Exhibition Highlights International Designer-Maker Movement

by Lauren Pelletier

Made in WNC is the first exhibition to examine how studios in Western North Carolina are participating in the international designer-maker movement. Curated and organized by The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design’s Assistant Director Marilyn Zapf, the show will open Friday, September 4, 2015, and run through January 9, 2016. The exhibition features work by twenty-four regional textile, ceramic, and furniture studios and four regional artists.

Since 2008, the designer-maker movement has established itself as new form of creative entrepreneurship defined by small-batch or limited-run scale of production, combining craft-based practice with new technology, and marketing to a design-based consumer. The studios and artists included in Made in WNC exemplify how designer-makers in this region are not only participating in this movement but at the forefront of innovation in new business models combining craft, design, and industry.

The included studios offer some of the trendiest and most desirable textiles, ceramics, and furniture for young consumers locally, nationally, and world-wide. Through lifestyle marketing strategies made possible by the Internet and social media, these regional designer-makers are able to reach a much wider audience than ever before.

For example, outdoor furniture company Blue Ridge Chair Works sells markets in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Netherlands. Asheville-based leather artisan and jeweler Billy Moore’s label Cause & Effect can be found through vendors such as Jack Spade and Club Monaco. Alex Matisse of East Fork Pottery recently collaborated with Calvin Klein Home on a series of large ceramic vessels.

“The rise of entrepreneurial studios run by designer-makers conjures a rarely-told story about craft’s role in the region. These studios are intelligently engaging with the craft and industrial legacies of the state to forge fresh creative businesses,” says CCCD Executive Director Stephanie Moore.

Made in WNC considers how the region’s legacy of craft and industrialization informs an international movement on a local level. While most designer-makers are educated first in design and acquire making skills in order to develop and produce their products, the studios in this region often start with a making background and cultivate design and business skills to compete in a design-based market.

While locals may be familiar with some of the studios included in the show, this exhibition offers the opportunity to reflect on how the practices that are developing fit into a wider context. “We are in a unique moment in history where the effects of deindustrialization combined with the rise of the Maker movement puts craft in the distinct position to readdress some of the longstanding craft-based binaries such as craft versus industry,” says exhibition curator Marilyn Zapf. “The rich history of this region in both craft and industry has created an ideal incubator for designer-maker studios to speak to this machine versus the hand paradigm, and re-envision how the two could relate in the future.”

The exhibition will also feature a series of rotating installations commissioned from North Carolina-based artists Libby O’Bryan, Daniel Johnston, Nava Lubelski, and Tom Shields. Like the studios, each artist has a unique and intimate connection to local industry. These installations provide critical context for understanding the themes of the exhibition and the connection between craft and industry more broadly.

Kicking off Labor Day weekend, the exhibition opening will be held on September 4, 2015, from 6-9 pm. In conjunction with this event, local craft-brewery Burial Beer Co. has created a special Made in WNC Belgian Table Beer made with local malt from Riverbend Malthouse and local pears from Stoney Hollow Farms to be released at the opening. Local instrument fabricators, Make Noise, will be showcasing their synthesizers by providing “musical furniture” throughout the event.

If You Go: Made in WNC on display at the Benchspace Gallery & Workshop at The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design, 67 Broadway Street, Asheville.
Exhibition Dates: September 4, 2015 – January 9, 2016
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am – 6 pm
Opening Reception: Friday, September 4, 2015, 6-9 pm
For more information, call 828-785-1357 or visit www.craftcreativitydesign.org/made-in-wnc.