Craft Alliance
Upon arrival at Craft Alliance, I was delighted to see how clean, open and bright the space was. From the door, you could see the metals and wood studios to the left, the printmaking, welcome desk, gallery and shop to the right and the fibers studio at the end of the hall. The walls to the outside are filled with large windows and the walls between the studios and the main lobby are all glass so the whole space is filled with natural light.
I met with Grant Benoit who is the Educations Director and also manages the artist in residence program. We talked in the main hall about the program, the area and the residents. Grant was very welcoming and knowledgeable about the ins and outs of Craft Alliance. We spoke about the multitude of opportunities that are available to the residents throughout the 11 months they are there including shows, community involvement, guest artist workshops, opportunities to teach and take part in classes, assistance in professional development, support in evolving and developing their work, and options for exploration of adding different media aspects to they’re bodies of work. At the end of each residency, Craft Alliance brings in a professional art photographer to capture the resident’s work and prints beautiful booklets for the end of residence Artist-in-Residence Exhibition.
What stuck out to me during our talk was how much additional work and passion they put in to go above and beyond providing opportunities and stellar spaces for each artist coming in to Craft Alliance for classes, workshops, lectures, shows and residencies.
I was struck by the high level of cleanliness and organization of each studio space. The organization I observed could not be done by just one excellent studio manager (and it was clear that there was indeed one such present), but from a community of caring and considerate artists using and respecting the space.
Walking through I got to chat with a couple artists who were in the metal and ceramics studio during open studio time and they were all smiles. Craft Alliance seems like a very positive space to create.
