The creators of Craft Equity identify themselves as an anonymous group of queer and racially diverse craft artists who exhibit and teach internationally. “We started Craft Equity because all of us have witnessed and experienced inequity and harm that have been ignored or incompletely addressed by craft institutions.”

The one-year project was set up as an Instagram account and website in May 2021. There, people in the craft world shared stories of inequity, harassment, and related trouble. It touched a nerve—the Instagram account had some 6,000 followers—and it’s gotten results.

One post called out the studio manager at WheatonArts in New Jersey who had allegedly sexually harassed women for years. Commenters complained to Wheaton, and the instructor is gone. The project also helped graduate students at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania organize against a steep increase in student fees. “We have been told by countless people who shared their experiences,” the organizers say, “that just telling those stories has relieved them of a heavy burden, and that they feel heard and validated.”

The web and Instagram sites are slated to go dormant in May 2022. A retrospective report is being issued in the same month, intended to help future activists fight craft inequity.

craftequity.org | @craftequity

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