CraftWeek DC

The first annual CraftWeek DC takes place April 22 – 26, 2009. A citywide celebration of crafts in our Nation’s capital, each day offers activities focused on every craft medium from ceramics, fiber, glass, metal to wood, and includes exhibits, artist demonstrations, gallery receptions, lectures, plus other activities. Two nationally recognized studio craft events will also take place – the prestigious juried Smithsonian Craft Show and the James Renwick Alliance Spring Craft Weekend, including the Masters of the Medium symposium featuring the five master artists.

CraftWeek DC is a unique opportunity to see studio crafts at their best and meet the makers, from internationally recognized artists to up-and-coming artists exhibiting for the first time at the Smithsonian Craft Show. Events celebrate as well, the growing community of artists and galleries in the Washington, DC area involved in creating and showing sculptural and functional objects.

Many events are free and open to the public, including:

Demonstrations of technique and work by DC area art jewelry, ceramics and glass artists at Red Dirt Studios, Flux Studios, Blue Fire Studios, DC Glassworks and Sculpture Studios, and Washington Glass School, Gateway Arts Community, Mt Rainier, MD. Work by the ceramics and jewelry faculty at Corcoran College of Art + Design and Studio 4903 will also be on display at Blue Fire Studios and Flux Studios.

In Georgetown, Maurine Littleton Gallery is showing work by noted glass artists Richard Marquis, a Master of the Medium, and Dante Marioni. Jewelry by metalsmith/jeweler Mielle Harvey is at Jewelers’werk Galerie. A ceramic cup invitational showing the work of many artists is a fun event at Cross MacKenzie Gallery. In Potomac, Artists Circle Fine Arts is showing work by John Garrett, an experimental artist who applies textile technologies and imagery to various materials.

Near Dupont Circle, Foundry Gallery will show kiln cast and lampworked glass by instructors and students from the Washington Glass School. On Capital Hill, five Washington-based artists will show work in ceramic, glass, metal and mixed media at Capital Hill Art & Frame. Shows at the Target, Scope and Enamelist galleries at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, will feature local artists working with reclaimed material, ceramics and enameled metal.

At KORUS House, Embassy of Korea, a special event highlights the artistry of contemporary Korean and Korean-American metalsmiths and makers of art jewelry.

On Saturday morning, April 25, the James Renwick Alliance and the Smithsonian American Art Museum host a symposium at which artists honored by the Alliance’s Master of the Medium award will speak on their life in craft. The panel is moderated by Michael Monroe, Director of Curatorial Affairs, Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, Washington, and former curator-in-charge, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum. The honorees are: Warren Mackenzie, an influential ceramics educator from Minneapolis, Minnesota; Richard Marquis, a pioneer in the American studio glass movement and one of the first to incorporate Venetian glass techniques into contemporary studio glass; Norma Minkowitz, a fiber artist and pioneer in turning the feminine art of crochet into a medium for sculpture; June Schwarcz, noted for her exquisite skill with enamel and metalwork; and David Ellsworth, a leading figure in the American turned wood movement.

For event dates, times and locations, and events requiring admission fees, see http://craftweekdc.com

Via Cut the Craft.