American Craft Council Announces New Trustees and the Election of New Officers

Minneapolis, MN
October 23, 2024

The American Craft Council, a national nonprofit dedicated to advancing craft and its makers, is pleased to announce the election of two officers and three new trustees to its Board of Trustees.  

The ACC Board of Trustees sets policy and strategy for the organization, provides philanthropic leadership, and exercises fiduciary oversight of the organization’s programs and operations. Trustees serve three-year terms and may be reelected for additional terms. Drawn from across the United States and representing diverse professional and cultural backgrounds, the trustees play a vital role in advancing ACC’s mission to foster livelihoods and ways of living grounded in the artful work of the human hand, creating a more joyful, humane, and regenerative world.

Newly elected Board Chair Preeti Gopinath is an internationally experienced designer, educator, craft researcher, and philosopher based in New York. She is the founding Director of the acclaimed MFA Textiles program and Associate Professor of Textiles in the School of Fashion at Parsons, The New School.

In addition to her formal design training at the National Institute of Design, India, and extensive work in the textile industry, Preeti has a background in classical Bharatanatyam dance as well as philosophy studies, which inform her creative practice and her way of being in the world. She is a passionate advocate for craft in her research, creative practice and pedagogy. At Parsons, Preeti leads a community of mindful makers that aims to radically transform the world of insatiable consumption and unconscionable over-production – through textiles, valuing community, collaboration and mindful, hands-on making. Under her mentorship, Preeti’s students are creating groundbreaking, award-winning, hybrid textiles that integrate timeless philosophical principles with craft and technology, on the bedrock of sustainability, social justice, wellbeing, and beauty.

Newly elected Vice Chair Bob Lynch, based in Washington, D.C. and Cape Cod, MA, was the Founding President and CEO of Americans for the Arts (AFTA) from 1985 through 2021, when he retired. AFTA serves, advances, and leads the network of organizations and individuals who cultivate, promote, sustain and support the Arts in America. Bob was instrumental in the founding of the National Arts and Humanities Month, National Arts Policy Roundtable with Robert Redford, and numerous other initiatives with national impact. He was named six times as one of the 50 Most Powerful and influential non-profit executives in the US by the NonProfit Times NPT 50 Awards. 

Before founding AFTA, Bob served as Executive Director of the Arts Extension Service of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and worked as a woodcarver, writer, and musician. He has provided volunteer leadership on numerous boards in addition to ACC, including the Craft Emergency Relief Fund, Independent Sector, and the US Travel and Tourism Advisory Board.  

Officers continuing in their terms include Treasurer Lynn Pollard of Atlanta, GA and Secretary Kristin Mitsu Shiga of Molalla, OR. 

ACC’s newly elected trustees are:

Joanna Chin, Los Angeles, CA  

Joanna Chin is the Experience Strategy Lead at Gensler, specializing in immersive and connected experiences. With a background in user experience design for clients like Google and Verizon, she brings a passion for storytelling and creative change, shaped by her work with Americans for the Arts. Chin holds an MFA in Design & Technology from Parsons School of Design and a BA from Stanford University.

Cedric Mitchell, Los Angeles, CA

Cedric Mitchell is a celebrated glass artist whose work combines modern design with influences from street art and fashion. Founder of Cedric Mitchell Design, he was the first glassblower featured in a NIKE ad campaign. An alumnus of ACC’s Emerging Artists Cohort, Mitchell is also Artist in Residence at the Corning Museum of Glass and serves as events coordinator for Crafting The Future.

Rebecca Ravenal, Bethesda, MD

Rebecca Ravenal is a veteran studio artist and business leader with over four decades in ceramics and arts advocacy. She manages a family real estate business and is a trustee of The Ravenal Foundation. Ravenal has extensive experience in nonprofit governance, including her role as Board President of JRACraft.