Craft Forums
American Craft Forums are free online conversations that bring the community together to explore new ways of thinking about craft. Tying into the themes of each issue of American Craft, these discussions feature diverse voices working together to move the craft field forward.
FORUM DETAILS
Craft Writing Now: Meet the Winners of the Lois Moran Award for Craft Writing
This Craft Forum took place Thursday, January 13, 2022
Presented in conjunction with the Winter 2022 issue of American Craft.
Watch this Forum below or visit our YouTube channel.
In the Winter 2022 issue of American Craft, we were pleased to announce the recipients of the inaugural Lois Moran Award for Craft Writing: Velina Robinson Glass, Kelly Pendergrast, and Aram Han Sifuentes. This forum invited our community to join us for a conversation with them, and with our esteemed Lois Moran Award guest jurors, exploring what it means to write about craft in the contemporary moment, who is writing and has access to platforms, how craft intersects with the human experience, and how this type of dialogue can really help us move the dial.
Earlier in 2021, the American Craft Council, and the craft community, lost one of the greats. Lois Moran was the longest-serving editor of American Craft magazine, and for many, ushered in a new era of contemporary craft writing that put the artist first and kept pace with what was being done in the realm of fine art. In her honor, ACC started this annual award for craft writing to recognize the work of writers committed to moving the craft conversation forward.
Participants.
Glenn Adamson
Moderator
Glenn Adamson is a curator, writer, and historian based in New York. He has previously been director of the Museum of Arts and Design, head of research at the V&A, and curator at the Chipstone Foundation in Milwaukee. Adamson’s publications include Thinking Through Craft (2007), The Craft Reader (2010), Postmodernism: Style and Subversion (2011, co-edited with Jane Pavitt), The Invention of Craft (2013); Art in the Making(2016, co-authored with Julia Bryan-Wilson), and Fewer Better Things: The Hidden Wisdom of Objects (2018).
Indira Allegra
Moderator
Indira Allegra explores memorial as a genre and vital part of the human experience. Deeply informed by the ritual, relational, and performative aspects of weaving, Allegra explores the repetitive crossing of forces held under tension, be they material, social, or emotional. A leader in the performative craft movement, Allegra was winner of the 2019/2020 Burke Prize.
M. Rachael Arauz
Moderator
M. Rachael Arauz is an independent curator of modern and contemporary art, with a PhD in art history from the University of Pennsylvania. Past exhibition and publication topics have included mid-century abstraction, Mexican photography, language and text in contemporary art, non-figurative portraiture, sound sculpture, and weaving.
Velina Robinson Glass
Speaker
Velina Robinson Glass holds a BBA from Temple University and an MBA from LaSalle University and studied jewelry design and metalsmithing at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her work experience spans over two decades as a healthcare executive with firms such as Kaiser Permanente and Cigna Healthcare. In 2004, she left the healthcare industry to focus on a career in the arts.
Kelly Pendergrast
Speaker
Kelly Pendergrast is a writer, researcher, and media artist living in San Francisco. She writes about the social and environmental impacts of technology, material culture, and digital images for a range of publications. Her recent work explores topics including the tension between domestic utility and global supply chains, robot performance, and the aesthetics of smart objects.
Aram Han Sifuentes
Speaker
Aram Han Sifuentes is a fiber and social practice artist, writer, and educator who works to claim spaces for immigrant and disenfranchised communities. Her work often revolves around skill sharing, specifically sewing techniques, to create multiethnic and intergenerational sewing circles, which become a place for empowerment, subversion, and protest.
Give generously.
Support the nationwide craft community.
As a national nonprofit, the American Craft Council relies on your support to share artists’ stories, create events that connect people to craft, and sustain our unique programs that help artists and makers thrive at all stages of their careers.