New Readings in Craft and Contemporary Art

This seminar focuses on the abundance of new scholarly research that examines craft within discourses of contemporary art and theory. A cross section of readings will be selected, but a special emphasis will be placed on those in which craft is the paradigm through which to explore issues of gender, sexuality, and race; cultural appropriation and decolonization; or fresh theoretical approaches to process, skill, and materiality. To name only three, we will read selections from InterCultural Threads: Transnational Textiles Today, Jenni Sorkin’s Live Form: Women, Ceramics, and Community, and Julia Bryan-Wilson’s Fray: Art and Textile Politics. Where it is necessary for context, we may also review some key historical texts. 3 credits.