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CONTACT: Alyssa Ruberto, Communications Coordinator
828-785-1357 | press@centerforcraft.org

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ASHEVILLE, NC (February 4, 2020) - Since 2005, the Center for Craft annually grants $95,000 to academic researchers, independent scholars, curators, and graduate students writing, revising, and reclaiming the history of craft. A  visionary program dedicated to supporting scholarly craft research in the United States, the 2020 Craft Research Fund awarded 11 organizations, curators, scholars, and graduate students, who will receive a total of $94,310.04 to support research, exhibitions, catalogs, and projects in the field of craft. 

Exhibition Grant

The Center is proud to support innovative research on critical issues in craft theory and history through supporting exhibition research, including this year’s Craft Research Fund Exhibition Grant awardees: 

The Museum of Arts and Design has been awarded $15,000 for a multi-year exhibition featuring the Museum’s permanent collection opening February 2020, titled Materials that Make a Difference. 

Cranbrook Art Museum will receive $8,000 to support the monograph publication and concurrent exhibition Olga de Amaral: Alchemy, opening November 2020. 

An award of $5,000 will go to The Milwaukee Art Museum for the publication and production of educational materials related to Currents 38: Christy Matson, opening October 2, 2020. 

The Craft Research Fund Exhibition Grant isn’t limited to museums. Independent Curator Shannon Stratton will receive $6,000 to organize SOFTWARE, an exhibition that overlays histories of weaving, technology, and women's labor with modern and contemporary artworks drawn from the digital and fiber studio disciplines at The Mint Museum and Arizona State University Art Museum (both 2022/2023).

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Project Grant

The Craft Research Fund Project Grant aims to advance the investigation of neglected questions on craft history and criticism in the United States. Projects supported by the 2020 Craft Research Fund include:

The development of the Book Arts Digital Database by Associate Professor of Book Arts Julie Leonard ($15,000). This database will provide an in-depth digital finding aid for the study of substantial and historically-relevant book arts materials held in the University of Iowa Special Collections. 

As part of a larger project to create a legacy tool for American ceramic artists working 1945 onward, The Marks Project will receive $5,000 in support to document the American Museum of Ceramic Art’s American Ceramic Society collection.

Investing in research that advances craft scholarship, the 2020 Craft Research Fund supports the book projects of Associate Professor of Art History at Purchase College Dr. Sarah Warren will receive $12,500 for research related to the publication Between Rival Utopias: Craft, Counterculture, and the Persistence of Modernism.

Professor of Art History at the University of North Texas Dr. Jennifer Way was awarded $12,500 to travel for research-related to the publication, Deploying Craft: Crafting Healing and Wellness in War Contexts.

Finally, PhD candidate in History at the University of Chicago Allison Robinson receives $8,500 for her research regarding the dissertation, “The Political Biography of Dolls: Pedagogy and Reform through Work Projects Administration Programming, 1935-1946.” 

Graduate Grant

Fostering new, cross-disciplinary approaches to scholarship in the craft field in the United States, 2020 support through the Craft Research Fund Graduate Grant has been awarded to two individuals:

M.A. Apparel Studies, University of Minnesota Colleen Pokorny will receive $4,805.04 for research of her thesis, Innovation in Craft: A Mixed Methods Study on Pre-cut Fabrics Impact on Quilt Making. 

Lastly, $2,005 will go to Molly Robinson, M.A. Folklore, University of California at Berkeley for research of her thesis, Coiling History: An Exploration of Seagrass Baskets in Lowcountry South Carolina.

The panelists adjudicating these grant opportunities included, independent curator, writer, and researcher Elizabeth Essner, Senior Curator of Decorative Arts at Brooklyn Museum Dr. Catherine L. Futter, and Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Arizona Dr. Anya Montiel. 

One of the primary funding sources for scholarship on American Craft, Craft Research Fund grants are administered by the Center for Craft and underwritten by the Windgate Foundation. For inquiries regarding the Craft Research Fund or other grant opportunities at Center for Craft, contact Lola Clairmont, Craft Research & Innovation Manager, lclairmont@centerforcraft.org.

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ABOUT CENTER FOR CRAFT Founded in 1996, the Center for Craft (formerly The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design) is the leading organization in the United States identifying and convening craft makers, curators, and researchers, and matching them with resources, tools, and networks to advance their careers. Over the years, the Center has become a vital community resource, serving thousands of visitors annually. As a national 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the field of craft, the Center administers more than $300,000 in grants to those working in the craft field. www.centerforcraft.org

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