The Center for Craft is pleased to introduce the 2019 Windgate Museum Interns and their host institutions.

Asheville Art Museum

Sarah Kelly

Incorporated in 1948 by area artists, the Asheville Art Museum transforms lives through art by engaging, enlightening and inspiring individuals and enriching community through dynamic experiences in American art of the 20th and 21st centuries. As the only nationally accredited art museum serving all 24 counties that comprise Western North Carolina (WNC), the Asheville Art Museum provides vital and otherwise unavailable cultural and educational services to adults and children. Exhibitions and programs provide unique exposure to great works of American art beginning in the 20th century and present innovative learning experiences for people of all ages in urban and rural communities in WNC.

The Windgate intern will aid curatorial staff in accomplishing critical tasks associated with new acquisitions, collections management, and curatorial work. Duties include curating an in-gallery exhibition focusing on the Museum's craft collection that aligns with a glass-focused gallery or a more broadly focused gallery, and researching and implementing at least one public program for adults and one docent-training.

Sarah Kelly is an M.A. Candidate in Critical and Historical Craft Studies at Warren Wilson College. Current research is based in the rapidly changing economies of craft, particularly since the recession of 2008, and the ways in which generational interests and accessibility (to knowledge, financial security, and the ability and desire to buy and collect) are changing the economic marketplace through craft. Her background as a maker in multiple media (a degree in painting, a decade making atmospheric fired functional pots, two years working with a metal sculptor, workshops in paper-making and textiles) and nearly a decade of handling, installing, and curating craft objects in galleries provides her with a strong foundation of material knowledge in contemporary craft.  

Hancock Shaker Village

Emma Franco-Toner

Hancock Shaker Village Museum is a vibrant, 200-acre outdoor museum and living farm in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Its collection, begun in 1960, has grown through purchase, gift, and bequest to become the largest documented and representative collection of Shaker artifacts available to the public at an original restored Shaker site.

The Windgate intern will assist in projects related to collections stewardship, including object cataloguing, exhibit maintenance, library research, metadata recording and processing, and digitization. The intern will also assist with research related to the forthcoming 60th anniversary exhibition, in particular to create a checklist and present a proposal of contemporary maker-designer-artists to consider including in this exhibition.

Emma Franco-Toner grew up in beautiful Berkshire County, and she is excited to return this summer to work at Hancock Shaker Village. She is interested in how museums and cultural institutions can better serve their communities by creating exhibitions and programming that are accessible and relevant. Emma hopes to bring a community-based approach to her museum work and create a space where diverse audiences can engage with art and history.

John Michael Kohler Arts Center

Leah Parkhurst

Situated near the shores of Lake Michigan in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center’s mission is to generate a creative exchange between artists and the public. It fosters the creation of new works of art, originates exhibitions, educates people of all ages, and presents dynamic programs in the performing arts. Through collaboration and exploration, the Arts Center builds vibrant community, nourishing and enriching the lives of all.

The Windgate intern will conduct primary research on collection pieces, assist with the writing of exhibition didactics; with answering general inquiries and requests for curatorial staff; and with processing audiovisual requests, photo rights, and reproduction related to exhibitions and the collection.

Leah Parkhurst is a fiber artist, writer, art historian, group exercise instructor and reiki practitioner. She is also a passionate traveler, thrift store fanatic and collector of all things discarded, stained or faded. Ms. Parkhurst is a softie for anything that tells a story, has a history or churns up a memory and once used a month’s rent to purchase some Peter Max fabric. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a degree in fibers and art history and since then has participated in countless indie craft shows throughout the United States, while maintaining a committed studio arts practice. She lives in the Midwest with her long-time partner and a sunny shelf full of cactus.

Morris Museum of Art

Kathryn Hill

Opened to the public in 1992, the Morris Museum of Art is the oldest museum in the United States that is dedicated to the art and artists of the American South. The museum’s mission is to create and maintain a collection of art that serves as a visual correlative to the culture of the South and to interpret that collection in regional, national, and global contexts.

The intern will create an associated acquisitions file for each object within the museum’s glass collection and will have access to the extensive holdings of the Morris Museum’s library, the Center for the Study of Southern Art. The intern will be trained in museum registration methods, fine art storage standards, collections management policies and procedures, and provenance research methods.  Additionally the intern will assist the curator with research, preparation, and installation of the museum’s new studio art glass exhibition.

Kathryn Hill is a first-year graduate student at Syracuse University pursuing a concurrent degree in Museum Studies and Art History. She has a Bachelors of Arts in Fine Arts - Painting and a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, New York. Currently, Kathryn is working as a Teaching Assistant for the School of Design at Syracuse and works throughout the school year at Syracuse University Art Galleries as the Registrar Assistant. She has interned at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AR and the Genesee Valley Council on the Arts in Livingston, NY.

Museum of Craft and Design (San Francisco)

Jen Moser-Villasenor

The Museum of Craft and Design (MCD) is San Francisco’s only museum devoted to craft and design. Founded in 2004, MCD showcases designers, makers and artists through an exciting and distinctive series of craft and design-focused exhibitions and public programs. As a non-collecting institution, the museum actively collaborates with artists, designers, curators, museums and universities, as well as design venues and practitioners to create inspirational craft and design experiences for visitors of all ages.

The intern will gather research for upcoming exhibitions for the purpose of in-gallery and online interpretive materials for the exhibitions Survival Architecture and Linda Gass: and then this happened.... The intern will assist in staff and docent trainings as well as have opportunities to lead gallery talks and tours of current exhibitions for the public.


Moser-Villasenor is graduating from San Francisco University in May 2019 with a Bachelor of Art in Studio Art and Art History. During their time at SFSU, Moser-Villasenor has focused on researching Chicanx art, interdisciplinary social art practices, and the magazine as a site for the creation of art and the equalization of the art world. As an aspiring archivist and curator, Moser-Villasenor hopes to create more equitable representation of artists working outside of the art historical canon.