Dr. Leslie King Hammond, is Professor Emerita, Maryland Institute College of Art, a curator, scholar, artist, and community arts cultural innovator. She is a Board member of the American Craft Council and the Reginald Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Advisory Board for HANDWORK 2026 and exhibition initiatives and projects with the Baltimore Museum of Art, Woodmere Museum, Peabody Essex Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Carol Sauvion is the Creator of Craft in America, the Peabody Award winning documentary series celebrating American craft and the artists who bring it to life. The Craft in America series airs nationwide on PBS. Sauvion is the Executive Director of the non-profit organization Craft in America, which has a mission is to promote and advance original handcrafted work through educational programs in all media. Projects include the PBS documentary series; the book, Craft in America: Celebrating Two Centuries of Artists and Objects, and the Craft in America Center, located in Los Angeles and open free to the public. The Center originates exhibitions with catalogs, hosts artists’ talks and workshops and provides access to a large craft library.

Juliane Shibata is a ceramic artist and educator based in Northfield, MN. Her work is informed by the Japanese concept of mujō (mutability and impermanence) as well as the Pattern & Decoration movement. Her most recent outdoor installations aim to consider the nature of our own existence by redirecting our awareness of and engagement with the constructed environment, the spaces we occupy, and the traces of human presence in and around the architectural structures we encounter.

Tim Tate is a Washington, DC native, and has been working with glass as a sculptural medium for the past 35 years. He has shown nationally and beyond since the 1990’s, including the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, Boca Raton Museum, Art Basel Scope in Switzerland, Art Miami during Art Basel-Miami, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Renwick Gallery, the Hermitage State Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia and commercial galleries from Washington, DC to London and Berlin. Tim Tate has spent many years championing LGTBQ rights in all its forms. As a 40-year HIV+ Queer Man, he founded the Triangle Artist and is also the designer of the New Orleans AIDS Monument.