Discover incredible artists from across the country in ACC’s Artist Showcase.

College of Fellows

A cohort of peers.

Meet the fellows.

Since 1975, the American Craft Council has recognized individuals for outstanding contributions to the crafts in America by awarding the distinction of Fellow of the Council.

To be nominated, an artist must demonstrate leadership in the field, outstanding ability as an artist, and 20 years or more of professional achievement as an craftsperson whose has spent a significant portion of their career in the United States. Awardees are nominated by the active College of Fellows and an invited group of guest nominators. The final selection of the cohort is made by the ACC Awards Committee, whose members include only current Fellows—making this distinction even more meaningful because it is not awarded by critics, scholars, or collectors, but by one’s peers.

In addition to artists, individuals who have made their own significant contribution to the craft movement are nominated and elected as Honorary Fellows, their designation including all the distinction and recognition of the College. The significance of the College of Fellows to the field cannot be overstated, and the value of material related to the individuals has proportional importance to the preservation and scholarship of American craft.

ACC is an official partner of Vacation with an Artist, connecting the College of Fellows with mentorship and teaching opportunities around the world.

You are now entering a filterable feed of Awardees.

  • Clifton Monteith

    Clifton Monteith has spent more than two decades creating willow furniture and sculptural works inspired by and made directly from the natural world. Working primarily with willow—both as greenwood and as dried elements—he crafts functional pieces as well as intricate colored twig mosaics. Willow also forms the foundation of his lantern sculptures, which combine light, structure, and organic materials. His practice has been shaped by time in Japan, where he studied on a 1994 Japan–U.S. ...

  • Cristina Córdova

    Cristina Córdova is a contemporary artist and educator specializing in figurative ceramic sculpture. From Puerto Rico, her work is grounded in clay as a material language for exploring memory, myth and identity. She earned her BA from the University of Puerto Rico and her MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, and has over twenty years of experience teaching ceramics internationally. Her work has been exhibited widely and is held in major public collections, in...

  • Donald Friedlich

    As an artist and in his extraordinary service, Donald Friedlich has been a leading figure in contemporary American jewelry for four decades. A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, Friedlich served a term as President of the Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG). His jewelry has been shown in museums all over the world and is in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Cooper Hewitt Design Mus...

  • DY Begay

    DY Begay is a Diné tapestry artist, born to the Tótshoníí (Big Water) Clan and born for the Tachinii’ (Red Running into Earth) Clan. Her maternal grandfather is Tséńjíkiní (Among the Cliff Dwellers) and her paternal grandfather is Ashįihí (Salt People). Clan identity anchors her understanding of herself as Diné and as an Earth Being. A fifth-generation weaver, Begay learned traditional Navajo weaving practices within her family, participating from an early age in shearing sheep, ...

  • Jean McLaughlin

    Jean McLaughlin’s life has been devoted to the creative process. Most importantly, she wanted artists to thrive in their chosen home communities. After 45 years in nonprofit arts management, she retired to her own creative practice while continuing volunteer work. For twenty years, she led Penland School of Craft, following 16 years advancing the arts through roles with the North Carolina Arts Council. With planning and networking as strengths, she grew Penland’s annual fund, scholarships, a...

  • Mildred Howard

    Mildred Howard (b. 1945, San Francisco, CA) completed her Associates of Arts Degree & Certificate in Fashion Art at the College of Alameda, CA in 1977 and received her M.F.A. from Fiberworks Center for the Textile Arts at John F. Kennedy University in Berkeley, CA in 1985. Howard has received many awards and fellowships including the Douglas G. MacAgy Distinguished Achievement Award at San Francisco Art Institute (2018), the Lee Krasner Award in recognition of a lifetime of artistic achievement ...

  • Namita Gupta Wiggers

    Namita Gupta Wiggers is an educator, writer, curator, and artist based in Portland, Oregon. Founder, director, and teacher in the MA in Critical Craft Studies, Warren Wilson College, Wiggers created the first and only low residency program focused on craft histories and theory (2017–2023). She received a Paul J. Smith Fields of the Future Fellow, Bard Graduate Center, NYC (2023), and a Senior Fellow, Smithsonian Institution (2024) in support of her current project on exhibition-making in US cr...

  • Silas Kopf

    Kopf was born in Warren, Pennsylvania in 1949. He studied undergraduate architecture at Princeton University. It was there in a history of art class that he was introduced to the French Art Nouveau furniture of Émile Gallé and Louis Majorelle, both of whom made extensive use of marquetry. He decided against a career in architecture, but instead wanted to learn the furniture craft. This choice led to an apprenticeship with Wendell Castle. He worked in the Castle shop for several years and then...

  • Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend

    Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend is an artist, designer, and educator whose career has helped expand the language of contemporary glass. Introduced to the medium while studying fine arts at the University of Texas at Austin in 1973, she became partner and designer of Renaissance Glass, an architectural glass studio that grew into a vital center for contemporary glass in Texas. The studio supported education, exhibitions, and a community of artists, and hosted leading figures in the Studio Glass Movement...

  • Vivian Beer

    Vivian Beer is a designer/sculptor based in New England. Her work combines the sensibilities of contemporary design, craft and sculpture in works that alter viewers’ expectations of and interface with the domestic landscape and public spaces. Beer received a BFA from Maine College of Art & Design and a MFA from Cranbrook Academy. Her work is in many museum and public art collections including Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Brooklyn ...

  • Winnie Owens-Hart

    Winnie Owens-Hart is an internationally acclaimed ceramic artist and educator whose work bridges African traditions and contemporary practice. Raised in segregated Virginia, her journey began with after-school art classes and a salvaged pot her mother treasured—clay as memory. A Professor at Howard University, she spent over three decades training generations of artists while advancing scholarship on African and African American ceramics. She apprenticed with Yoruba women potters in Nigeria...

This work was made possible with support from the
Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation.

Vacation with an Artist (VAWAA) is an organization that connects established artists with people looking to learn in mini-apprenticeships, either online or in-person, all over the world. With ACC’s position and reputation as a craft knowledge-barer and convener, we are working to connect VAWAA with amazing, talented artists in our field interested in the opportunity to act as mentors. Learn more about VAWAA in this Q&A with founder Geetika Agrawal.

Visit the VAWAA website to stay up to date on offerings and participating artists.