Rachel David, blacksmith, sculptor and designer, is the winner of the 2021 James Renwick Alliance for Craft Chrysalis Award. David’s innovative forging of metal into shapes and forms referencing bodies and landscapes provides an unexpected unique, provocative commentary on social and environmental justice issues. 

The intent of the annual JRACraft Chrysalis Award is to make a meaningful impact on an emerging artist’s career. This year, the Alliance is proud to support Rachel David who represents a change in the future of metalworking. Her expressive work and support for women in blacksmithing signifies our support not only for her but also her effort to affirm in a gender-biased field that “skill and craftsmanship are superior to brute force.”

Rachel David received a Bachelor of Arts from Evergreen State College in 2004 and has continued her studies through workshops at Penland School of Craft, John C. Campbell School of Craft, Nunez Community College and Haywood Community College where she recently received a machining certification. In 2019, she was featured in 40 Under 40: The Next Generation of American Metal Artists at the Metal Museum in Memphis, TN and received the Smithsonian Craft Show’s Best in Show Award and the Artists Gold Choice Award. In addition to her artistic practice, David is a founding member of the Society of Inclusive Blacksmiths which supports inclusivity through mentorship, support and scholarships. 

The JRACraft Chrysalis Award was established in 2016 to encourage and support emerging American craft artists who demonstrate excellence and a commitment to artistic innovation but do not have major gallery representation. This award includes a $5,000 unrestricted stipend and opportunities for professional development to include a public presentation of their work. The 2021 award was juried by Executive Director of The Metal Museum Carissa Hussong, collector and former gallery owner Karen Rotenberg and metal artist Chris Shea.

Our deepest gratitude to JRACraft member Stan Asrael for sponsoring this year’s award.
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All artworks in the JRACraft Auction are being sold with all proceeds going to JRACraft. For each of these items, Rago is waiving the seller’s commission and donating the required 25% buyer’s premium in full to JRACraft. All works will be shipped directly from the artist, gallery or donor.
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For more information about Rago's terms of sale, visit: https://www.ragoarts.com/buying/terms-of-sale

​Online: November 20 to 28, 2021  
In person: December 4, 2021 at the Woman's Club of Chevy Chase

We're excited to announce that applications for the 14th annual JRA Day are now being accepted and are due by August 15, 2021.

You may apply for the online show, the in-person show, or both.  Applicants are required to submit the application form and contract, a 50-100 word bio, and three photos of representative work by the deadline.  Details on the requirements for applying and the terms and conditions of participation are included in the application form.

​Learn about craft exhibitions happening around the world through the monthly James Renwick Alliance Newsletter or join our mailing list to get regular updates about upcoming events. 

Penland 36th Annual Benefit Auction, August 21-28
Outstanding Artist Educator; Clarence Morgan
2021 Featured Artists: Skoko Teruyama, Yoonmi Nam, James Henkel 
Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC, www.penland.org 

23rd Annual American Pottery Festival, September 1-5
Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, MN, www.northernclaycenter.org ​

​David was born in El Paso, Texas and spent much of his life in Austin, Texas.  Initially he began his undergraduate career attending Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, pursuing a degree program for Biology Art.  He attended the program for two years before returning to Austin to complete his BFA at the University of Texas in Austin, with a primary emphasis in painting. He earned his MFA in Metalsmithing in 2007 from San Diego State University. David taught in the art department at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, Arkansas for 10 years. During 8 of those years he was responsible for creating and heading the Metalsmithing and Jewelry Department. In 2018 he relocated to Penland, North Carolina to dedicate his time to be an independent artist and workshop instructor.  Much of his work embraces the craft of Metalsmithing and it’s collected history of techniques and objects. The resulting works rendered in metal, mixed media, and hand made artist books are vehicles to communicate ideas surrounding identity, narrative, and forays into material and process-based work.  He has exhibited in numerous exhibitions including: Craft in America: Expanding Traditions, Different Tempers: Jewelry & Blacksmithing, RE/ACTIONS, and has work in the permanent collection of the Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock, National Ornamental Metal Museum. Yale Contemporary Craft Museum, Ollie Trout Collection at the University of Texas in Austin. 

Furniture maker, artist and educator Wendy Maruyama has been making innovative work for 40 years. While her early work combined ideologies of feminism and traditional craft objects, her newer work moves beyond the boundaries of traditional studio craft and into the realm of social practice. Contemporary bodies of work focuses public attention on wildlife poaching, and commentary as her experience as a Japanese-American. Maruyama is one of the first two women to receive a Masters of Fine Arts in Furniture Design at the Rochester Institute of Technology, NY and has been a professor of woodworking and furniture design for over thirty years, serving as the head of the Furniture Design department at San Diego State University. Her work can be found in the collections of Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Dallas Art Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum of Craft and Design, Mint Museum of Art, Fuller Craft Museum, and more. 

​The art of Preston Singletary has become synonymous with the relationship between European glass blowing traditions and Northwest Native art. His artworks feature themes of transformation, animal spirits and shamanism through elegant blown glass forms and mystical sand carved Tlingit designs. Singletary learned the art of glass blowing by working with artists in the Seattle area including Benjamin Moore and Dante Marioni. As a student and assistant, he initially focused on mastering the techniques of the European tradition. His work took him to Kosta Boda (Sweden) where he studied Scandinavian design and met his future wife. Throughout his 30+ years of glass blowing experience, he has also had opportunities to learn the secrets of the Venetian glass masters by working with Italian legends Lino Tagliapietra, Cecco Ongaro, and Pino Signoretto. In 2010, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from the University of Puget Sound. Recognized internationally, Singletary’s artworks are included in museum collections such as The British Museum (London, UK), The Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA), The Seattle Art Museum (Seattle WA), the Corning Museum of Glass (Corning, NY), the Mint Museum of Art and Design (Charlotte, NC), the Heard Museum (Phoenix,  AZ), and the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC). 

Consuelo Jimenez Underwood was born in Sacramento, California, the daughter of migrant agricultural workers, a Chicano mother and a father of Huichol Indian descent. Crossing borders and negotiating between three perspectives has always been fundamental to her identity and the basis of her creative process. Consuelo’s work ranges from delicate miniature tapestries to monumental fiber and mixed media installations juxtaposing the natural beauty and ecological destruction along the US/Mexico border. Consuelo has exhibited and lectured nationally and internationally for more than twenty-five years. Her work is part of the permanent collections of museums such as the Smithsonian American Museum of Art, Museum of Art & Design in New York, the National Hispanic Center for the Arts, New Mexico, the Mexican Museum in San Francisco and the Oakland Museum of California. She was awarded the 2017 Master Artist Grant from the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture and was elected to the Council of Fellows of the American Craft Council in 2018. Consuelo received her BA and MA from San Diego State University. She began teaching fiber art at San Jose State University in 1987, where she received her MFA. For more than twenty years, Underwood worked to develop a vibrant fiber program, and inspire young artists to embrace thread.

​Learn about craft exhibitions happening around the world through the monthly James Renwick Alliance Newsletter or join our mailing list to get regular updates about upcoming events. 

Balancing the sublime with the worldly, Christina Bothwell uses glass and mixed media to create sculptures that portray the processes of birth, death, and renewal. Through its delicacy and petite stature, Chinchilla in a Teacup encapsulates the fragile nature of life and glass. Many of the artist’s works feature animals; a reflection of her own life which is filled with a plethora of companion pets. Yet for Bothwell, chinchillas are more akin to magic than an earthly creature, making them “similar to glass art in a way - beautiful, delicate, easily broken, but sublime.”

Bothwell herself is no stranger to the fleeting and unpredictable nature of life. On August 8, 2018, a massive fire destroyed Bothwell's art studio, a converted barn in Pennsylvania. Four days later, a flood raged through the area, causing further destruction. A significant number of her works along with equipment, materials and personal objects, were destroyed in addition to the studio itself. Since the structure was insured only as a residence, and not as a commercial property, Bothwell and her husband did not receive compensation for the value of the studio and its contents. It was at this point that CERF+ stepped in to help Bothwell and her husband, artist Robert Bender, by providing a grant to help them rebuild, and begin again.
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All proceeds from this auction support of CERF+, the Artists Safety Net. CERF+ is the leading nonprofit organization focused on safeguarding artists' livelihoods nationwide. They focus on readiness, relief and resilience for studio artists in all craft disciplines by providing a safety net to support strong and sustainable careers. CERF+’s core services are education programs, advocacy, network building and emergency relief. The auction is organized by Caroline Kipp, Curator of Contemporary Art at The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum in collaboration with the James Renwick Alliance for Craft.

Glass artist, Christina Bothwell was recently featured as the final presenting artist in the James Renwick Alliance for Craft 2021 Distinguished Artist Series. Audience members were able to see her work in her Pennsylvania based studio as well as learn more about her inspirations and ask the artist about her creative process. 
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​​Christina Bothwell studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, before teaching herself how to work with ceramics, and then cast glass. She has had eleven solo exhibitions of her work since 2006, most recently at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, in Indiana. Her sculptures are in the public collections of the Cincinnati Museum of Art, Ohio, the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Museum of Contemporary Glass, Denmark, SMOG (Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Glass Art), China, the Tutsek-Stiftung Foundation, Germany, the Fuller Craft Museum, Massachusetts, the Smithsonian Museum of Art’s Archives of American Art, and several other major museums.
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​​Christina Bothwell, American, b. 1960
Chinchilla in a Teacup, 2021
Cast glass, ceramic, hand painted detail (oil paints)
Completed 4/20/21
Dimensions: 3.75 in. H x 3.875 in. W x 3 in. D
Retail: $1,000
Starting Bid: $250