participant-type
: Craft School
Located on the North Shore of Lake Superior, North House Folk School enriches lives and builds community by teaching traditional northern crafts. Founded in Grand Marais, Minnesota in 1997, North House hosts classes in over 18 teaching themes, from basketry to blacksmithing and timber framing to fiber arts.
As a folk school, North House emphasizes learning for the sake of learning in a non-competitive, supportive environment; over 90% of courses are open to complete beginners. Since its inception, North House has been a welcoming community hub, hosting a variety of events, public programming, and youth programs throughout every month of the year.
In addition to courses and events, North House also enriches the development of the next generation of craft artisans through an Artisan Development Program and Craft Education Internship. No matter the program, each experience at North House serves to inspire the hands, the heart, and the mind.
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The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts offers an inspiring array of visual, performing arts, and educational experiences. The Museum is committed to creating an inclusive cultural space for the community to engage with diverse artistic perspectives through the AMFA Foundation’s 14,000 object permanent collection, compelling temporary exhibitions, lively theatre, and enriching courses.
The mission of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts is to create an inclusive cultural space that inspires and builds community through the visual and performing arts. Serving the state of Arkansas and beyond, AMFA provides enriching experiences in the arts for all. Let your creativity flourish through instruction in diverse media, find inspiration through innovative programming, and experience art in new ways at Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts.
The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts is home to the Windgate Art School, offering studio instruction in drawing, painting, ceramics, glass, metals, woodworking, and more. Instruction is available for students of all ages and skill levels, with daytime and evening classes offered quarterly, as well as short-term and specialty workshops.
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Touchstone Center for Crafts is nestled within 230 acres of lush woodlands, just 60 miles south of Pittsburgh in the scenic Laurel Highlands. Our campus features fully equipped studios, professional exhibition galleries, on-site lodging, and is surrounded by towering trees, rushing streams, and the calming sights and sounds of nature—creating the ideal setting to explore, create, and expand your artistic skills.
In addition to our main campus, we are excited to expand programming into nearby Ohiopyle through Touchstone by the Falls—a new space designed to increase accessibility and foster deeper creative engagement throughout the region.
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Penland School of Craft is dedicated to helping people live creative lives. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, Penland offers one-, two-, and eight-week workshops in books and paper, clay, drawing, glass, iron, metals, photography, printmaking and letterpress, textiles, and wood. The school also offers artists’ residencies, community collaboration programs, and a gallery and information center.
The Penland Gallery & Visitor Center, located at the entrance of Penland School, serves as an inspiring introduction to contemporary craft. The gallery features curated exhibitions from March to December, showcasing the work of current and former Penland instructors, resident artists, and alumni from across the country. The Visitor Center Gallery provides a visual overview of Penland’s history and current programming, while the Lucy Morgan Sales Gallery showcases an impressive collection of functional and sculptural craft created by over one hundred fifty artists.
At Penland, craft involves continuous exploration of materials, techniques, and ideas. The gallery supports both the artists and their works, which embody this creative philosophy.
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Established in 1971, Contemporary Craft seeks to engage the public in creative experiences through craft by presenting innovative exhibitions featuring international, national, and regional artists; offering a range of hands-on workshops in their newly expanded studios; providng a variety of community engagement programming; and representing some of today’s best craft artists in their Store. Contemporary Craft supports regional and national artists through its Artists-in-Residence programs, providing access to their fully equipped studios, stipends, and for the National Artists-in-Residence free housing and a semi-private studio space.
In 2025, Contemporary Craft underwent a major expansion, doubling the organization’s size. This expansion included the creation of a new regional gallery, expanded metals and fibers studios, the re-introduction of a wood studio, and the introduction of a new urban blacksmithing studio. The expanded CC campus includes the Raphael Building and the new Timmons Studios.
Admission to Contemporary Craft’s exhibitions is always free, and the organization seeks to provide a variety of avenues for individuals to experience the joy of craft.
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Haystack connects people through craft.
The Haystack Mountain School of Crafts is an international craft school located on the Atlantic Ocean in Deer Isle, Maine. Founded in 1950 as a research and studio program in the arts, Haystack offers one and two-week studio workshops to participants of all skill levels as well as the two-week Open Studio Residency program, exhibitions, tours, auctions, artist presentations, and shorter workshops for Maine residents and high school students. In 2026, Haystack celebrates 75 years since the School’s founding.
We support visiting artists and scholars from a variety of fields, including science, literature, music, and the visual arts, who are invited to spend two weeks at the school focusing on their work. Haystack also functions as a ʻthink-tankʼ in looking at craft—publishing annual monographs and organizing a variety of conferences and symposia that examine craft in broader contexts. These include collaborations with other institutions such as the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution. The award-winning campus was designed by noted American architect Edward Larrabee Barnes and opened in 1961 when the school relocated to Deer Isle.
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Project Threadways is a 501(c)(3) organization that documents, studies, and interprets history, community, and power through the lens of fashion and textiles.
From raw material to finished goods, we seek to understand the impact of textiles on our community, nation, and world.
In partnership with Alabama Chanin and The School of Making, we connect people, places, and materials through design, making, and education—with cultural heritage, craft preservation, and creative placemaking at the core of our work.
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Worcester Center for Crafts
Founded in 1856, the Worcester Center for Crafts (WCC) is the nation’s oldest nonprofit craft center, dedicated to cultivating creativity and community through the arts. Originally established to provide skills for immigrant women, WCC now offers classes and workshops in ceramics, glass, metals, fiber, printmaking, healing arts, painting, photography, and more for students of all ages and abilities.
Home to the Krikorian Gallery, the Mary and Van Aroian Community Gallery, and the Handcrafted Shop, WCC also supports artists in sharing their work. The craft center hosts signature events such as Hot Night in the City and the Holiday Festival of Crafts, connecting local and national artists with the community.
With its rich history and welcoming spirit, WCC continues to serve as a cultural destination, creative hub, and vital contributor to the New England community.
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We offer private instruction, after school classes and summer camps for kids and adults. Our mission is to pass on and preserve traditional handwork skills like weaving, sewing, knitting, crocheting and needle felting.
At the FiberArt.STUDIO we are passionate about nurturing creativity and providing a supportive environment for creative expression, with a big dose of mindfulness. Since 2016 our studio is a place where both kids and adults can explore traditional and contemporary handwork and fiber arts. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced maker, there is something for everyone to explore and enjoy in our studio in the woods.
Our director Anja Seehrich-Caldwell is also an architect and designer. She comes from a long German family line of makers in the textile trades.
Getting a beginner hooked on yarn and combining traditional techniques with new designs is her passion and skillset.
Phones, glue and glitter are not allowed in the studio. If we can not sew it we do not want it.
Read about Anja Caldwell’s creative journey in the spring issue of Where Women Create Magazine
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The Corning Museum of Glass is an independent, not-for-profit museum dedicated to the exploration and exhibition of glass.
Since its founding in 1951, the museum has grown to steward the world’s most comprehensive and important collection of glass objects, including: contemporary sculptural marvels from artists like Dale Chihuly, Lino Tagliapietra, and Toots Zynsky; groundbreaking scientific innovations like the 200-inch telescope lens casting; and 35 centuries of glass and glassmaking.
The Museum welcomes over 300,000 annual visitors, offering daily live demonstrations and glassmaking experiences for all ages. The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass uses state-of-the-art glassmaking spaces to advance glassmaking education and support new ideas, forwarding the world of glass art, and the Rakow Research Library maintains and grows a record of glass history while supporting today’s researchers.
The museum strives in all aspects to achieve its mission of inspiring people to see glass in a new light.
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Nestled in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Floyd Center for the Arts is a vibrant hub for creativity, learning, and community. Established in 1995 on the site of a former 1940s dairy farm, the Center has transformed the historic barn and surrounding buildings into galleries, classrooms, and working studios that serve artists and the public alike. Today, the campus offers exhibitions, workshops, and free community events that bring people together through the arts, including the annual Floyd Living Traditions Festival, which celebrates the region’s rich heritage of art, craft, and music. Through art education for all ages and abilities, scholarships, and a welcoming environment, the Center ensures that everyone has the opportunity to see, learn, and create!
Mission Statement:
The Floyd Center for the Arts connects people through visual arts, handmade craft, and music – honoring living traditions while embracing innovation.
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The Denton Maker Center, a non-profit organization, strives to be the central location for creative making in the greater North Texas region. This is accomplished by providing activities and resources that nurture a community of makers. Activities include workshops (both in-person and online), exhibitions, sales, open studio times, and related special events. Resources include tools/equipment, expertise of personnel, safe workspace, exhibition space, and a retail store. Generation of public interest and appreciation is accomplished through promotion of these activities and resources through personal networking, social media, website, print materials, and shared distribution by aligned institutions.
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The Cowboy Trades Association (CTA) is a coalition of master artisans, cultural advocates, and heritage organizations working to preserve the living traditions of the American West—while building new opportunities for the future.
Our Roots
- Founded in 2023 under the fiscal sponsorship of Vista 360° (Jackson, WY)
- Born from a partnership with the Jackson Hole History Museum
- Created by artisans featured in the inaugural Saddle Up! exhibit
What We Do
- Exhibitions – Touring Saddle Up! Western Handmade Art & Gear to museums and cultural centers, featuring 60+ artisans across Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado
- Education – Hosting hands-on workshops with masters like:
- Keith Seidel – Saddlemaking (Cody, WY)
- Christy Sing Robertson – Hatmaking (Jackson, WY)
- Amy Erickson – Silversmithing (Evanston, WY)
- Preservation & Innovation – Documenting artisan techniques through video and oral histories, and creating new pathways for apprenticeships, entrepreneurship, and rural job growth
- Equity in Opportunity – Supporting apprentices from all walks of life—ranch kids, veterans, recent graduates, and career changers—so that the trades are open to anyone with the passion to learn
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BARN (Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network) is a regional center for craft on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Our dedicated volunteers and staff provide fun, welcoming spaces where everyone can explore creativity, learn new skills, work with others, and give back to the community.
BARN operates eleven member-run studios spanning woodworking, glass arts, fiber arts, metal fabrication, culinary arts, jewelry making, and more. Since opening our 25,000-square-foot facility in 2017, we’ve grown to serve over 1,400 members with 2,700+ classes and events annually. BARN’s mission centers on growing and inspiring creative community through craft, learning, and service.
Beyond skill-building, BARN members actively contribute to the region through dozens of community service projects—from building furniture for at-risk youth to preparing meals for community events. We believe everyone can be creative, and we offer comprehensive tuition assistance and programming designed to remove barriers to participation. Whether someone is a complete beginner or seasoned artisan, BARN provides the tools, expertise, and supportive community to help creativity flourish.
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Brooklyn Metal Works (BKMW) is a non-ferrous metal art studio that offers professional workspace for the development of art, objects, and jewelry. In addition we offer concept and technique based classes and workshops for all levels of learning. Our exhibition space and artist lecture series promotes artists, designers and makers from the metalsmithing field and beyond. Our studio prioritizes creating a safe and sustainable working and learning environment, complete with a wide inventory of tools and equipment. Responsible studio practices and stewardship of resources are at the core of our vision.
Our collaborative setting is designed to foster exploration, encourage experimentation, and strengthen the knowledge base of all involved. Brooklyn Metal Works promotes and furthers critical dialogue among those who practice, write, and invest time and energy into the field of jewelry and metalsmithing.
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