SYMPOSIUM

​Forging the Future of Craft Education
Distinguished Educator Symposium & Awards
Saturday, May 14 | 10:30am – 12:00pm
free to the public
SMITHSONIaN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM
nan tucker MCEvoy Auditorium 
G Street NW, 8th St NW, Washington, DC 20004
METERED STREET PARKING ; PARKING GARAGES IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD; METRO STATION (GALLERY PLACE)

The James Renwick Alliance for Craft celebrates 40 years as a champion of American Craft. Forging the Future of Craft Education will award three notable educators: Anne Wilson, international fiber and materials artist, and Professor Emeritus at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Che’ Rhodes, renowned glass artist and professor at the Hite Institute of Art and Design, University of Louisville; and Janet Koplos author of numerous craft books, including the quintessential American craft history book, Makers: A History of American Studio Craft, co-authored with Bruce Metcalf. Enjoy hearing three dynamic craft leaders discuss their own work and share who they see as the next generation of makers, educators, and arts scholars.
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anne wilson 

​Anne Wilson is a Chicago-based visual artist who creates sculpture, drawings, and performances based in a textile language. She was named a United States Artists Distinguished Fellow and is the recipient of awards from the Textile Society of America, the American Craft Council (College of Fellows), the Driehaus Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Wilson’s artwork is represented by Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago and she is currently a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

ché rhodes

​Ché Rhodes received his MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He earned his B.A. from Centre College where he began his career under the mentorship of Stephen Rolfe Powell. Rhodes has demonstrated at the 2006, 2010, and 2015 Glass Art Society Conferences and has been an instructor at various institutions including the Penland School of Crafts, Pilchuck Glass School, and The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass. Currently he is an Associate Professor and Head of Studio Glass at the University of Louisville, Allen R. Hite Art Institute.

janet koplos

Janet Koplos is the author of What Makes a Potter: Traditional Pottery in America Today (2019) and co-author of Makers: A History of American Studio Craft (2010). She was editor of Art in America from (1990-2009) and has written numerous catalog essays and thousands of reviews over the last 40 years, focusing on crafts and American, Japanese and Dutch contemporary art. Koplos received a National Endowment for the Arts critic’s grant early on, and in 2010 was named an Honorary Fellow of the American Craft Council. In addition, she was awarded an Art Writers Grant from the Warhol Foundation in 2015. 

Left to right: Janet Koplos, Ché Rhodes, and Anne Wilson

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