On Thursday, July 20th, from 1 - 2:30 pm ET, the Center for Craft is excited to host the Craft Archive Fellowship Virtual Program, showcasing the recently published research of our inaugural Craft Archive Fellows in Hyperallergic. The program will feature a presentation of archival research that documents histories that have been erased or missing from dominant narratives in craft and recognize neglected legacies of individual craftspeople and the contributions of diverse craft communities. This research is vital for telling more accurate and expanded craft histories that will shape conversations and create new legacies, leading to a more inclusive future for craft.

Over the last 8 months, these fellows have been engaged in both conventional and innovative approaches to conducting archival research. Taking an expansive understanding of what an archive is and can be, they have utilized various repositories to find primary source materials like digital or in-person archives, institutional and community-created archives,  objects, oral histories, and even sites, and places. 

The Craft Archive Virtual Program will include presentations from the Fellows on their archival research, which centers cultural preservation through community-created dance costumes by Dutch-Indonesian refugees and shared craft pedagogies of Cherokee artists to crafts impact on the construction of Puerto Rican identity and Black craft histories that helped shape American education. Followed by a roundtable discussion led by Hrag Vartanian, Editor-in-Chief and Co-founder of Hyperallergic. Be sure to read the Fellow's articles on Hyperallergic before attending the program!

The Craft Archive Fellowship Virtual Program is free and open to the public. 

The Center for Craft Archive Fellowship is supported in part by the John & Robyn Horn Foundation, Ayumi Horie, Barbara Benisch & Jacque Allen, Sara Clugage, and Jess Parker.

Follow the links provided to read the Craft Archive Fellow’s Special Edition articles on Hyperallergic. 

“Constructing Puerto Rican Identity in the 1950s Through Craft, Lists, and Fairs” by Maru López

 “Cherokee Craftspeople Are Stronger Together” by Siera Hyte

“The Largely Overlooked History of Indo California’s Craft History” by Jeffrey Gan 

“The Miraculous Life of an Early Black American Abolitionist and Craftsman” by Xenobia Bailey

“Kentucky’s Black Craft Trail: The Unequal Path from Berea College to Lincoln Institute” by E. Gale Greenlee & N.E. Brown 

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2022 Center for Craft Archive Fellows:

Maru López  is a Puerto Rican artist, educator, and craft scholar based in San Diego, CA. She holds an MA in Critical Craft Studies. Her research focuses on Puerto Rico and craft knowledges in contemporary art. Maru has shown her jewelry in Europe, Latin America, the United States, and Puerto Rico.

Jeffrey Gan is a California-based Indo-researcher and artist. His work explores cultural performance, food, and pleasure among Indonesian diaspora communities in the Netherlands and the United States. Gan is a doctorial candidate in the Performance as Public Practice program at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a company dancer with Gamelan Sekar Jaya in Berkley, CA. 

Siera Hyte is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She is an artist, writer, and assistant curator of modern and contemporary art at the Colby College Museum of Art. Hyte holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin. She lives with her family on unceded Wabanaki territory in Waterville, Maine.

Xenobia Baile studied Ethnomusicology (interest in Material Culture) at the University of Washington. Bailey was also a costume designer intern at an African American Community Theater in Seattle, Washington, and received an undergraduate Degree in Industrial Design: Pratt Institute.

E. Gale Greenlee, Ph.D. is an independent literary and Black Girlhood Studies scholar and a recent teacher-scholar in residence at the Bell Hooks Center at Berea College.

N.E. Brown pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and drawing at Tyler School of Art: Temple University, then later pursued a Master of Fine Arts in painting and drawing at the University of Iowa. Currently, Brown’s work uses mixed media including painting, drawing, pyrography, and woodworking to map the intersections between personal memory, family dynamics, national history, and racial identity. Brown’s work has been shown nationally, including at the Portland Art Museum, The African American Museum of Philadelphia as well as the Carnegie Museum of Art.

Program Moderator

Hrag Vartanian, Editor-in-chief and Co-founder of Hyperallergic

Hrag Vartanian is an editor, art critic, curator, and lecturer on contemporary art with an expertise in the intersection of art and politics. Hrag co-founded the publication Hyperallergic in 2009 in response to changes in the art world, the publishing industry, and the distribution of information. Breaking news, award-winning reporting, informed opinions, and quality conversations about art have helped Hyperallergic reach over a million readers and listeners a month.

About the Partnership 

Through our partnership with Hyperallergic, a leading voice in arts publishing, offering contemporary perspectives that “challenge the art world status quo,” the Fellow’s research is featured in a Special Edition released on June 16. This unique opportunity ensures that this research was not only accomplished but is a free online resource decreasing the physical and economic barriers to archival research and raising the visibility and appreciation of craft scholarship in the United States.

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