Great Programs in Portland (MCC + PNCA + NGW)

In the past two days, the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, OR, and their curator, Namita Gupta Wiggers, have announced two awesome programs that make me fantasize about moving to the Left Coast.

First, I heard the MCC has made free podcasts available of dozens of interviews, lectures, and exhibition walk-thrus. Listen to Otto Nazler, Glenn Adamsom, Denyse Schmidt, Mandy Greer, and many more. You can listen online or download them to iTunes, all for free.

This is a GREAT resource for the craft, art, and design worlds, no matter where in the world you live.

Then today I found out Gupta Wiggers, whom I admire a lot, is going to be offering a course this fall titled "History + Theory of American Craft" at the Pacific Northwest College of Art (which recently merged with the MCC). I would love to take that class, or at least hear the conversations it sparks.

(I'm not even sure if there's anything else like it in other U.S. colleges. If you know otherwise, please post a comment!)

The MCC has some really good-sounding exhibitions on view now, too, including Call + Response which "provides a rare platform for artists and art historians to engage with each with other in dynamic conversation."

I really like how the MCC is directly engaging with the need for different parts of the craft world to dialogue, and to reach beyond the realm of craft (i.e. art, design, academics) for important broader conversations.

They are also doing a good job of letting people know what they're up to through their newsletters and Facebook updates.

And even though I haven't actually visited (yet!), I am constantly excited and inspired by the work the MCC is doing. It gives me a feeling of gratitude and hope. I hope other institutions are taking notes!


P.S.
Not that I'm counting, but this is my 700th blog post. Woot!

Posted by Amy Shaw for Greenjeans.
Image: Namita Gupta Wiggers (l) and Fiberarts editor Marci Rae McDade strike a pose before Darrel Morris’s emboridered piece, Pointing (2002). By Heather Zinger via Museum of Contemporary Craft.

Admiring the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, OR

Today we received the latest newsletter from the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, Oregon.

I don't usually get so excited by a newsletter, but their exhibitions and programs all sound so creative and interesting, we wish we lived close by!

There's just something about the place that makes us feel like they're getting it right and doing something very important for the future of craft.

For example, one of their current exhibitions, The Living Room (closing March 23), offers a fresh take on how to present craft objects in a museum setting. Curated by Namita Wiggers, "objects in traditional museum cases are exhibited next to works incorporated into a constructed contemporary domestic setting. This third and final installation examines eco-modernism, linking eco-consciousness, a philosophy of re-use, an organic palette and the impact of Orientalist philosophy on mid-century modernism." It sounds absolutely fantastic!

If you're in or around Portland, make a point to check out the museum (and its brand new building) sometime and let us know about your experience. Or if you already love the MCC, leave a comment here to share with those of us who live far away what your favorite thing is about it.

You can sign up to receive their newsletter yourself here, and check out their wonderful website, www.museumofcontemporarycraft.org.

Posted by Amy Shaw. Image sourced from the newsletter and here.