Craft and Legacy: Writing a History, Preserving a Field, essays by presenters at Haystack's 2019 Summer Conference is now available in their online shop. Co-sponsored by Haystack and the Center for Craft, I was pleased to present at this conference which was organized around three related perspectives of museums and cultural institutions, collectors, and artists. It convened more than twenty presenters who served as models for developing best practices in addressing questions of legacy and fostering an expanded resource network for colleagues from across the country.

Along with 30 other artists, curators, scholars, cultural, and community leaders, I am happy to be a part of Chicago’s efforts to grapple with public art meant to memorialize and commemorate its history as part of the Chicago Monuments Project. Chicago residents are invited to engage with us as we reckon with the city’s monuments through a contemporary and truthful lens, and develop a more equitable means for marking inclusive histories in collaboration with various Chicago communities. Chicago residents can learn about various ways to join the conversation here.

Historian and curator Glenn Adamson examines continuities between traditions of the past and contemporary makers that are extending craft practices within various communities in his essay “The State of American Craft.” Included is my collaborative work through a blkHaUS studio commission from the Field Museum and the Chicago Park District to create a public gathering space in the Burnham Wildlife corridor.