A tradition established at the start of the American Craft Shows, the Awards of Excellence recognize and celebrate show artists in a few categories: overall work quality, booth design, and an emerging artist.

From a pool of more than 650 incredibly talented makers, only 12 were chosen to be honored with awards at our 2018 American Craft Show in Baltimore.

For quality of work, awards were given to jeweler Edna Madera (booth 126), fiber artist Mina Norton (booth 2405 ), ceramist Lana Heckendorn (booth 3208), and silversmith Sara Thompson (booth 3306).

Taking home the awards for booth design, which honors both quality work and booth presentation, were jeweler Connie Verrusio (booth 3004) and Michael Shuler (booth 4008).

Textile artist Perry Lewis (booth 733-5) won the Award of Excellence for an emerging artist in our Hip Pop program.

In addition to the ACC Awards of Excellence we are happy to partner with three outstanding arts organizations that offer their own awards of excellence.

Congratulations to the dynamic woodworking duo Denise Nielsen and George Worthington (booth 1508), the recipients of the Collectors of Wood Art Award of Excellence in Wood Art;  furniture maker Richard Haining (booth 717), who received the James Renwick Alliance Award of Excellence for Innovation in Craft, and jeweler Amarette Gregor (booth 210) for the SNAG Award of Excellence in Jewelry and Metal.

Thanks to our wonderful partner organizations for their time and support of the show and to our ACC Awards jurors: Maegen Black, director of the Canadian Craft Federation; Kristin Muller, executive director of Peters Valley School of Craft; and Jennifer Zwilling, curator of artistic programs at the Clay Studio.

On Saturday night, the first-ever Rare Craft Awards of Excellence were presented by The Balvenie to honor two artists working in traditional mediums. Awards went to Peter Brown (booth 229), who makes leather wearables and accessories, and Tim Arnold (booth 1118), who makes Shaker boxes.

The awards were juried by The Balvenie brand ambassador Jonathan Wingo, with assistance from Jennifer Zwilling.

Congratulations to all of our recipients!