MA in Critical Craft Studies at Warren Wilson College - Prospective Student Viewbook

MA in Critical Craft Studies

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Warren Wilson College

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The MA in Critical Craft Studies is the first and only low-residency graduate program in craft history and theory.

Left: Questions, as Lisa Jarrett says, are a medium.

This list arose during the 100 Questions Workshop created and led by Lisa Jarrett during the first residency of the MA in Critical Craft Studies in July 2018. Collectively compiled by students and faculty, this workshop originated in our program; Jarrett continues to adapt it in other contexts. This tool expands a core program question—which craft?—to consider how to begin research through questions, and to learn which questions can lead to learning things we do not already know.

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Sharing research resources through photos of #bookstacks and #craftstacks is one way we map how we are building knowledge and making histories. We share stacks like this one from Kate Hawes, Class of 2022, on Instagram @macraftstudies to build connections, and to invite comments to fill in our blindspots.

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Writing is solitary. Research, however, offers opportunities for collaborative thinking. During our two-week residencies, we build experiences for students and faculty to learn and think collectively— with the aim of building collegial connections to support each others’ work during and after the program.

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While every person in our program to date is a maker and brings knowledge of making into the program, here, we do not make objects: we make histories. Our program focuses on introducing and developing tools to discuss, analyze, and communicate about craft-making processes as they connect to critical theory, histories, and the systems through which objects circulate. For example, Kate Hawes, Class of 2022, connects their background in woodworking with a critical study of collecting amongst green wood spoon carvers.

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Dave Ellum, Dean of Land at Warren Wilson College, leads students on an educational walk to consider how he understands the campus as a crafted environment. This photo marks a spot where he explains, for example, how to read the landscape: what happened 100 years ago that shows itself now, and how to anticipate what human action today will look like 100 years into the future.

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During residencies, we map the local craftscape through research field trips to nearby destinations, such as Black Mountain College Museum (shown here).

Local contexts serve as models for students to map and study craft where they live.

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We consider how to connect archival research and accessible information resources, such as Wikipedia. Here, matt lambert, Class of 2020, and Namita Gupta Wiggers (Program Director) discuss how to update a page using research materials donated by Tara Leigh Tappert to the Warren Wilson College Archives.

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Each #bookstack and #craftstack offers a different perspective on craft; this stack from Joni Van Bockel, for example, connects her interest in spinning with research on textile histories and critical theories she used to examine the subject.

Our full-time, low-residency graduate program is the first of its kind to focus on craft histories and theory in the United States. Every July and January, our Faculty and students like you join together for an intensive two-week residency full of lectures, workshops, seminars, readings, project work, field trips, and individual conferences focused on the history, theory, and critical study of craft. After each residency, we disperse to our homes across the globe, and we dive into a semester of remote learning and research facilitated by Faculty advisors and Mentors.

The two-year continuous program begins in July.

As a student, you spend July residencies on our breathtaking mountain campus at Warren Wilson

College and January residencies in downtown Asheville, North Carolina, with classes at The Center for Craft, our program founding partner. After two years of study, experience, and research, you return to campus for a fifth and final residency to present your final project in a public symposium with Faculty and invited participants.

Build Your Research and Critical Thinking Tools You work individually and collaboratively during residencies and throughout the semesters that follow.

Each student spends 20–25 hours per week on class readings; students develop their own weekly work plans around their own schedules. Each month, you

meet collectively online for 2–3 hours per course and meet one-on-one in the following contexts: 1–2 hours with your Core Faculty Advisor, 1–2 hours with other Core Faculty, 1 hour with the Program Director, and 2 hours with Mentors who are either in your place of residence or online. Additionally, all Core Faculty and the Director are available for office hours.

Coursework is designed to develop your critical thinking skills, build research methods, and connect your experiences with craft—with formats ranging from writing and podcasts to exhibitions and curriculum development. You build skills and knowledge through connections between course assignments and your individual craft-centered research interests. Students move through four courses each semester—History and Theory, Research Methods Lab, Materials Lab, and Practicum Project—connecting with a thematic focus in each course: Introduction to Craft, Craft and Public Space, Craft and Communication, and Craft and Learning.

Your final research-guided project is unique to your interests, and through it you can demonstrate your applied knowledge in craft histories and theories with guidance from Faculty, Mentors, and the Director in a format that suits your topic best, such as a journalarticle length thesis; an exhibition with essays, programs, and texts; curricular development with lectures; a scholarly conference with publication; a podcast series; or a series of short critical essays.

“The ideas I’m exploring and beginning to research are providing a connection between my interests personally and the work I do professionally.

Bridging the gap between personal and professional life gives me a meaningful platform for conversations, interpretations, and interests.”

- Heather K. Powers, Class of 2021

Above: Learning to navigate archives and engage archivists as research collaborators is part of the visit to the North Carolina Western Regional Archives and the session with Heather South, archivist.

Left: Faye Junaluska demonstrates how to prep wood for a basket making workshop she and her sister Louise Goings lead for students at Qualla Arts and Crafts, Cherokee, NC. Junaluska and Goings’ workshop is a key part of understanding Indigenous craft from Indigenous knowledge bearers. The workshop connects experiences at Oconaluftee Indian Village and The Museum of the Cherokee Indian with living plants on the Warren Wilson campus and readings, such as Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s Decolonizing Methodologies.

Program Structure In the Critical Craft Studies Program, you’ll experience a shared multidisciplinary curriculum focused on craft history, theory, and research methods. You begin the Program and your first residency in July. The semester begins with your two-week residency and continues for 16 weeks, with a one-week break between the residency and the off-site continuation of semester work. Semesters begin in July and January. All students and Core Faculty participate in July and January residencies and semesters each year, for two years. At your final fifth residency, you present your Practicum Project to complete your graduation requirements.

In History and Theory courses, you explore craft and craft-related concepts, research, and critical thinking from around the world and through a variety of disciplinary perspectives. In Research Methods Labs you develop research, writing, and interview skills. Materials Labs offer an opportunity to apply your knowledge through projects connected to semester themes. In year two, you gain professional experience through a collaborative student project, such as a publication, exhibition, or symposium. Practicum Project guides you as you move from an idea to implementation, focusing on the variety of forms through which knowledge is created and shared. With these skills, you develop approaches to conduct and communicate research— tools you will continue to engage after you complete the program.

On campus during residencies, you connect with Faculty, students, studios, library collections, archives, museums, collectors, Indigenous craftspeople, and the land through workshops, hikes, and meals with undergraduate Craft Crews and Land Management Crews at Warren Wilson. The College and surrounding region is your laboratory to connect readings with experiences. Your field trips include visits to The Center for Craft, our founding Program Partner, and to Oconoluftee Village, Qualla Arts and Crafts, Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Asheville Art Museum, Penland School of Craft, East Fork Pottery, and craft workshops in addition to local galleries and collectors’ homes.

Residencies give you ample opportunities to connect your research through discussions, observations, hands-on experiences, and consideration of the scope of the craftscape—from seed, to systems, to craft scholarship. On campus, you learn how Warren Wilson College’s Craft and Work Crews and studios connect

making through craft media in our undergraduate programs through weaving, blacksmithing, and woodworking, as well as through the land via the forest, garden, farm, and dye gardens.

Your off-site semester work involves independent study through readings and research in craft and related subjects; online class discussions; visits to studios, workshops, and shops; and assignments designed to connect on-site research experiences with applied research.

We encourage you to conduct research in your own place of residence and to connect projects to your professional work. Through your course materials, you connect to craft in a multidisciplinary and antiracist curriculum that blends subject areas such as art, anthropology, craft, folk arts, decorative arts, design, material culture, and history with additional areas of study such as visual culture, critical race theory, environmental studies, food cultures, and methodological and theoretical approaches including ethnography, phenomenology, sociology, and more.

Coursework is conducted in English. Your readings, assignments, discussions, and online engagements examine craft and craft-related questions across the globe, expanding the study of craft in the United States to engage the diversity, breadth, and depth of its population.

Your Faculty, Mentors, and the Director work closely as a team to encourage, support, and facilitate your learning. You gain experience with communicating your research and thinking as you share through writing, public speaking, podcasts, online and exhibition formats, social media, and emerging experimental platforms.

In addition to two years of coursework, you will complete a Practicum Project. Working with the guidance of educators in the program, the form of your final project will convey the context, methods of research, analysis, and connection to craft discourse.

Forms could include, for example: curatorial projects, critical essays, curricular development, or programmatic projects as the culmination of your studies. If you seek to pursue further graduate study, your final project will take the form of a journal-length paper. Our learning environment is inclusive and investigative, giving you space to learn, test, and practice your skills through connections within the field, and to integrate your knowledge and experiences with the curriculum. You will graduate with the tools and skills you need to apply craft research in a variety of work environments.

Walking through the campus and forest with Dave Ellum, Dean of Land, is a core part of understanding the connection between nature and craft. Here, Dave explains how he reads the landscape, noting what was here 100 years ago, and what he expects might be present 100 years from today.

Courses

by Semester: Fall Semester 1 = 15 credits July Residency = Required 4 credits 4 credits 4 credits 3 credits

History and Theory I

Materials Lab I

Research Methods Lab I

Practicum Project I

Spring Semester 1 = 15 credits January Residency = Required 4 credits 4 credits 4 credits 3 credits

History and Theory II

Materials Lab II Research Methods Lab II Practicum Project II

Fall Semester 2 = 14 credits July Residency = Required 3 credits 3 credits 3 credits 5 credits

History and Theory III

Materials Lab III

Research Methods Lab III Practicum Project III

Spring Semester 2 = 14 credits January Residency = Required History and Theory IV 3 credits

Materials Lab IV 3 credits

Research Methods Lab IV 3 credits

Practicum Project IV 5 credits

Final Presentation = 2 credits July Residency and Symposium = Required 2 credits

Practicum Project Presentation

Total program credits = 60

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Applied learning is built into education at Warren Wilson. Undergraduate students care for livestock, cultivate the farm and garden, learn forestry from the land, and use materials from the campus in the Blacksmithing, Fiber Arts, and Woodworking Studios. Working with the Farm and Garden Crews, we create communal meals sourced primarily from the animals and plants on campus. Beginning in July 2022, students will work alongside crews for a day to expand consideration of natural resources as connected to craft.

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Mellanee Goodman, Class of 2021, led students on a walking tour of downtown Asheville to reveal Black craft histories in the bricks and construction of buildings such as the Asheville Masonic Temple.

Photo: Heather Powers, Class of 2021, January 2020.

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Graduate students participate in work crews during Residencies. Here, Michael Hatch and Kat St. Aubin, Class of 2020, led faculty and students through the preparation and cooking of a tamale dinner, January 2020.

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Craft knowledge is exchanged in many places, and the program’s proximity to Penland School of Craft offers an opportunity to consider how learning is exchanged through studio-based workshops, economic structures such as residencies that support craftspeople, and administrative systems that enable this work to take place. Students meet with craftspeople, gallery staff, archivists, Core Fellows, and Mia Hall, Executive Director (pictured here).

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The scope of regional and historic craft production—from studios to schools to factories—is incorporated into field trips, such as this visit to the Biltmore Industries Homespun Museum (shown here) and East Fork factory.

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Students gain experience working with a wide range of evidence and materials, from archival photographs and ephemera to digital images and the internet, as well as examine the systems through which information is—or is not—located in archives, libraries, or museums. Nick Falduto, Class of 2020, examines archival photographs documenting Dorland-Bell School, which merged with the Asheville Farm School, and eventually became Warren Wilson College.

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PROGRAM FACULTY & TEACHING FELLOWS

CORE FACULTY & TEACHING FELLOWS

The MA in Critical Craft Studies at Warren Wilson College places you immediately within the craftscape on campus and in the growing field at-large. Our rotating Faculty roster is unique and unmatched by any other program in the United States or abroad. Our teachers are affiliated with institutions across the globe. You will connect with experts from a range of knowledge types and fields, from independent writers to scholars and craftspeople working with academic institutions, cultural organizations, and museums. This constellation of resources and experts helps you consider craft through art and art history, anthropology, design, material culture, visual studies; through curatorial studies, writing, or programmatic work. We value all kinds of experiences and knowledge. Ours is not a program focused on making, but researching, thinking, and writing about craft through making is fundamental. As a student in our program, every term includes working directly with a Core Faculty or Teaching Fellow, a Faculty advisor, a Mentor, and the Program Director.

Visit www.macraftstudieswwc.com to learn more about Core Faculty and Teaching Fellows. Core Faculty and Teaching Fellows since 2018 include: alejandro acierto, Sara Clugage, Michelle Millar Fisher, Jeff Keith, Ben Lignel, Alicia Ory DeNicola, Tom Martin, Tiffany Momon, Leslie Carol Roberts, Linda Sandino, Mara Holt Skov, Yasmeen Siddiqui, and Shannon Stratton.

Core Faculty and Teaching Fellows teach our four core curriculum courses—History & Theory, Materials Lab, Research Methods Lab, and Practicum Project— beginning with class sessions during residencies and continuing through the semester. Core Faculty and Teaching Fellows work both individually and collaboratively with the Director on curriculum. All Core Faculty and Teaching Fellows teach together during residencies, and individually during the remainder of the semester.

A select number of teaching spots are identified for early- to mid-career educators to build their teaching and course development experience. MA in Critical Craft Studies Teaching Fellows develop and teach foundational (Core) courses for the graduate program in close collaboration with the Director of the program and other Faculty. This opportunity provides team teaching experience in an interdisciplinary context to the Fellow, and broadens cross-disciplinary learning for our graduate students.

Core Faculty and Teaching Fellows teach during the full semester (during the Residency and throughout the off-site portion of the semester). Workshop Faculty, guest educators from a variety of backgrounds, teach intensive courses during the on-site component of the program (July and January), and their courses and workshops supplement the Core Faculty and Teaching Fellows’ curriculum for the semester.

Mentors in the program offer you one-on-one feedback, guidance, and real-world experience. Mentors are experts established in the fields of craft theory, museum studies, anthropology, publishing, studio art, art history, material culture, design, history, and other disciplines. They may be academically connected or not, depending on the research focus of a student’s project.

They live both in the United States and abroad, and they broaden your educational environment through their diverse skills and expertise.

Left: Core Faculty and Teaching Fellows workshop their syllabi collectively before each Residency to highlight connections, build a curriculum that fits the low-residency model, and share and expand resources to ensure that assigned readings and critical thinking through materials is expansive, diverse, and unsettles coloniality. Faculty and Fellows participate in all cohort classes during the Residency, too, to expand discussions, intersections, and connections.

Left: Experiences can connect to multiple courses at the same time. For example, a basket making workshop with Faye Junaluska and Louise Goings, (pictured here) working with Amy Meissner, Class of 2021, at Qualla Arts and Crafts, Cherokee, NC, connects to Materials Lab as a making workshop.

It connects, too, to Research Methods Lab as an example of oral exchange and hands-on learning about Indigenous craft from Indigenous makers, as well as a way of considering how History and Theory in craft are connected through learning directly from knowledge bearers and elders.

Photo: lydia see.

researching and communicating what is learned through their courses. While some focus on historical methods or interviews, others may bring in anthropology, critical theory, material culture, and visual culture studies.

Educators teaching this course have included Jeff Keith, Tom Martin, Linda Sandino, and Namita Gupta Wiggers.

MATERIALS LABS

During semester 3, a committee composed of the Program Director, your Faculty Advisor, and your Mentor collaboratively review and evaluate the Qualifying Project for your Practicum Project. If we need external engagement to support specific research interests, an external reader may be brought in, too.

HISTORY & THEORY Core Faculty/Teaching Fellows for this course may introduce students to craft histories and theories through African American material culture; historiographical examination of craft anthologies produced at different times and places; exhibition history as craft history; and theory from anthropology to phenomenology, sensory ethnography to queer studies. Educators teaching this course bring specializations in curatorial studies, public history, ethnography, anthropology, and varied approaches to craft histories and multidisciplinary theories. Educators from 2018 to the present have included alejandro acierto, Michelle Millar Fischer, Tiffany Momon, Tom Martin, Alicia Ory DeNicola, and Namita Gupta Wiggers.

RESEARCH METHODS LABS Research is a skill, and Core Faculty and Teaching Fellows who teach this course bring different ways of

This course is experimental, offering students opportunities to develop different approaches to communicating research, from multiple forms of writing to sound, video, or curatorial projects. The second year includes collaborative production of a project that connects form and content, such as a publication, exhibition, or symposium. Educators teaching this course have included Sara Cluggage, Ben Lignel, Leslie Carol Roberts, Yasmeen Siddiqqui, Mara Holt Skov, and Shannon Stratton.

PRACTICUM PROJECT The Practicum Project course series offers guided space to conduct, develop, and complete a research project. Practicum Project I introduces a range of possible formats for the final project, with opportunities to test nontraditional academic options. Practicum Project II connects student work in all courses with planning and developing the final research-driven Practicum Project. Practicum Project III focuses on developing and executing research and the completion of a working project draft, which can take the form of a long-form critical nonfiction essay, academic journal article, exhibition, podcast series, publication, conference, collection of short essays, and more.

Practicum Project IV offers additional time for students to independently complete and submit their final project. Mentors in the second year connect specifically to student projects. In the fifth residency, Practicum

Left: How do we move from reading to teaching about an object? During the Spring of 2020, students of Material Lab and Core Faculty Ben Lignel looked at a ceramic dish made in Western Peru by Awajùn potter Amalia Wisum Chimpa, and sgraffitoed by French photographers Eléonore Lubna and Louis Matton. The pot depicts the reenacted burning of Werner Herzog’s encampment, in December 1979, and is part of a larger group of pieces that trace the Awajùn’s fight for territorial sovereignty over a two-year period.

In this project, students pivoted into a teaching position, and flexed their critical muscles as they considered how best to structure a class around this polyphonic and decidedly argumentative material object.

Project V focuses on the presentation of students’ projects in publicly accessible forms, such as: a publication, symposium presentation, or website, timed to coincide with their fifth and final residency, and to share with currently enrolled students as well as leaders in craft and craft-adjacent fields. One course credit for Practicum Project I and II (3cr total) includes ongoing research guidance and applied learning engagement with a mentor external to the program. One course credit for Practicum Project III and IV (5cr total) includes working with a mentor on completing the Practicum Project. Credit hours per semester are adjusted as the program progresses to accommodate students’ need for analysis and communication development.

WORKSHOP Faculty Workshop Faculty teach short sessions during residencies, bringing multidisciplinary perspectives to Critical Craft Studies. The roster of Workshop Faculty rotates annually, and is developed in response to student research interests and areas of knowledge and expertise carried by each educator. Workshop Faculty who have

taught in the past few years include the following: Glenn Adamson, Karen Bell, Christina Burke, Lola Clairmont, Sara Cluggage, Andres Payan Estrada, Sarah Darro, Jen Delos Reyes, Alicia Ory DeNicola, Dave Ellum, Anna Fariello, Louise Goings, Julie Hollenbach, Lisa Jarrett, Emily Johnson, Faye Junaluska, Sarah K. Khan, Jeff Keith, Kareem Khubchandani, JeeYeun Lee, Judith Leemann, Tim May, Nicholas Mirzoeff, Tiffany Momon, Kevin Murray, Melissa Potter, Jay Roberts, Linda Sandino, Ezra Shales, Mara Holt Skov, Lauren Sinner, Anthony Sonnenberg, Jenni Sorkin, T’ai Smith, Shannon Rae Stratton, Lisa Vinebaum, Melanie Wilder, Emily Winters, Marilyn Zapf, and Warren Wilson College Work Crew Supervisors (Ben Blackmar, Matt Haugh, and Melanie Wilder).

MENTORS Mentors are selected based on each students’ research interests and writing needs. Connections are drawn from artists, curators, scholars, and writers from a variety of fields and geographic locations. Students and Mentors meet multiple times during a semester.

Focus for Mentor engagements is developed at the beginning of each semester with the Director, Mentor, and student. This relationship builds support for student projects by connecting you to people with experience and expertise in a particular subject area, and expands the knowledge core and connectivity of the program.

Students work with two different Mentors in each semester of their first year. During the second year,

Above: Care and nourishment are foundational aspects of community-building and learning, and these values are engaged in the program from prepping and cooking meals to extensive written feedback, advising sessions to resource sharing to strengthen papers and projects.

Here, Ben Lignel, Core Faculty, Michael Hatch and Kat St. Aubin (not pictured), both Class of 2020, prepared one of two meals we share with community guests at the Garden Cabin during the July Residency; 80-90% of the food is from the campus, and once per Residency, East Fork Pottery generously lends dinnerware and joins us for conversation and a meal. Photo: lydia see.

Left: In July, we meet on the Warren Wilson campus, where we use Boon Hall’s flexible classrooms to work collectively or in smaller groups. Photos cannot adequately convey action in such settings. Here, Alicia DeNicola, former Core Faculty, enacts a performative reading of an essay to guide students on one approach to digesting large quantities of reading material quickly, moving from what you know through structure and content, and marking what you will need to return to later to read more slowly.

Photo: lydia see.

Left: Faculty share recent projects or research-in-process in public programs followed by student-led discussions. These public programs draw local community attendees into a public classroom setting. Warren Wilson Faculty members Kevin Kehrberg and Jeff Keith (Core Faculty), shared their research through a presentation and musical performance in advance of the publication of “Somebody Died, Babe: A Musical Cover-up of Racism, Violence, & Greed,” in The Bitter Southerner, August 4, 2020. Photo: lydia see.

students work directly with one Mentor and the Director towards completion of the Practicum Project.

Glenn Adamson, Sarah Archer, Elissa Auther, Maria Elena Buszek PhD, Sara Clugage, Sonja Dahl, Julie Decker, Jen Delos Reyes, David Ellum, Pete Erb, Mark Essig, Andres Payan Estrada, Fabio Fernandez, Eric Franklin, Sam Ford, Bean Gilsdorf, Joshua Green, Dr. Cynthia Greenlee, Gary Hawkins, Dr. Julie Hollenbach, Garth Johnson, Jeff Keith, Sarah K. Khan, Laura Kina, Stephen Knott, Judith Leemann, Rosemary Logan PhD, Sharon Louden, Caitrin Lynch, Kevin McIlvoy, Aaron McIntosh, Cyle Metzger, Dr. Tiffany Momon, Mike Murawski, Monica Montgomery Nyathi, Karen Olson, Alpesh Kantilal Patel, PJ Gubatina Policarpio, Elizabeth Porter, Melissa Potter, Perry Allen Price, Yasmeen Siddiqui,T’ai Smith, Jonathan Michael Square, Tara Leigh Tappert, Savneet Talwar, Ed Thomas, Deborah Valoma, Anna Walker, and Marilyn Zapf.

Details, bios, and links about our Core Faculty, Teaching Fellows, Workshop Faculty, and Mentors can be found at: www.macraftstudieswwc.com

Above: The campus and surrounding city are meeting places. Here, Lisa Jarrett (far right) leads a discussion with the Class of 2021 and Core Faculty about James Baldwin and Audre Lorde’s interview in Essence, 1984.

Photo: lydia see.

Left: The desk of Laurin Guthrie, Class of 2021, conveys the many critical and physical layers of research: tracking information and ordering it to communicate to others, stacks of books and articles both in print and online, and the durational aspect of sitting at a desk and computer to research and write.

Craftscape at Warren Wilson College

There is no single history of craft.

Craft is at the core of cultural knowledge, learning between generations, and community connections.

Although museums and academia are considered cultural centers, these spaces do not include the breadth and depth of craft histories.

Building a craftscape—an interconnected web of understanding that links objects with makers, histories, cultures, the environment—moves us from inviting people to have a seat at a table to rethinking the table itself.

What is possible when we shift our thinking toward building a field connected to the lands beneath our feet?

Expanding on Director Namita Gupta Wiggers’

work to develop the craftscape as an approach to critical craft studies, the MA program collaborated with Land Resources to develop the Craftscape at Warren Wilson College through a series of workshops with design consultancy XPLANE. The resulting visual map is a springboard for collaboration and understanding of the possibilities of craft as a central way of thinking and learning on the Warren Wilson College campus.

This visual tool brings broader curricular thinking into collaboration with the idea of the craftscape, catalyzing ways to put concepts into action.

To learn more, see Wiggers’ Webinar: Building a Craftscape and “Unearthing the Craftscape” by Anjula Razdan in the Summer 2021 issue of American Craft, both linked at www.macraftstudieswwc.com.

Left page: Our Garden Dinners with community members give students an opportunity to discuss their projects and connect with collectors, craftspeople, and educators. Craft is embedded in these experiences; unpacking the programs from garden and farm to table setting to discussions provides an opportunity to think about craft through multiple cultural layers.

Left: In the Summer of 2021, American Craft published “Unearthing the Craftscape” (pictured) by Anjula Razdan and the article “the good china” by matt lambert, Class of 2020. The article explores a new generation of scholars and curators considering how craft objects are shaped by the forces of history, culture, and society. Coined by Namita Gupta Wiggers, Program Director, craftscape forms a foundation for what, how, and why we teach the way we do in this program.

Below: Marilyn Zapf, Director of Programs and Curator, The Center for Craft, is one of many educators who teach during residencies. Here, she guides students through exercises to envision a speculative Object Library for Warren Wilson College.

A Land Acknowledgement: We acknowledge that the land where we meet at Warren Wilson College is the ancestral home of the Tsalaguwetiyi, the Cherokee people, many of whom were forcibly removed by the US government from lands their ancestors cultivated for generations, and many of whom continue to live on their ancestral lands today. We believe a land acknowledgment is only one way to honor Cherokee craftspeople and the long histories of Indigenous communities where the feet of our students and Faculty touch the ground.

Research & Our Students

Amy Meissner (Anchorage, AK) Mellanee Goodman (Asheville, NC) she/her/hers • Class of 2021 Practicum Project: In the Fray: Black Women and Craft, 1850 – 1910.

she/her/hers • Class of 2021 Practicum Project: Guest Editor, Chatter Marks journal, Issue no. 3, “The State of Repair.”

A Practicum Project researching the Craft of Repair in the Circumpolar North, completed in conjunction with the Anchorage Museum, 2021.

Designer: Karen Larsen; Commissioned by Julie Decker, Director/CEO Anchorage Museum and MACR mentor.

Heather K. Powers (Camden, SC) she/they • Class of 2021 Practicum Project: Sensing the Studio: The Role of Embodied Knowledge in Understanding Visual Representations of Craft Studio. Page layout from the February/March 2016 issue of American Craft magazine (feature includes the work of Karen Hampton pictured here). Copyright American Craft Council: www.craftcouncil.org.

Pheonix Booth (Bellingham, WA) they/them/theirs • Class of 2020 Practicum Project: Mimesis, Memory, and Maintenance in Gestures of Craft. A Critical Analysis of a Peace Paper Project Workshop.

Darrah Bowden (Boston, MA) she/her/hers • Class of 2020 Practicum Project: Structures of Aspiration: Kite Making and Kite Flying in the Northeastern United States.

Lexie Harvey (Canton, NC) she/hers • Class of 2022 Qualifying Project: Craft and Renaissance Faires.

“I’ve been a woodworker for a long time… I’ve been taught and I’ve received this vast lineage of a craft that is incredibly Western… and there was no critical discourse around it… I wanted a community in which I could have these conversations and try to problematize the whole thing and unpack it.”

- Kate Hawes, Class of 2022

Nick Falduto (Black Mountain, NC) he/him/his • Class of 2020 Practicum Project: Loyalty and Speed: Masculinity Within Contemporary Woodshop Culture.

Michael Hatch (Weaverville, NC) he/him/his • Class of 2020 Practicum Project: Crafted Roots: Stories and Objects from the Appalachian Mountains, on view August 3 October 31, 2020, Center for Craft. Photo: Steve Mann, Black Box Photography.

matt lambert (Detroit, MI, Stockholm and Gothenburg, Sweden) they/them/theirs • Class of 2020 Practicum Project: An Advocation Towards Decolonization: An Analysis of History Unfolds at the Swedish History Museum as a Contribution to a Thick Life of Equitable Representation and Historiography.

Matt Haugh (Swannanoa, NC) he/him/his • Class of 2020 Practicum Project: Staring into the Fire: A Play in Three Acts.

Samantha Rastatter (OH) she/her/hers • Class of 2020 Practicum Project: Craft and Conflict in Wyoming: Understanding the Regional Identity Created by Material Histories.

Kat St. Aubin (San Diego, CA)

Sarah Kelly (Winston-Salem, NC, Phoenix, AZ) she/her/hers • Class of 2020 Practicum Project: Muddying the Waters: Exploring Traditions in North Carolina Clay Through the Permanent Collection of the Asheville Art Museum Exhibition, September 9, 2020 - February 1, 2021, Asheville Art Museum.

she/her/hers • Class of 2020 Practicum Project: On Tools, Skill, & Use Value: Six professional cooks talk about their favorite cooking tools.

Kat Gordon (Minneapolis, MN) she/hers • Class of 2022 Qualifying Project: Knitting and activism.

Kate Hawes (Bearsville, NY) they/them • Class of 2022 Qualifying Project: Green wood spoon carvers—collecting and community.

Maru Lopez (San Diego, CA) she/hers • Class of 2022 Qualifying Project: Decolonizing craft in Puerto Rico.

Kae Lorentz (Oviedo, FL) Laurin Guthrie (Berkeley, CA) she/hers • Class of 2022 Qualifying Project: Theorizing natural dyers and ecological studies; Photo of Dede Styles, courtesy of the Southern Highlands Craft Guild.

she/they • Class of 2022 Qualifying Project: Reframing makeup as craft.

Please note that these pages are designed around the visuals. For an alphabetical listing of alumni and current students, please visit www.macraftstudieswwc.com.

MA in Critical Craft Studies Commonly Asked Questions What prerequisites are required for admission into the MA in Critical Craft Studies?

A BA or BFA degree is anticipated from applicants; however, the review process considers your entire application package. We are interested in students who are returning to school after other kinds of work and life experiences as much as we are interested in students who are recent graduates. A thoughtful, wellwritten statement of purpose helps us understand how your experiences and education contribute to your interest in craft studies. If applicable, consider briefly addressing how a low GPA may be balanced by your life and work experiences.

Our program calls for strong communication skills; students should be prepared to read, write, and actively discuss the materials in individual assignments and group situations. Courses are conducted in English, and language instruction is not offered as part of the program. Second or third languages are not required, but students with additional language skills are encouraged to use those skills in their coursework.

When should I apply, and how long does the admissions process take?

We have rolling admissions, and we accept applications up to February 1 of your enrollment year. To be considered for financial aid and scholarships, you must submit your application and Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms by no later than midnight on February 1 of your enrollment year. Decisions after February 1 are made on a rolling admission basis, within four weeks of receipt of your completed application.

You must apply for the year you would like to enroll; no earlier applications are granted.

What are you looking for in the “Object Response”?

For this essay, you may choose one of two objects (which you download from the application) to serve as the focus of your essay, maximum 500 words, that you then upload to the application. This piece of writing helps us understand how you think about craft and objects. The length requirement mirrors exhibition reviews published online or in print today. The committee is interested in how you analyze the craft object; you can choose any approach, such as placing the work in a cultural context, analyzing materials and process, or addressing theoretical questions about the

form, identity, and history, etc. This is an opportunity to look closely, think specifically, and share how you connect a question with analysis. References should be noted through footnotes or an attached bibliography of essays, books, or other materials (for example, podcasts) that contributed to your thinking and writing.

Choose one and at most two ideas to explore in your writing. Creative writing responses that reflect research are welcome.

What kind of additional materials may I submit?

We strongly encourage you to share up to three additional materials to support your application. These should show your work and interests, and they can be from your current or past projects. Your samples can take a variety of forms, such as a written text, essay, or published writing; texts for a museum or exhibition; press release; artist statement with images or weblink; syllabi; sample lectures; videos; podcasts; creative writing; or other forms that show how you create and communicate content. These materials help the admissions committee understand your thinking, through projects that may or may not be directly connected to craft. Please submit these materials either in PDF format with the application or as web links shared in a list. We ask you to provide a brief description, including project name, date, and your role on the project.

Who should I ask to write my recommendations?

May I submit more than two letters?

Letters of recommendation should be from professionals and/or academics who are familiar with you and your work. Only two letters may be submitted through our application process.

I received my undergraduate degree from outside the United States. Do I need an evaluation of my grades?

Yes, students who earned their post-secondary degree(s) in a country other than the United States are required to have a “course-by-course” credential evaluation performed by an outside evaluation service.

Several organizations render this service, and, while most of these provide acceptable evaluations, World Education Services (WES) is recommended. WES assists students with initiating the evaluation process, and they can be reached at wes.org or 800.937.3895.

Please allow four to six weeks for an official credential

assessment to be completed and forwarded to the Admissions Office at Warren Wilson College.

As an international student, do I need to submit TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) scores with my application?

A satisfactory proficiency of the English language is required for admission to Warren Wilson College and is required for all students whose native language is not English. The following criteria represent different ways to prove English proficiency: Achieving the minimum required official score* on the International Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam: TOEFL: 79, IELTS: 6.5 Completion of three consecutive years and graduation from an accredited school where English is the language of instruction.

Completion of an associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate, or professional degree at an accredited college or university where English is the language of instruction. *Test scores are valid for two years after the test date but are still considered valid if the score exceeds the minimum requirement and the applicant has maintained continuous residency in the United States since the exam date.

Your TOEFL scores and WES evaluation should be sent directly to the Admissions Office at Warren Wilson College.

What degree will I earn in this program?

All students earn a Master of Arts in Critical Craft Studies from Warren Wilson College. Warren Wilson College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

Who is an MA in Critical Craft Studies student?

Students in the MA in Critical Craft Studies program include recent graduates and returning students with years of work and life experiences. Students are of all

ages, backgrounds, and from around the world. We have students and alumni from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds with undergraduate degrees in areas such as art history, art, anthropology, history, economics, historic preservations, gender studies, philosophy, critical theory, film, and media arts.

May I transfer courses from another university or program?

Our program does not accept transfer credit at this time.

Will I be required to choose an area of concentration?

No, our program is not structured in this way. All students enroll in the same courses and have shared assignments, apart from their final Practicum Projects.

Every student independently researches their final projects, which fit each student’s interests in applying research methods and theory into practice, such as a thesis-length essay, exhibition, course curriculum, podcast series, film, archive, or program development such as a symposium. All students publicly present their Practicum Project in their fifth Residency (July).

How much time do I have to complete the program?

You have two years plus a final summer residency to complete the program. We strongly recommend completing the program in sequential order. Students who elect or need for personal reasons to take a term off need to apply for a leave of absence, and they may have to wait until the next term in the sequence is offered to resume the program; completion times are adjusted in approved situations.

Is financial aid available?

There are a limited number of merit-based scholarships available for graduate students in the MA in Critical Craft Studies program. These scholarships are awarded based upon the quality of the application and materials submitted. If you wish to apply for need-based aid, including an unsubsidized federal loan, you must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) at www.fafsa.gov.

Projects: MA in Critical Craft Studies Student-led Projects Students in Materials Lab III and IV work collaboratively on a student-led and Faculty-guided project. This could be a publication, symposium, exhibition, or some other format in which research is conveyed in a publicly available project. You can access both publications at: www.macraftstudieswwc.com.

TO: CRAFT To: Craft, the publication project of the 2021 graduating class, celebrates sensorial relationships with material and making and acknowledges questions of systemic social bias by focusing on nondominant voices.

As a form of resistance to academia’s prevailing closed power structures, which we are part of, our cohort chose an openended format for this publication. Delivering and dispersing our work via postcards aspires to scatter ideas widely: an act of nourishing and seeding the landscape of craft. Postcards exist in a system of gifting, receiving, responding, and re-gifting. They are tactile and social, and communicate ideas horizontally. Their mode is personal and interpersonal. Their circulation is intentional, accreting layers of meaning as they move across time and place.

To view postcards, accompanying texts, and to order the publication, visit: macraftstudieswwc.com/publication2021

Right: To: Craft (unpacked), Mellanee Goodman, Ben Lignel, and Joni Van Bockel, (Editors, with the Class of 2021), Asheville: Warren Wilson College, 2021.

Photo: Mary Ellen Davis.

Above: Nick Falduto’s “Dovetail” in Mapping Craft: This is how we meet, Ben Lignel, matt lambert, Heather Powers, and Samantha Rastetter (Editors, with the Class of 2020-21), Asheville: Warren Wilson College, 2020.

MAPPING CRAFT— THIS IS HOW WE MEET This publication demonstrates how the Class of 2020 engaged with craft in its multiple forms, and how students critically respond to shifting perspectives in craft, celebrate a diversity of voices, and convey the pedagogical principles of the MA in Critical Craft Studies.

All proceeds from the sale of each publication go directly into a scholarship fund to support graduate students who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in the MA in Critical Craft Studies, Warren Wilson College.

To view the publication and order, visit: macraftstudieswwc.com/publication2020.

Program Projects ROLODEX & AAPI CRAFT Directory We work collectively to develop and share research tools and resources, helping students experiment with different forms of building and conveying knowledge.

We are developing an ongoing Directory of selfidentified Asian American and Pacific Islanders working through craft today. This project is a Directory and a tool: what conversations come next? How does research catalyze community, action, and visibility?

The Directory was introduced as part of our exhibition, ROLODEX. Craft a Conversation, which

was on display at the Center for Craft in Asheville from June 4 – August 20, 2021. Though that exhibition has closed, the Directory continues to build. ROLODEX was curated by Namita Gupta Wiggers, Director, MA in Critical Craft Studies, Warren Wilson College with Noel Anderson and Jessie Shires. This exhibition is part of an ongoing relationship with The Center for Craft, founding program partner for the MA in Critical Craft Studies program. macraftstudieswwc.com/rolodex This project is intended to catalyze research and conversations and to build a community-generated and accessible resource.

Left: Installation view, ROLODEX: Craft a Conversation, Curated by Namita Gutpa Wiggers with Noel Anderson and Jessie Shires, on view at The Center for Craft (June 4 - August 20, 2021). Photo: Steve Mann, Black Box Photography.

CRAFTWAYS 2021: TENDING TO CRAFT

“I was looking for colleagues... I could talk with art people about art, but I couldn’t really talk with craft people about the kinds of academic things that I wanted to talk about with regards to craft… to really have a discourse that helped me understand my own work with other people.”

- Amy Meissner, Class of 2021

Students gain experience with guiding conversations and sharing their research in a number of ways, including projects such as this multi-day online symposium organized in collaboration with The Center for Craft, our founding program partner, and a committee that included student representatives from both cohorts.

The format for this gathering was a research experiment, and proposed a key question: What work can we do together that we could not do alone?

Considering research and the sharing of knowledge at the core of experience, the symposium engaged students, alumni, and invited participants in active conversation around tending to research in craft. macraftstudieswwc.com/publication2021.

Namita Gupta Wiggers— Program Director and Core Faculty Teaches: History and Theory, Research Methods, Practicum Project Namita Gupta Wiggers is a writer, curator, and educator based in Portland, Oregon. She is the founding Director of the MA in Critical Craft Studies, Warren Wilson College, the first and only lowresidency program focused on craft histories and theory. The program has Faculty and students in multiple time zones; Wiggers maintains that understanding context and the specificity of place impacts craft practice, research, teaching, and learning.

She co-founded and has led Critical Craft Forum, an online platform for dialogue and exchange that includes a podcast and a decade of annual sessions at College Art Association, since 2008. From 2004–2012, Wiggers served as the curator at the Museum of Contemporary Craft, in partnership with PNCA, Portland, Oregon, and from 2012–2014 she was its chief curator and Director. She focused on developing methods to exhibit and document contemporary and historical craft, doubled the collection holdings, and developed public programs and collaborative partnerships. Like her curatorial strategy, her approach to research involves sorting through multiple questions at once and making connections across cultures and ideas that aren’t immediately obvious. This leads to more questions and opens space for others to take the conversation further.

Wiggers serves on the Board of Trustees of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and is an editor-at-large for CRAFTS (UK). She served as the Exhibition Reviews Editor for The Journal of Modern Craft (2014-18) and is currently on the Advisory Board. She is the editor of a forthcoming craft anthology, and she collaborates with co-author Benjamin Lignel on an ongoing research project on gender and jewelry. (Based on bio written

by Mellanee Goodman, Amy Meissner, and Heather Powers, Class of 2021).

Jessie Shires—Program Coordinator As Program Coordinator, Jessie Shires handles most of the administrative, logistical, and operational details of the program, working closely with the Program Director as well as program Faculty, Mentors, students, alumni, and the greater Warren Wilson community. Shires connects people with resources, anticipates needs before they make themselves known, asks the right questions, and puts together a mean spreadsheet. An enthusiastic generalist, she’s delighted to find her work home here, where her professional experience, life learnings, and personal interests converge.

After earning her BA at Warren Wilson, Shires embarked on an 11-year career in healthcare, serving the bulk of that time as a Paramedic in a busy urban 911 system. EMS honed her skills of observation, inquiry, and synthesis—in the ambulance, she learned to respond decisively to problems both mundane and exotic, with limited resources and often at the highest possible stakes. After returning to Western North Carolina, Shires took on the challenges of Asheville’s signature industry, working as a fine-dining server, craft cocktail bartender, and restaurant manager.

COVID-related closures and a little sprinkling of serendipity, however, led Shires to the MA in Critical Craft Studies program.

Beyond her resume, Shires has also been deeply shaped by the land wherever her feet touch ground, drawn to all manner of handwork, and nourished by the wise, wry, and wondrous words of more authors that she can count. She’s most inspired when exploring unexpected connections and boundaries, and she’s always looking for the next delicious surprise.

Below: Family Rug, collection of Amy Meissner, used as a catalyst for research into the Craft of Repair via broken objects, care, and human responses to brokenness.

Photo: Amy Meissner.

Front and back covers: All images are from To: Craft, the student-led publication produced by the Class of 2021 (Guided by Ben Lignel, Core Faculty). Each image was produced as a postcard, and has a corresponding online text. Visit our website to read more about this limited-edition publication: www.macraftstudieswwc.com.

Front cover: Row 1 01: Amy Meissner, Darning as Repair Row 2 16: Amy Meissner, Snow Goggles Row 3, left to right 06: Mellanee Goodman, Where is Good Taste?

21: Melissa Hilliard Potter, Flax Seed to Sheet 08: Amy Meissner, Questions (#30) Row 4, left to right 10: Kae Lorentz, How to Cut the Crease 12: Black Craftspeople Digital Archive: John “Quash” Williams 19: Mellanee Goodman, Did You Know?

Row 5 33: Laurin Guthrie, How to Make a Barricade 25: Mellanee Goodman, Transmission of Knowledge, Part 3 20: Amy Meissner, The Sheets: A Pandemic Landscape

Back cover: Row 1, left to right 03: Lexie Harvey, Ephemera 23: Heather Powers, Redefining Southern Art at the Gibbes 05: Namita Gupta Wiggers, Taking a Line for a Walk Row 2, left to right 32: Mellanee Goodman, Questions (#04) 02: Joni Van Bockel, World’s Largest Ball of Twine 24: Black Craftspeople Digital Archive: New Salem Baptist Church Row 3, left to right 11: Heather Powers, Immersed in Indigo 07: Mellanee Goodman,Transmission of Craft Knowledge, Part 1 22: Heather Powers, Woven Paper Bookmark Row 4, left to right 13: Kate Hawes, Thoughts on a Lovespoon 35: Jay Roberts, Cresting the Wave 17: Black Craftspeople Digital Archive: Cast Iron Fireback Row 5, left to right 15: Kat Gordon, In this Very Spot 34: Lisa Jarrett, Inquiry as Practice

Applications The Master of Arts in Critical Craft Studies accepts new students once per year for the semester that starts in July. Residencies are held twice per year, in July and January.

For priority consideration, submit all application materials by February 1.

Accepted students begin their first Residency the July following their acceptance.

Applications received after February 1 are welcome, but they are considered only as space allows.

Admission is based primarily on the overall quality of the application submitted, including undergraduate academic performance, professional experience, strength of letters of reference, and passion. In addition, the Admissions Committee looks for promise exhibited in critical and personal essays. In the latter, applicants should address their ability to participate productively and supportively in a learning community and to sustain commitment through extended independent work periods during the guided and virtual study away from campus. Before notification of admission decision, final candidates have a phone interview with Namita Wiggers, Program Director and Core Faculty.

Follow the program and our students on Instagram @macraftstudieswwc and #thisiscraft.

For more information on the Academic Program and Application process, find us at: warren-wilson.edu/craft and macraftstudieswwc.com.

You may also reach out to our Director of Admissions: Nathan Wyrick • nwyrick@warren-wilson.edu.

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Warren Wilson College 701 Warren Wilson Rd. Swannanoa, NC 28778 warren-wilson.edu/craft www.macraftstudieswwc.com @macraftstudieswwc nwyrick@warren-wilson.edu 800.934.3536

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