JoAnn Edwards, cofounder of the Museum of Craft and Design, is passionate about giving people the recognition they deserve. Her professional life began as a therapist working with clinically depressed women, survivors of intimate partner abuse, and with people on the margins of society. When she fell in love with craft, she discovered that craft artists, too, were undervalued.
“I co-owned galleries with my brother for 26 years, where we featured contemporary craft and two-dimensional art,” she says. “Over time, it became clear that craft was not an accepted form of art. Museums were intentionally ignoring it. Many gallerists frowned upon it.”

Edwards was impassioned to elevate craft in the public’s eye and to honor makers. But when she floated the idea of a craft museum, “Some said, ‘Keep craft out of the name, or you won’t be able to raise money.’”

Undaunted, she and her brother, the late Seb Hamamjian, opened the Museum of Craft and Design in downtown San Francisco in 2004, pioneering by pairing craft with design. In 2013, after two years of MCD pop-ups, she moved the museum to its permanent home in the Dogpatch neighborhood. “It was a time when cabs and rideshares wouldn’t go there,” Edwards says, “but I felt that it was exactly right for MCD. Behind roll-up doors, creative things were happening.”

Creative things, including robust community outreach and an emphasis on women makers, have continued to happen at MCD as it has become a central fixture in the world of craft and design around the globe. Edwards, a lauded expert in the field who retired as the museum’s executive director in April 2024, has been able to see changes—dedicated craft museums, craft collections in major art museums, craft in contemporary galleries, and an increasing sense that craft is art—that her vision and courage helped set in motion.

sfmcd.org

Read more about the other 2024 ACC Awards recipients and honorees here.