Join us at American Craft Made / Baltimore, now in its 46th year! Don't miss this opportunity to connect with more than 350 artists from across the country, explore craft art, and meet up with friends at our JRACraft booth!

American Craft Made / Baltimore introduces you to seasoned and up-and-coming craft artists, with more 60 exhibitors participating through our Emerging Artists or School-to-Market programs. Plus, get to know our community partner organizations, whose work showcases the vision and uniqueness of craft from the Baltimore region.

To volunteer at our JRACraft booth,
​learn more by scrolling down!
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Share your passion for JRACraft and meet other craft lovers! New members and old are invited to volunteer at our first ACC show booth. You will be able to meet other show guests, speak about the Alliance, and encourage others to learn more and get involved. We may also may have some small get togethers at the booth throughout the event. Further details to be emailed after signing up.
 
As a volunteer, you will receive free admission for one to the show! Sign up for a time slot below.

JRACraft Caucus Members are invited to tour the long-awaited Rubell Museum DC in Southwest DC and join us for lunch nearby at Belga Café. Dedicated exclusively to contemporary art, the Rubell Museum DC reinvigorates the 1906 building of the former Randall Junior High School, a historically Black public school in Southwest DC that ceased operations in 1978. The museum, which is free for Washington DC residents, will serve as a place for the public to engage with the most compelling national and international artists of our time. After our docent-led tour, our day will continue at the Belga Café, a restaurant created by Belgium native and award-winning Chef, Bart Vandaele.​

SPACE IS LIMITED!
Space is limited by the museum. ​Register below.

BECOME A CAUCUS MEMBER
The Craft Leaders Caucus is a membership of the most dedicated supporters of JRACraft. Become a Caucus Member today to join us for this event. >
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​JRA Day is a showcase and sale featuring artists who are members of the James Renwick Alliance for Craft.
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Join us for the 15th Annual JRA Day! This event gives you the opportunity to see and purchase work by artists in a variety of media, including in ceramics, fiber, glass, jewelry, and wood. This year's show features the work of 44 artists, including 8 new artists.​
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MORE CLAY: THE POWER OF REPETITION
November 5 | 4:30-6:00PM
IN-PERSON + ZOOM EVENT
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY MUSEUM AT THE KATZEN ART CENTER
4400 MASSACHUSETTS AVE NW, WASHINGTON, DC

Join JRACraft for a gallery talk featuring the exhibition More Clay: The Power of Repetition with curator Rebecca Cross. Attend in person at 4:30pm to see the exhibition before the hybrid panel discussion and meet artist Connor Czora, curator Rebecca Cross and museum director Jack Rasmussen. Join online at 5pm to see the panel along with the other artists joining by zoom.

Transcending the structural limitations of clay and abandoning the material’s traditional association with function, eight artists build powerful ceramic sculptures through accumulation, repetition, and innovative feats of construction. This exhibition demonstrates the power of assembling multiples as a compelling vehicle for the artists to express their chosen subject-matter as they transform this humble, sustainable material…dirt! into something monumental in form and content. More Clay aims to physically demonstrate the unifying principle of “out of many, one” a concept absent in today’s fractured society.
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Featured artists include JRACraft 2020 Chrysalis Awardee Kate Roberts, Walter McConnell, J.J. McCracken, Zimra Beiner, Bean Finneran, Vanessa Ryerse, Kahlil Irving, David Hicks, and Connor Czora. 

Join the James Renwick Alliance for Craft in Mount Rainer at the Otis Street Artist Studios for an arts block party in celebration of our 40th anniversary. The festivity will include open studios, artist demonstrations, LuvPlates food truck, a live mural painting and, of course, anniversary cake!  

Registration is not required, but registration will allow you to pre-select your meal and enter you into a raffle to win a prize the day of the event. Payment for food will be required the day of the event directly to the food truck. 
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Participating artists and organizations include:
- Zenith Foundation Mobile Wood Truck featuring a woodturning demonstration by the Montgomery County Woodturners*
- Blue Fire Ceramic Studio featuring a tile painting demo by Robert Devers and a Balik demo by Kelly Posey*
- Washington Glass School including Michael Janis, Tim Tate, Erwin Timmers, Christina Helowicz, with a demonstration of enameling on glass by Patricia De Poel Wilberg*
​- Multimedia artists Martha Jackson Jarvis and Njena Surae Jarvis and abstract artist Anne Marchand
- Mosaic artist Valerie Theberge featuring a mosaic demonstration*
​- Orange Door Studios including Ellyn Weiss, Veronica Szalus, Brian Williams and Ellen Sinel
- Painter Janis Goodman 
- Blue Door Studios including Alec Simpson
- Otis Street Art Projects including the studios of Chris Bohner, Gloria Chapa, Chris Combs, Elizabeth Curren, Art Drauglis, Liz Lescault, Kirsty Little, Shelley Lowenstein, CeCi Cole McInturff, Lisa Rosenstein, David Mordini
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* Includes Demonstration

ALL ARE INVITED TO JOIN!
​REGISTER BELOW

​Join fellow JRACraft members at the Smithsonian Craft Show and receive discounted tickets!

The Smithsonian Women’s Committee produces the Smithsonian Craft Show to celebrate the best in American craft and design. Show proceeds fund projects of Smithsonian museums, galleries, research facilities, and the National Zoo. For this year, the focus is on the future: the enduring excellence and innovative approaches shaping the future of craft.

Master wood artists David Ellsworth (2009 JRACraft Master of the Medium) and Michael Hurwitz (2019 JRACraft Master of the Medium) will receive the prestigious Smithsonian Visionary Award. Also being honored are ceramicists Steven Young Lee and Roberto Lugo as Delphi awardees, a new award recognizing outstanding mid-career artists. The show will feature a special display of the artists’ work, and an opportunity to hear from them at a panel discussion April 21 at 1pm.

|NO LONGER ACCEPTING REGISTRATIONS|
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Mary Savig, Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft, leads us through New Glass Now at the Smithsonian Renwick Gallery.

New Glass Now was organized by The Corning Museum of Glass to highlight work that best represented a diverse approach to glass today.  In 2018, it issued an open call for submissions to artists and designers from around the world, asking for works made in the previous three years. Anyone working in glass could apply, from novice hobbyists to the most famous artists, and all were given equal consideration. More than 1,400 individuals, collaborators, and companies submitted nearly 4,000 images of work.  A panel of thinkers, makers, and writers reviewed and chose 100 artworks that best represented glass today.

New Glass Now is the third iteration of a groundbreaking exhibition series. The two prior exhibitions, Glass 1959 and New Glass: A Worldwide Survey in 1979, catalyzed major changes in the glass field. The Renwick Gallery hosted New Glass: A Worldwide Survey in 1980. Today, as the Renwick continues to keep with the pulse of contemporary glass in the United States, New Glass Now once again highlights the dynamic, global field as it is today.

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Proof of vaccination will be required.
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Join James Renwick Alliance for Craft, the Society of North American Goldsmiths, and the Baltimore Jewelry Center on a day trip to Baltimore, MD to see distinct collector's homes, tour an artists studio, visit The Walters Art Museum for a tour of the Betty Cooke retrospective led by the artist, and end the day with a private reception and tour at the Baltimore Jewelry Center. 
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Questions about this trip can be sent to info@jra.org

Vaccination and masks will be required.

​Included: Lunch, tickets to The Walters, Private reception at BJC

​HIGHLIGHTS:

• Visit Betty Cooke's shop 
• ​Tour the collection of Vivian Fliegel in the historic Highfield House Condominium building
• Lunch at Gertrude's Chesapeake Kitchen
• Tour the studio of Jill Orlov
• Tour of the Betty Cooke retrospective led by the artist
• ​Tour & reception at Baltimore Jewelry Center featuring visiting artists Everett Hoffman and Adam Atkinson​

"Our collection is a mix of works that has first been influenced by my mother Carolyn Alper, taking me for years to art shows and introducing me to my own tastes. " - Patty Alper

Patty and David's collection features Washington artists from her mother's collection, including Morris Louis, Gene Davis, Sam Gilliam. After years of influence from Carolyn, the couple branched out to expand their collection to include well-known artists like David Hockney, Robert Rauschenberg, Sean Scully, Chuck Close, William Christenberry and a large collection of their friend Enrique Martinez Celaya. Their collection is informed by gallery and museum visits, and attending arts programs like the one at Anderson Ranch in Colorado.

Pictured: Left Sam Gilliam, Dreyfus sculpture, Flanking the doors is David Hockney screens, Right Gene  Davis

Organized by JRACraft Member, Tina Heller.