Food is a major source of comfort and connection, and has become even more of one over the last several months. It reminds us of family, community, and times of celebration. On December 2, Cowork at Center for Craft invites you to join Ani Volkan, a Center for Craft: Craft Futures Fund recipient, and Eliana Rodriguez, a Latinx artist and Roots + Wings instructor, in learning how to make a traditional comfort food from your own home kitchen! Ani and Eliana will guide you through the making of tostones, or fried green plantains, and share more about the importance of cooking in their family histories and how it goes hand-in-hand with craft.

Crafting Comfort is a digital storytelling project created by Ani that aims to  capturing anecdotes of how craft and cooking go together, and the soon-to-be-launched Crafting Comfort website features comfort food recipes, recipe artwork, and craft video tutorials from traditionally underrepresented voices in craft. The project will culminate in a celebration of the field's diversity through the creation of a cookbook that shares a variety of voices from letterpress artists to weavers to ceramic artists.

⏰  Wednesday, December 2 from 5:30 to 7:00pm (est)

📍  Online, from your home kitchen! Zoom details will be shared upon registration.

🎟  Tickets are $5 per person, but do not include the cost of ingredients (which are not expected to exceed $25). Ingredient and recipe details will be shared prior to the event so that you may do your own shopping!

About the Program Leaders

Ani Volkan received her MFA in Printmaking and has taught with after-school arts programs, museums, universities, and non-profits. Her work combines storytelling with her Armenian heritage, and incorporates old family photographs, textiles, and everything printmaking. She was awarded a summer artist residency at Chulitna Lodge in Port Alsworth, AK. She helped open a community print shop in Kansas City MO, called Print League KC and was its director from 2017-2019. She also received a 2018-2019 Innovation Grant from ArtsKC to investigate better inclusivity in community  spaces. Recently, she was awarded the Craft Futures Fund grant from the Center for Craft to combine her love of cooking and craft to create a digital craft resource hub. Ani Volkan is also the Vice President of the Mid  America Print Council, executive board 2020-2022. She resides in Asheville, NC with the goal of bringing a bit of Print League KC ?to the Blue Ridge Mountains by opening another community print shop.

Eliana Rodriguez is a Latinx woman of color who was born in New York and raised in the city of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 2018 Rodriguez graduated from Appalachian State University where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in Printmaking and a minor in Dance Studies. During her last year at Appalachian State, Rodriguez was on the board for the Southern Graphics Council International Printmaking Conference as the Student Representative until the Spring of 2020. After graduating, Rodriguez became a Summer Resident at Odyssey ClayWorks and later spent time as a Studio Assistant. Recently she has become one of Speedball’s representative artists through their Demo Artist Program and their Professional Artists Network. Rodriguez continues to create Ceramic and Print work at her studio and is working as an instructor at the Roots + Wings School for Art and Design.

About Cowork at Center for Craft

In November 2019, the Center for Craft launched a new coworking space tailored to the needs of Asheville’s creative sector to connect fellow creatives, makers, and supporting companies in a vibrant environmentthat encourages inspiration and innovation. A dynamic and functional space well-lit by  floor-to-ceilingwindows and large skylights, Cowork at Center for Craft offers a perfect mix of public and privateworkspace, including a reading lounge, classroom spaces, a kitchenette, coffee lounge, and privacy booths. Cowork Plans start at just $100/month, and include unlimited Counter Culture Coffee, high-speed wifi, business and personal development programs, and discounted business coaching for creatives.