American Craft Council Conference:
Creating a New Craft Culture
October 15-17, 2009
Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Council will host an interactive conference, bringing together dynamic voices in the field and beyond to discuss craft’s role in a changing world. The event, which will take place at the Radisson Plaza Hotel, will feature such distinguished speakers as Richard Sennett, professor of sociology at New York University and the London School of Economics and author of The Craftsman;Rob Walker, columnist for the New York Times Magazine and author of Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are; Garth Clark, curator, scholar, historian and gallerist; Sandra Alfoldy, associate professor of craft history at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design; and Sonya Clark, chair of craft and material studies at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Richmond. For complete information on the conference agenda, speakers and registration, visit craftcouncil.org/conference09.

At the Salon
The Council’s 2009 Salon Series program kicked off on July 22, exploring the topic “Craft’s Contribution to a Sustainable World” with Father Andrew More O’Connor, an artist and Diocesian priest in the Bronx, New York, discussing his innovative project Goods of Conscience. By employing Guatemalan Mayan weavers who hand sew well-made, attractive and comfortable apparel, the venture benefits the disadvantaged and seeks “to enhance the spirit of worker and wearer alike.” The final program, Bamboo Bike Project, took place on August 12, with Marty Odlin, co-founder and engineer of the Bamboo Bike Studio and assistant director of the Education Center for Sustainable Engineering at Columbia University, and Justin Aguinaldo, a New York bicycle messenger who brought his knowledge of bicycle mechanics to the project. They discussed the history of the endeavor, in which a model for social entrepreneurship was developed to utilize a renewable material, bamboo, available to many right in their backyards.

Baltimore Here We Come!
The Council is pleased to announce that at next year’s American Craft Show in Baltimore (February 25-28) two exceptional schools—Rhode Island School of Design and Savannah College of Art and Design—will present their top students’ work in the “School to Market” portion of the show. Look for more soon on this largest juried, indoor craft show in the nation at craftcouncil.org.