ASHEVILLE, NC (May 30, 2023) – Most would agree that the transition from student to artist is a challenging one. Since 2006, the Center for Craft has eased this transition for ambitious graduates by awarding 10 graduating university seniors $15,000 each in unrestricted grants as well as established a network of support to set a solid foundation for success.

The Center for Craft is pleased to announce the 2023 Windgate-Lamar Fellows, recognized as the top emerging craft artists in the United States. These ten seniors were selected by a four-member panel consisting of artists, curators, and professionals based on the quality and skill of their artistic contributions and demonstrated potential for contributing to the field of craft through their innovative and conceptual approach.

The Windgate-Lamar Fellowship is supported by the Stoney Lamar Craft Endowment Fund, established in 2018 at the Center for Craft and named in honor of renowned wood sculptor and Board Member Stoney Lamar.

In its eighteenth year, the Center for Craft’s Windgate-Lamar Fellowship marks $2.5 million awarded to 180 emerging craft artists nationwide. Each artist designed their own plan to use the $15,000 to support their personal and artistic growth in this crucial phase of their early career. Historically, artists who receive this award use the funds to conduct material research, establish a studio, engage in further learning opportunities, and travel. In addition to the funds, each Fellow also receives support through cohort convenings and mentorship opportunities with alumni. Investing in the next generation of craft leadership is central to the Center’s vision to resource, catalyze, and amplify how and why craft matters.

‍

2023 Selection Panelists

Lowery Stokes Sims - Ph.D., Art Historian, Curator

Evan Snyderman - Co-Founder/Artistic and Creative Director of R & Company

Fabio J. Fernandez - Director, Greenwich House Pottery

Danielle Burke - Artist, Folklorist, 2015 Windgate-Lamar Fellow

‍

2023 Windgate-Lamar Fellows

SELECTIONS FROM ARTIST STATEMENTS

Lela Arruza - Appalachian State University, Ceramics/Paper

“Existing in a culture full of stereotypes and prejudice challenged me to ignore preconceptions of what it looks like to be Asian American and encouraged me to shape my identity. My current body of work contrasts the longevity of ceramics and the ephemerality of paper as a medium.”

Ashley Bohne - University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Fibers/Jewelry/Metal

“My grandma, a talented quilter, taught me how to cut, pattern, and sew my own blankets and clothing at a young age. My work focuses on retaining this cycle of knowledge, encouraging it to move forward, and working to ensure the longevity of fibercraft. “

Riley Cox - Maryland Institute College of Art, Textiles/Science

“I dwell in the relationship between technology, biology, digital tools and traditional textile practices. In my work I use digital weaving, laser cutting, circuitry and biofabrication to create work that utilizes the language of mechanical production and lab based processes while maintaining a tenderness and sense of care that is associated with handcraft.”

Mikey Gambino - Rochester Institute of Technology, Ceramics/Industrial Design

“My work explores our long, complicated, and evolving relationship with geometry. Crisp lines, flat planes, and smooth curves provide a sense of aesthetic perfection that compels me, even if that perfection is illusory. “

Liam Glynn - SUNY Buffalo State University, Wood/Furniture

“My work is meant to celebrate and honor the natural resource that is wood. The most successful work I have accomplished is readily useful and made to be accessible to as many people as possible. In designing work that is easily approachable and simple to use I believe it will inherently last longer.”

Talula Evan Baer - SUNY New Paltz, Metal/Jewelry

“Vulnerability compels us to fortify our bodies and minds –a basic human quest for survival. My work emerges from exploring the intersection of armor and amulet through contemporary art jewelry. I aim to create work that transforms and empowers the wearer. Structurally, it refers to the body while bringing the interior to the surface and evoking a sense of agency.”

Scott Nelson - San Diego State University, Furniture/Wood

“In observing the increasing digitalization of our age, the preoccupation with and dependency on information, my work attempts provide a counter force, emphasizing our interconnectivity to source, materiality, and subject. In an era where objects are a click away, arriving at your doorstep ready for use, it is in a sense removed from its roots and so offers less reason to linger with them, to experience an appreciation for details, tangibility, and history.”

Theju Nimmagadda - Rhode Island School of Design, Furniture/Wood

“In my practice, I define craft as the investment of time into materials. In both the reflective time of research and contextualization and the active time of studio practice, I seek to understand how this investment of time, often figured as attention, comes to bear on the appearance and connotations of materials.”

Venus Stanton - Maryland Institute College of Art, Fiber/Experimental Fashion

“Through my work, I explore how I can express my unfiltered beingness through the adornment of my body with context exclusive to my existence. As a black queer person from the suburbs of Michigan, I enjoy highlighting my unusual and distant connection to black culture. I pull influence from Motown, car shows, blaxploitation movies, the great migration, and the scenery of Lake Michigan.”

Kris Waymire - New York University, Sculpture/Multimedia

“My work is informed by my heritage as a mixed indigenous person. I combine what does not belong together such as metal with ceramics, industrial with organic, and digital with traditional. This drive to mix and have my work be part of two opposing forces stems from a desire to queer objects. Through queering I resolve cognitive dissonance.“

‍

Learn more about the 2023 Center for Craft Windgate-Lamar Fellowship and past fellows here.

The Center invests nearly a third of our budget every year so that our resources (and yours) pay dividends to the craft community for decades to come. To learn more about how we may put your invested funds to meaningful use, schedule a meeting by reaching out to us at 828/785-1357 x 112 or by email at give@centerforcraft.org.

‍

# # #

ABOUT CENTER FOR CRAFT

The Center for Craft is a 501(c)3 national nonprofit that increases access to craft by empowering and resourcing artists, organizations, and communities through grants, fellowships and programs that bring people together. Founded in 1996, the Center is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential organizations working on behalf of craft in the United States. For more information, visit www.centerforcraft.org.