The recipients of the Center for Craft’s 2024 Craft Archive Fellowship are alejandro t. acierto, Shilpi Chandra, Earline Green, Ruth Hallows, Denali Jöel, and Michelle Amos and Jenna Richards. For their six projects, they will receive $5,000 honorariums to explore and analyze archives of their choosing, engaging in both conventional and innovative approaches to archival research.
Focusing on the underrepresented and non-dominant craft histories of the United States, fellows will publish their scholarship in the winter of 2025 in a special edition of Hyperallergic’s newsletter dedicated to craft archives. They will also participate in a virtual program with the Center for Craft.
The wide range of topics chosen by the fellows spans centuries and communities. Join us in anticipation of the exciting discoveries they will make throughout their research as we introduce the newest cohort of Craft Archive Fellows and their projects:
alejandro t. acierto (Phoenix, AZ)
Crafting Imperialism: Phillippine Industrial Prison Labor and American Luxury
As a result of United States imperialism, industrial labor in Philippine prisons became a unique component of American craft traditions. Focused on wicker furniture produced for global markets, alejandro t. acierto will reveal how craft was an integral facet of an American colonial imaginary.
Shilpi Chandra (Scarsdale, NY)
Krishna Reddy and the Printmaking Workshop
Delving into the history and impact of viscosity printing as developed by Krishna Reddy in the 1970s, Shilpi Chandra aims to place Reddy in the role of teacher and influence for a wide network of overlooked and underrepresented artists.
Earline Green (Cedar Hill, TX)
Texas Enslaved and Free Black Potters: Reconstructing Deconstructed Legacies
While some studies have found no connection, the United States Census Slave Schedules and Texas Historical Societies indicate that the most celebrated pottery vessels in Texas from before 1860 were possibly made by enslaved Black artisans. Earline Green’s research will document the legacies of Texas Enslaved and Free Black Potters from 1850 to 1920.
Ruth Hallows (Mesa, AZ)
Weaving in a Good Way: Crafting Chilkat Blankets Among the Tsimshian People
Ruth Hallows will utilize archives in Arkansas, Washington, and British Columbia in researching the historical context and cultural significance of the ceremonial Northwest Coast craft contemporarily known as Chilkat. Her project seeks to recover and understand the history and protocols of Chilkat through the perspectives of the Tsimshian people.
Denali Jöel (Los Angeles, CA)
I Come to (Tryon) Me: Jonkonnu Mask-making as Waymaking in North Carolina
Denali Jöel will explore the migration of Jonkonnu masquerade culture from Jamaica to North Carolina, focusing on the craft of mask-making, in order to trace the tradition’s cultural journey, assess its impact, and investigate its influence on contemporary Black beauty culture in North Carolina.
Michelle Amos and Jenna Richards (Louisville, KY)
The Untraditional and Influential Lives of the Women Weavers at Little Loomhouse
Michelle Amos and Jenna Richards will tell the stories of the weavers who, living outside gender norms, made a creative safe haven at the Little Loomhouse in Louisville, Kentucky. They will explore their influence on American handweaving during the Arts and Crafts Revivalist Movement (1940–60) and how they inspired generations of weavers.
The Center for Craft in Asheville, North Carolina, is a national nonprofit dedicated to advancing the field of craft through fostering new ideas, funding craft scholarships, and backing the next generation of makers, curators, and critics.
The Craft Archive Fellowship is supported, in part, by Ayumi Horie and Sara Clugage, and in partnership with Hyperallergic.
