Call for Papers – Craft Works Symposium
Friday, November 3, 2023
time tba
Moore College of Art & Design
20th and the Parkway, Philadelphia
Questions?
*deadline extended to September 30th, 2023*
CraftNOW Philadelphia seeks at least three emerging craft scholars and practitioners to present during its annual symposium November 3, 2023. Please email up to 200 words and a brief CV for consideration no later than September 20, 2023 to emily@craftnowphila.org
An honorarium will be provided for each presenter.
CraftNOW’s 2023 symposium and programming will center on the theme Craft Works. Through this theme, scholars, artists, and other speakers will explore diverse and changing ideas around work that permeate every aspect of the craft landscape. Made objects capture the work of bringing an idea into reality, so much so that we call them artworks. We’ll explore the work of making things, craft practice as labor, craft’s relationship to the needs of working people, and the power of craft to enact transformative work through communities. Craft Works will also pay tribute to the important contributions of gallerists Ruth and Rick Snyderman to Philadelphia’s craft community through their gallery, Snyderman Works.
Working Lecture and Event Schedule
Friday, November 3, 2023
Featured Speakers to be announced soon!
Recent Symposium History
2022: Public | Private
CraftNOW’s 2022 symposium and programming centered on the theme Public | Private and explored continually evolving concepts of shared versus personal space. The keynote speaker was be Michael Lewis, architectural critic for the Wall Street Journal and author of Philadelphia Builds: Essays on Architecture, Frank Furness: Architecture and the Violent Mind, and City of Refuge. Other presenting institutions included Craft in America, The Center for Art in Wood, Wharton Esherick Museum, varying divisions of the Philadelphia Mummers Parade, and four emerging scholars.
View 2022 Symposium >
2021: Environmental Effects
CraftNOW’s 2021 symposium Environmental Effects examined how communities and interiors shape our experiences, when sustainability issues are expressed through craft, and the greater impact of our contemporary material culture. Longer presentations were complimented by shorter Pecha Kucha style talks. Dr. Kelli Morgan was keynote having contributed the chapter Crafting Diversity in our recent publication Craft Capital: Philadelphia’s Cultures of Making.
2020: Cultures of Making
CraftNOW’s 2020 symposium Cultures of Making examines the many ways community, activism, research, and connection develop out of collaborative craft practices in the neighborhoods of Philadelphia to the Santa Clara Pueblo and beyond. Keynote speakers Vashti DuBois, Executive Director of The Colored Girls Museum in Philadelphia, and Hinda Mandell, editor of Crafting Dissent: Handicraft as Protest from the American Revolution to the Pussyhats, are central to each day’s conversation as we talk and think about the role of craft as a tool for provocation and exchange, especially in this heightened time of social unrest.
Moore College of Art & Design
20th and the Parkway, Philadelphia