Shows
American Craft PodcastMake/Time...with Sonya ClarkSonya Clark is a multidisciplinary textile artist, Professor at Amherst College and ACC Fellow. Hosted by ACC Honorary Fellow Stuart Kestenbaum, this interview is one in a series developed by Kestenbaum and craftschools.us. You can find Sonya's work at https://sonyaclark.com/ and learn more about the artist at https://www.craftcouncil.org/magazine/article/connector.
2022-08-0526 min
Make/TimeAlleghany Meadows: In the Studio and On the RoadAlleghany Meadows is a potter who lives in Carbondale, Colorado. He received his BA from Pitzer College and his MFA from Alfred University. His ceramics are in many private and public collections including of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Long Beach Museum of Art. Alleghany’s work extends beyond ceramics to projects that engage communities—both local and national. He’s the co-founder of the Artstream Nomadic Gallery—a mobile gallery in a renovated Airstream trailer that travels around the country exhibiting work of contemporary potters.
2018-08-0222 min
Make/TimeChristy Matson: Technology and the HandChristy Matson became a tenured Associate Professor of Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago when she was 33, but she decided to leave full-time teaching to devote herself to weaving on her Jacquard computerized loom. She lives and works in Los Angeles, and for the past six years she has been exhibiting at a number of museums, including the Long Beach Museum of Art and The San Francisco Museum of Craft+Design.
2018-08-0223 min
Make/TimeTanya Aguiniga: Between CountriesTanya Aguiniga, was raised in Tijuana, Mexico and lives in Los Angeles. She’s a designer/artist/craftsperson who has a BA from San Diego State University and an MFA in furniture design from the Rhode Island School of Design. Tanya the founder and director of Ambos—Art Made Between Opposite Sides—which she calls “an ongoing series of artist interventions and commuter collaborations that address bi-national transition and identity in the US/Mexico border region.”
2018-07-3121 min
NCECA 360 Podcast11: Brian Jones talks with Stu Kestenbaum about the Make/Time PodcastFor this episode of NCECA 360 we have an interview from our 2016 conference in Kansas City, MO. You will hear host Brian Jones talk with Stu Kestenbaum about his long career in the arts. Kestenbaum was the director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts for many years and is currently the host of the Make/Time podcast. The podcast is a joint venture among the nation’s top craft schools to shed light on the importance of craft makers in American society. You can find out more information at www.craftschools.us. Join us in Pit...
2018-01-2537 min
Make/TimeNancy Callan: Stepping UpSculptor Nancy graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1996 and now lives in Seattle. In addition to making her own work in blown glass, she was for many years a key member of Italian maestro Lino Tagliapietra’s glassblowing team. She also collaborates with New York City lighting designer Lindsey Adelman. Nancy’s own work is in the permanent collections of the Corning Museum of Glass, the Shanghai Museum of Art, and the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA. As a woman working in the traditionally male-dominated field of glassblowing she says, "I had to work twice as hard...
2018-01-2415 min
Make/TimeMeredith Brickell: Creating SpacesMeredith Brickell is a sculptor and activist. She has a BFA in art and design from North Carolina State University and an MFA in Ceramics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She was also a core fellow at the Penland School of Crafts. Her current body of sculpture draws from architectural forms, historical narratives, and elements of the physical landscape. Besides her studio work she is a Professor of Art at DePauw University in Indiana and founder and project leader of the House Life Project, a community-building initiative sited in abandoned houses in Indianapolis.
2017-12-1815 min
Make/TimeJames Carpenter: The Presence of LightFor over 50 years, James Carpenter has combined art, engineering, and design, using natural light and glass as key elements of his work. His major projects include the Fulton Transportation Center in New York City and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Jamie earned a degree from Rhode Island School of Design, where he studied architecture while also working on projects in glass with Dale Chihuly. He is a MacArthur Foundation fellow and the recipient of an Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Make/Time shares conversations about craft, inspiration, and the creative...
2017-11-2723 min
Make/TimeJoyce Scott: Making the UnexpectedJoyce Scott is a sculptor, quilter, and performance artist. She’s best known for her figurative beadwork, which often addresses issues of racism and sexism in our culture. While she has art degrees from Maryland Institute College of Art and the Instituto Allende, she also learned about making art from her mother, the quilter Elizabeth Scott. Her most recent exhibit Joyce J. Scott: Harriet Tubman and Other Truths at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton Township, NJ, combines beadwork, glass made in Murano, Italy, found objects and other materials. Make/Time shares conversations about craft, inspiration, and...
2017-11-0213 min
Make/TimeJen Bervin: Artist as ResearcherJen Bervin’s interdisciplinary work often combines art, science and writing. One recent project is Silk Poems, a poem written nanoscale in the form of a silk biosensor in collaboration with Tufts University’s Silk Lab, and also published as a book. Another project, The Dickinson Composite Series, is a series of large-scale embroideries that depict the variant markings in Emily Dickinson’s original manuscripts. Jen's work as a poet and visual artist takes her in surprising directions. She says, “I love research because I don’t know what I’ll find.” Make/Time shares conversations about craft, inspira...
2017-10-1718 min
Make/TimeMatt Shlian: A Place of Not KnowingMatthew Shlian is an artist/designer and founder of the Initiative Artist Studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His work ranges from drawings to large-scale installations to collaborations with scientists at the University of Michigan. He's widely known for his work with folded paper, but as a maker he doesn’t see himself fitting into a particular category—he likes to work with what he has at hand—without being able to predict the results. He makes his work from what he calls ‘a place of not knowing’.
2017-09-2919 min
Make/TimeLily Yeh: A Journey to Broken PlacesLily Yeh is a co-founder of The Village of Arts and Humanities, for which she also has served as executive director and lead artist. Founded in 1986, the Philadelphia-based, non-profit organization aims to build community through art, learning, land transformation, and economic development. In 2002, Lily began Barefoot Artists, which continues her style of community building through art on an international level, in places such as Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana, Ecuador, and China. Lily Yeh seeks to build a more compassionate future through her collaborative work. She told the Christian Science Monitor, “I have found that the broken spaces are my living ca...
2017-09-1416 min
Make/TimeRachel FallerIn 2008 Rachel Faller traveled to Cambodia on a Fulbright Fellowship to research artisans and fair trade organizations. She wound up founding Tonlé, an ethical, zero-waste fashion business in Cambodia that makes contemporary women's apparel from garment factory remnants. A weaver and designer, she combines her knowledge of making and materials with an entrepreneurial vision for building an ethical business. Make/Time shares conversations about craft, inspiration, and the creative process. Listen to leading makers and thinkers talk about where they came from, what they're making, and where they're going next. Make/Time is hosted by Stuart Kestenbaum and...
2017-06-2914 min
Make/TimeSanam EmamiPotter Sanam Emami was born in Iran and grew up in England and the US. She lives in Colorado, where she is an associate professor of art at Colorado State University. She came to pottery after studying American history—which led her to think about her own history—and her work combines influences of Persian and Islamic art with a contemporary sensibility. For Sanam, making pots, and understanding her voice within that work, is a continuing journey. Make/Time shares conversations about craft, inspiration, and the creative process. Listen to leading makers and thinkers talk about where they...
2017-06-1514 min
Make/TimeReprise: Cynthia SchiraThis week we're reprising an episode from our first season—an interview with Cynthia Schira, who began weaving in the 1950s and hasn't stopped since. Cynthia Schira is a weaver and designer living in Westport, New York. She taught art for nearly 30 years, and has been a practicing artist since attending RISD on scholarship as a young woman. She happened into weaving because of a scholarship opportunity, but it fit her. In the course of her career, Cynthia has given special attention to working with computers and the Jacquard loom—an early precursor to the modern computer—to explor...
2017-06-0814 min
Make/TimeDavid KeefeDavid Keefe is a printmaker, visual artist, and executive director of Combat Paper NJ. The arts organization works with veterans in New Jersey who cut up their uniforms and beat them into pulp to make paper. They then make imagery on the paper related to their military experience. David is a former United States Marine who served in Iraq and is Senior Assistant Dean of Student Veterans’ Initiatives in the General Studies Program at Columbia University. Make/Time is releasing David's conversation with our host, Stuart Kestenbaum, in anticipation and commemoration of Memorial Day. While Memorial Day hono...
2017-05-2622 min
Make/TimeDavid ChattDavid Chatt grew up in the Pacific Northwest, mostly in Washington State. Recently he has been an artist-in-residence at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, and then he remained at the school as its baker for several years. David sees art and creative process in everything he does: from the small scale work of beading to casting glass, to the large scale enterprise of gutting and restoring a house. Whatever the medium or the finished work, at heart he’s a storyteller. In this episode of Make/Time, he tells Stuart Kestenbaum about how he came to make...
2017-05-1017 min
Make/TimeSusie GanchSusie Ganch is a jeweler, sculptor, and environmentalist who lives in Richmond, Virginia. She teaches in the Craft and Material Studies program at Virginia Commonwealth University, and she works frequently with Radical Jewelry Makoever and Ethical Metalsmith. Susie initially studied geology and only got into jewelry making when she decided to take what she thought would be an easy course on the side of her science labs. But jewelrymaking resonated with her, and she couldn't leave it behind. Since then, she has had a full career, recently moving back to the larger scale with sculptures made from trash as a...
2017-04-2017 min
Make/TimeNamita Gupta WiggersNamita Gupta Wiggers is a curator, writer, educator, and artist living in Portland, Oregon. A first generation American of South Asian descent, she is a keen observer of how people select and organize their lives. She began her career in museums, eventually serving as curator and then director of the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland. Namita sees curation as both collaborative and empathic—that the curator's job is to make room for multiple narratives to exist within a project. A lifelong learner, she believes that when she comes across something she isn't familiar with—a culture, a tradition, an arti...
2017-04-0415 min
Make/TimeMichael StrandMichael Strand is a potter, an activist, and an optimist. A lifelong Dakotan, he is an Associate Professor and head of the Department of Visual Arts at North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. Michael trained at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, in ceramics, and he's a skilled artist who makes beautiful cups and bowls. As his career progressed, though, he realized that he wanted to make art that engaged people in dynamic ways. He crafts innovative projects that connect the handmade to the community, and that lead participants and the artist to new understandings of themselves and o...
2017-03-2114 min
Make/TimeMake/Time Season 2 PreviewMake/Time is back with a new season, sharing fresh conversations about craft, inspiration, and the creative process. The first episode debuts Tuesday, March 21, with potter and activist Michael Strand. Here's a preview. Make/Time features leading makers and thinkers talking with host Stuart Kestenbaum about where they come from, what they're making, and where they're going next. A project of craftschools.us, Make/Time is made possible by major funding from the Windgate Charitable Trust.
2017-03-1801 min
Make/TimeRosanne SomersonRosanne Somerson is a furniture designer and maker, with works in the permanent collections of the Yale Art Gallery and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She is also the President of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). She has a long history with the school: she earned her BFA in industrial design there, with a focus on furniture making, and she joined the faculty of RISD in 1985. She was appointed its president in 2015, but she still maintains a studio in Fall River, Massachusetts. She still makes time for one or two design projects a year, a practic...
2017-01-1019 min
Make/TimeCristina CòrdovaCristina Còrdova is a sculptor and ceramicist living and working in Penland, North Carolina. She grew up in Puerto Rico, where she earned her Bachelors from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. Cristina then went on to earn her MFA in ceramics from Alfred University in New York. A trained dancer, she brings a sense of movement and musicality into her figurative sculptures. Recently, she has begun working on a larger-than-life scale, and she focuses on creating pieces that walk the line between representation and abstraction. She often works with her husband, Pablo Soto, who is a glas...
2016-12-2018 min
Make/TimeAyumi HorieAyumi Horie is a potter, maker, and activist living and working in Portland, Maine. She is also a social media innovator in the craft world and the curator of the popular Instagram feed Pots In Action (@potsinaction). Her body of work embodies her belief that the best handmade pottery encourages connections between people and makes daily life better. Recently, as a recipient of the United States Artist Fellowship, she has turned her attention to learning and including digital and industrial processes in her work. As a part of this work, she has purchased a RAM press, which she will u...
2016-12-0623 min
Make/TimeTheresa SecordTheresa Secord is a Penobscot basket weaver and founder of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance. She was recently named an American Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts. A lifelong Mainer, she grew up off reservation and eventually became a geologist. Theresa came to basketmaking through studying her native language as an adult; the weaving was a tactile part of the language lessons, and Theresa soon realized was more artist than linguist, and she's never turned back. Her work with the alliance has resulted in a rejuvenation of the the basketmaking tradition; the number of weavers from Wa...
2016-11-2221 min
Make/TimeCynthia SchiraCynthia Schira is a weaver and designer living in Westport, New York. She taught art for nearly 30 years, and has been a practicing artist since attending RISD on scholarship as a young woman. She happened into weaving because of a scholarship opportunity, but it fit her. In the course of her career, Cynthia has given special attention to working with computers and the Jacquard loom—an early precursor to the modern computer—to explore the digital qualities and possibilities of the art form. Today, Cynthia has retired from teaching, but not from making; she continues to make new projects, colla...
2016-10-3114 min
Make/TimeRoberto LugoRoberto Lugo is a potter living and working in Vermont. He grew up in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia and began his creative life writing graffiti. Today, he is known for his teapots, which are for him a symbol of learning other cultures, as he didn't grow up using teapots in his Puerto Rican household. His pots incorporate his artistic beginnings in graffiti and include references to his own background and to global cultures, and he designs them to spark conversation. Roberto is a professor at Marlboro College, and he talks about the different languages of academia, the pottery room...
2016-10-1020 min
Make/TimeRowland RickettsRowland Ricketts is an indigo grower and artist based in Bloomington, Indiana. He studied traditional indigo making and dyeing techniques in Japan, where he was living after college and where he met his wife, Chinami, who is a weaver. He came to dyeing after he realized that his photography work was polluting the streams around his farmhouse in the rural Nara prefecture. Here, Rowland talks about originality, process, living with nature, discovery, and how to find a work you never retire from. Make/Time shares conversations about craft, inspiration, and the creative process. Listen to leading makers and th...
2016-09-2717 min
Make/TimeVivian BeerMake/Time—conversations about craft, inspiration, and the creative process. Listen to leading makers and thinkers talk about where they came from, what they're making, and where they're going next. Host Stuart Kestenbaum talks with furniture designer Vivian Beer, winner of HGTV's Ellen's Design Challenge, about learning how to blend traditional making with new technology, and how her time on the tv design contest showed her that not only can great design be made more cheaply, but it should be.
2016-09-0814 min
Make/TimeTom JoyceMake/Time— conversations about craft, inspiration, and the creative process. Listen to leading makers and thinkers talk about where they came from, what they're making, and where they're going next. In this episode, host Stuart Kestenbaum talks with his longtime friend sculptor Tom Joyce. Trained as a blacksmith when he was a teenager, Tom Joyce's art work can be found in museums across the country, including the National September 11th Memorial and Museum in New York City.
2016-08-1119 min
Make/TimeTim McCreightMake/Time— conversations about craft, inspiration, and the creative process. Listen to leading makers and thinkers talk about where they came from, what they're making, and where they're going next. In this episode, Tim McCreight talks to Stuart Kestenbaum about his path to becoming a jeweler, teacher, publisher, writer, and activist.
2016-08-1122 min
Make/TimeSonya ClarkMake/Time— conversations about craft, inspiration, and the creative process. Listen to leading makers and thinkers talk about where they came from, what they're making, and where they're going next. Stuart Kestenbaum talks with artist Sonya Clark about family, roots, textiles, and the joys of making art in a community.
2016-08-1126 min
Make/TimeMake/Time TrailerMake/Time— conversations about craft, inspiration, and the creative process. Listen to leading makers and thinkers talk about where they came from, what they're making, and where they're going next. This new podcast, with host Stuart Kestenbaum, will launch August 4. Visit craftschools.us to learn more.
2016-08-0200 min