Discover the best in contemporary craft in ACC’s Artist Showcase!

Early Career Artist Grant: Tools & Equipment

With generous support from the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation, ACC has established three grant opportunities, available exclusively to members of our Early Career Artist Program. The American Craft Council provides innovative programs that support craft-centered livelihoods, including initiatives designed to meet the needs of artists as they build their careers.

Photo by Malcolm Lightbody

Meet the awardees.

Fifteen Early Career Artist Program participants will receive a $2,500 grant to purchase tools and equipment that will help grow their creative practice and business. Examples of tools and equipment include: a kiln, a jeweler’s saw, a workbench, or an anvil. Materials are not eligible for this grant.

You are now entering a filterable feed of Awardees.

  • Roy Mateus

    Roy Mateus is the founder of BELLAren TEGUI, creating heirloom textile totes from vintage fabrics, repurposed antique textiles, and artisan materials sourced directly from their makers whenever possible. Inspired by Bella, his work transforms forgotten materials into functional art that celebrates heritage, sustainability, and the stories woven into every handmade piece.

  • Diana Hoover

    Diana Hoover is a ceramic artist, based in Asheville, NC, and working under the studio name Knook Ceramics. She creates functional pieces that explore the intersection of contemporary craft with fine art and design, incorporating sculptural elements such as exaggerated curves and oversized handles, with an emphasis on surface decoration.

  • Enoch Michael

    Navajo silversmith Enoch Michael makes turquoise jewelry from his home studio in Utah. He works in silver and exhibits across the Southwest, including Santa Fe Indian Market. Enoch teaches silversmithing workshops and designs custom tools for working metalsmiths.

  • Esperanza Dodge

    Esperanza Dodge is a mixed media artist and self-taught bookbinder based in New Mexico. She makes hand-bound journals, sketchbooks, and artist books across a range of formats and structures. Her work is rooted in long-standing community practice in BIPOC and reproductive justice spaces, where she understands creativity as a resource for healing and connection.

  • Evelyn Wichitchu

    Evelyn Wichitchu approaches traditional glassblowing as a language, with each technique forming part of a unique vocabulary that allows her to find her own voice within the medium. Wichcraft Glass, her brand, honors the craft’s rich heritage, reflecting upon the past while simultaneously expressing Evelyn’s own personal vision in glass.

  • Heather McCord

    Heather McCord works to inspire students as a high school art teacher by day and a ceramic artist by night. Her work embraces bright colors, playful illustrations, and plenty of polka dots. Each ceramic piece is designed to spark smiles and bring joy. Passionate about surface decoration, she is continually exploring new ways to layer glazes, carve textures, and expand her approach to surface design.

  • Connie Noftsier

    Connie Noftsier is a self-taught contemporary fiber artist from Croghan, New York, creating hand-embroidered sculptures of nature, inspired by the Adirondacks. Her work is featured at the Adirondack Experience Museum and several galleries. A recipient of two New York State arts grants, she has embroidered for more than 53 years.

  • Ryan Hardy

    Ryan Hardy builds furniture in his studio in Minnesota, working with domestic and exotic hardwoods and veneers. His wood furniture designs are inspired by prairie school stained glass windows where the linework brings a sense of balance while also creating interesting eye movement. Recent work was included in the Minnesota Woodworker’s Guild annual show.

  • Jessica Chace

    Jess Chace builds furniture in Red Hook, Brooklyn at Liberty Labs Foundation, working in sustainable domestic hardwoods. Her practice draws on the Arts and Crafts tradition where structure is expressed honestly, and joinery is legible. Recent work was included in a Guild Hall retrospective. She trained at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship.

  • Joy Byrum

    Joy is a weaver, artist, and maker exploring how handwoven cloth carries meaning through material, labor, and human connection. Working with linen, cotton, wool, and alpaca, she traces each fiber from its origin to the loom, creating textiles that honor the hands and care behind every thread.

  • Kennedy Lor

    Kennedy Lor is a Minneapolis-based accessories designer, specializing in the radical reconstruction of secondhand leather and garments. He blends architectural pattern-making with sustainable practices to create one-of-a-kind handbags and statement pieces. Kennedy’s work redefines luxury, preserving the history of salvaged materials within contemporary, wearable art.

  • Kimberly English

    Based in southern Appalachia, Kimberly English uses weaving to examine how American individualism shapes identity, labor, and belonging. Her work has been exhibited widely and internationally, as well as recognized through residencies. She earned an MFA from UNC Chapel Hill and a BFA in Fibers from SCAD.

  • KK Prettyfields

    K.K. Prettyfields is a multi-disciplinary artist who makes limited-edition jewelry, functional and decorative pieces, and commissioned site-specific architectural accents. Her current work practice spans flameworking, kiln-casting, hot glass, and encaustic painting. She draws on Zen and Quaker influences to deepen awareness and advance her craft.

  • Maryamm Abdullah

    Maryamm became a full-time potter 3 years ago and has made hundreds of ceramic pieces on an inexpensive pottery wheel from Amazon with no bat system. A bat system allows thrown pottery to be interchanged so that the work will not get distorted when moved. Most of Maryamm’s work is wheel-thrown, and sometimes she waits hours for work to dry before she can safely move it, limiting productivity. Maryamm used the Tools and Equipment grant to purchase a new potters wheel and associated expenses.

  • Micah Wiles

    Micah Wiles is a farmer and craftsperson living in Kentucky in the foothills of the Appalachians. His craft is place-based and involves a connection with the land, utilizing materials found in the landscape around him. He creates baskets from split white oak and teaches classes to preserve the local tradition.

  • Nana Gagatsovi

    Nana discovered her passion for woodworking later in life—a midlife crisis unraveling into creative awakening. Made in the USSR, forged in Russia, and programmed in the U.S., she carves furniture the way she has carved her identity: stripping away what doesn’t belong and honoring what remains.

  • Nathaniel Newcomb

    Nathaniel Newcomb mills his own wood and works at a large scale; therefore, having tools capable of cutting both precisely and safely is essential. Nathaniel is receiving a Tools and Equipment grant to purchase a Makita electric hand planer and a Skilsaw Sawsquatch, a powerful circular saw equipped with a small chainsaw-style blade. These tools would bring a new level of precision and professionalism to Nathaniel’s work and allow him to produce more finished work and participate in additional ...

  • Samantha Young

    Samantha Young is a Brooklyn-based furniture and lighting designer and maker. Rooted in fine woodworking, she works across wood, ceramics, metal, and paper, often combining materials to explore their unique qualities and the relationships between them. She is the founder of Osra, an independent design studio.

  • Sarah Shores

    Sarah Shores is a Maryland-based metalsmith committed to sustainable studio practices while using only recycled and responsibly sourced materials in her work. Using a closed-loop approach, she creates whimsical and biophilic jewelry with the intent to inspire joy and spark a ripple effect with those she encounters.

  • Shachi Shah

    "Shachi Shah is a practicing ceramic artist and educator based in San Diego, California. She makes simple yet strong functional wares for everyday living. Beginning with wheel-thrown forms, she explores subtle alterations that bring movement and individuality to each piece. She trained at Golden Bridge Pottery in India and assisted internationally established artists during her internship at Gaya Ceramic Arts Center in Bali."

  • Yael Braha

    Yael designs and hand-builds one-of-a-kind contemporary ceramic objects. She received the Best in Show Award at the Taubman Museum of Art (USA, 2026), an Honorable Mention at the Cheongju Craft Biennale (Korea, 2025), and was a Finalist and Honorable Mention recipient at the 13th Mino International Ceramic Triennale (Japan, 2024).

  • Noelle Zambrano

    Noelle Galos Zambrano is an Ecuadorian American ceramic artist and educator based in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Her research-driven practice centers locally sourced clay, material knowledge, and the adaptation of ceramic traditions across place. She brings an interdisciplinary background in anthropology and sociolinguistics, developing her practice through community studios, craft schools, and artist residencies.