at R & Company in New York as both a curator and the head of their Museum Relations department, where he organized Objects: USA 2020 and Objects: USA 2024, lavish exhibitions that paired iconic midcentury craft and design with works by contemporary makers.

Zemaitis spoke at length about working with artists who were skillful enough (and lucky enough) to have an iconic work that was widely published and exhibited. He gave the example of beloved woodworker Wendy Maruyama, whose 1981 Mickey Mackintosh chair became a classic example of postmodernism in woodworking. Together with R & Company, Zemaitis worked with Maruyama to create the final 10 chairs in the original edition, with a focus on placing them in permanent museum collections. If you have a “greatest hit” under your belt, it certainly helps to work with a gallery or representative that already has a credible museum relations department or a staff member who is deeply embedded with museums.

Photo by Joe Kramm, courtesy of R & Company

Wendy Maruyama's 1981 maple and Zolatone Mickey Mackintosh chair, 70 x 31 x 19 in. These examples were made in 2022.

Be Like Toshiko

Zemaitis and I were eager to talk about ceramist Toshiko Takaezu, whose work is enjoying a meteoric rise in popularity. The ceramist, who died in 2011, was the subject of two recent major exhibitions: the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s 2023 exhibition Shaping Abstraction, and the Noguchi Museum’s Worlds Within, which opened the following year.

Takaezu’s career offers several important lessons for legacy-minded artists. She was both prolific and highly experimental, producing thousands of objects at her studio in Flemington, New Jersey. These ceramic objects included small functional works, as well as her Star Series, which included works measuring well over five feet in height. Takaezu’s relentless work ethic was paired with a constant drive to innovate both technically and stylistically.

Over the span of six decades, Takaezu was incredibly well-networked. Until her death, she traveled widely, taught and mentored countless students, and exhibited her work in a wide variety of museums and galleries. Through all phases of her career, she was unfailingly courteous to all. In my decades of work in ceramics, I have never heard an unkind word about her. Takaezu never forgot a friend and was quick to lend her voice—and her work—to the causes that she supported.

When Takaezu knew that her health was beginning to fail, she proactively placed her work in permanent collections, initially reaching out to museums that had helped her along the way. The Everson, where I work, was an early champion of Takaezu, collecting its first pieces in 1962 through the prestigious Ceramic National exhibitions. In 2006, we received a donation of 18 hand-picked pieces that spanned her career and ranged in style and form. Other institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Racine Art Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Arizona State University Ceramics Research Center & Archive all received important works that are increasingly hard to find on the secondary market.

Photo by Princeton University Art Museum / Art Resource, NY

Toshiko Takaezu, Sunrise Egg, 2003–4, refired 2006, stoneware, 33.25 x 21.75 in.

“If you wait for the museum to come to you, you might be waiting a long time.”

— Garth Johnson

Meet Curators Where They Are

As a curator, I am frequently approached by artists and collectors who would like to donate work to the Everson’s collection. I typically decline 90 percent or more of the offers due to storage limitations or because the artist or object just isn’t the right fit for the museum. When acquiring an object, a museum is making a commitment to care for that object in perpetuity, meaning that it will typically spend far more than the object’s monetary worth just storing and caring for the object. When approaching a museum, donors should take these hidden costs into account.

Early-career makers should also be aware that if a museum collects contemporary craft, it is likely that the curator has a background in decorative arts. Unless they are 20th century specialists, decorative arts curators likely specialize in historical works from Europe or Asia; knowledge of a museum’s specialty and the curator’s research interests can help get your foot in the door.

Decorative arts curators are often tasked with collecting and collaborating with contemporary artists to help interpret historical works. Curators gather at academic conferences such as the American Ceramic Circle and the Furniture History Society. If historical research or references are a part of your practice, I encourage you to seek out these small conferences and symposia, where you can learn from academics who have devoted their lives to research and rub elbows with curators in their natural habitat. I have found that most academic conferences bend over backwards to include working artists.

If you are trying to get the attention of your local museum, the first step is to get a membership and regularly attend programming and exhibition receptions. If you wait for the museum to come to you, you might be waiting a long time.

Really, Be Like Toshiko

For all of the above advice, your mileage may vary. My final piece of advice points back to Toshiko Takaezu. Be prolific and hardworking, but above all be generous and kind—it will pay huge dividends. Takaezu sold steadily throughout her career, but she kept a cross-section of her most important work. Rather than relying on others to place her work after her death, she went to incredible lengths to place her work with important museums, starting with those that had helped her throughout her career.

Photo courtesy of Garth Johnson

Garth Johnson is one of a small handful of full-time ceramics curators in the US.

Garth Johnson is the the Paul Phillips and Sharon Sullivan Curator of Ceramics at the Everson Museum of Art.

Learn more about Garth Johnson and the Everson online.

Website Instagram

Before you go!

We believe that making creates a meaningful world, and we hope you do, too. Deeply researched and impactful journalism on the craft community is in short supply. At the same time, being featured in a national publication can have a major effect on a maker’s or artist’s livelihood, particularly those who are just starting in their career. You can help support our mission and the work of makers around the country by becoming a member or by making a gift today.

Thank you!
American Craft Editors

Join Donate