Crafting Community presents an international roster of designers and artists, all of whom honor community through exceptionally crafted objects. The exhibited works reflect on design and art as vehicles for celebration, preservation, repair, and activism. Composed against the backdrop of this fraught socio-political moment, each object is a potent, poetic offering from maker to community. Whether uplifting homages to the people who help shape us or critiques of attacks on vulnerable communities, these pieces serve as a broader call for care and a reminder of our individual and collective power.

The hand-wrought works spotlight a variety of perspectives, techniques, and materials—from sugar to kevlar, fiber, clay, and beyond. They are composed using craft traditions passed down over generations, gifted from one hand to the next, as well as innovative and experimental processes. Whether woven, poured, or sculpted, the resulting, narrative-driven pieces are meticulously crafted testaments to lived experience. At a moment when so many stories and histories are under threat of being silenced or rewritten, these objects speak to ancestral wisdom, pain and perseverance, resistance, revelry and hope. They point to our shared humanity, and exemplify the roles that creativity and making play in both holding up a mirror to the moment and in envisioning new realities.

Cumulatively, they point to the delicate nature of community, an entity that both offers and requires steadfast protection and nurturing. In so doing, they invite all of us to consider: How might a single act, no matter the size, contribute to our collective future? And what might be possible when those acts come together?

Curated by Anna Carnick

Exhibition Producer, Tatjana Sprick

Exhibition Design, Chris Leeuw