In the Maxwell/Hanrahan Awards in Craft, we recognize award winners for their unique and visionary approach to material-based practice, stewardship of cultural traditions and craft's potential to connect people, places and ideas. Exploration and insight require time and commitment. Through this award, the Foundations seeks to make both possible for devoted craftspeople and artists who strive to express what they see and experience in the world through their engagement with material. We provide groundbreaking support for practitioners who are challenging and reimagining our collective understanding of craft as a medium and practice, at a critical juncture in their career. We recognize that arts funding, especially for craftspeople, is lacking in the US, and we encourage others to commit to these fields.
These are one-time, unrestricted awards intended to amplify the voices and work of each craftsperson and give them time and funding as they grow in their careers and propel their work forward.
The program’s newest cohort features recipients working in glass, wood, clay and metal, reflecting the diversity of disciplines encompassed by craft. They were selected by a committee of panelists for their visionary approach to material-based practice, their potential to make significant contributions to their craft in the future, and the potential for this award to provide momentum at a critical juncture. We aim to recognize the vibrancy of the field and the importance of these artists’ varied, hands-on explorations of cultural heritage, emerging technologies, materials and trades, and the intersections between them.
The foundation partnered with United States Artists to administer the program. The selection panelists included Malene Djenaba Barnett, multidisciplinary artist, designer and community builder; Christine Lee, interdisciplinary artist and designer and 2022 Maxwell/Hanrahan Award in Craft Winner; Michelle Millar Fisher, Ronald C. and Anita L. Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Ellen Wieske, deputy director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. Self-nominations for the awards are not accepted.
Read the full press release here.
Learn more about the 2023 winners and their work below, and read more details about each winner on our blog.
Adebunmi Gbadebo
Adebunmi Gbadebo is a multimedia artist who uses culturally and historically imbued materials such as indigo dye, soil hand-dug from plantations and human Black hair collected throughout the diaspora to investigate the complexities between land, matter and memory on various sites of slavery.
Aspen Golann
Aspen Golann is a furniture maker, artist and educator whose work draws from the intersections of iconic American furniture practices, identity politics and contemporary craft. Reflecting a commitment to inclusive education, she has helped create new pathways for marginalized makers to engage with traditional craft practices.
Blain Snipstal
Blain Snipstal is a timber framer and worker-owner of Earth-Bound Building, a collective specializing in timber framing, natural building and custom carpentry. Drawing on over a decade of experience in agriculture and land-based organizing, he works closely with his communities to create infrastructure that is environmentally friendly, beautiful and sustainable.
Leo Tecosky
Leo Tecosky is a glassblower whose practice cross-pollinates techniques and reorganizes traditions using principles of the hip hop canon, synthesizing traditional glassblowing, graffiti and the methodology of sampling and remixing to create new works in glass that simultaneously spring from and add to the ethos of hip hop culture.
Shane R. Hendren
Shane R. Hendren is a multidisciplinary artist recognized for his intricate jewelry and metal work which honors the culture and traditions of his Navajo and European ancestors. Understanding his work as vessels for knowledge and histories, his practice has recently incorporated new mediums and techniques such as film and 3D printing.