See Touch: Interactive Craft: Arrowmont’s National Juried Exhibition

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts is exhibiting interactive art in Touch, Arrowmont’s biannual National Juried Exhibition, on view in the Sandra J. Blain Gallery from Jan. 16 to March 11, 2016.

An opening reception will be held Jan. 22 from 6 to 8 p.m., awards ceremony at 7 p.m. Admission is free, and the community is encouraged to attend with their friends and family. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The first rule of museum etiquette is: Do Not Touch The Art! The artists showcased in Touch push the boundaries of a distance-based artistic environment. Touch acknowledges that traditional craft forms are rooted in the idea of functionality and were created to be handled. Jewelry structures respond to the bodies on which they are worn. Domestic vessels are produced for use in the daily ritual of preparing and sharing a meal, and textiles are designed to provide comfort and warmth when they are worn. The works selected for this exhibition reflect high levels of craftsmanship and incorporate touch in innovative ways.

Tic Tac Toe Necklace by Sunyoung Cheong at Touch: Interactive Craft: Arrowmont’s National Juried Exhibition

Bound Scissors by Suzanna Scott at Touch: Interactive Craft: Arrowmont’s National Juried Exhibition

The exhibit showcases 52 works by 35 artists in a range of disciplines. The artists include: Fumi Amano, Missy Graff Ballone, Josh Bass, Sarah Rachel Brown, Heather Buechler, Marcelyn Bennett Carpenter, Sunyoung Cheong, Yu-Chi Chien, Erika Diamond, Alicia Dietz, Annie Evelyn, Yael Friedman, Reagan Furqueron, Jeni Hansen Gard, Magda Gluszek, Holly Hanessian, Karen Hardy, Lucy Holtsnider, Katie Hudnall, Lauren Kalman and Kipp Bradford, Joshua Kosker, Kirk Lang, Kathleen Little, Meg Mitchell, Lyndsay Rice, Jina Seo, Suzanna Scott, Linda Tien, Kurt Treeby, Tonya Vance, Kimberly Winkle and Dukno Yoon.

Touch: Interactive Craft’s juror is Emily Zilber, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s first Ronald L. and Anita C. Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts. Zilber is responsible for the MFA’s contemporary decorative arts program, including guiding acquisitions and developing a presence for craft and design in the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art.  Zilber oversees the Daphne and Peter Farago Gallery, a dedicated space for modern and contemporary craft, design and decorative arts. Current exhibitions include Nature, Sculpture, Abstraction and Clay: 100 Years of American Ceramics (opened January 2015) and Crafted: Objects in Flux (opening August 2015).

Prior to joining the MFA, Zilber was Assistant Curator, Cranbrook Art Museum at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She has edited and written for numerous publications and speaks regularly on topics related to 20th and 21st century decorative arts, craft and design. Zilber holds a BA in art history from The University of Chicago and an MA from the Bard Graduate Center for Decorative Arts, Design History and Material Culture.

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts is a national art education center. The school enriches lives by developing aesthetic appreciation and fostering self-expression with hands-on experiences in a variety of media, classes, conferences and seminars. On the leading edge of arts education, Arrowmont utilizes contemporary and fine arts techniques to build upon a foundation of traditional arts and crafts.