In the Making: Craft, Community, & Art Education in the Valley of the Sun

This year-long collaboration engages K–12 art teachers, recent alumni, and current students from Arizona State University’s Art Education program in exploring how values of craft—ritual, history, material, reinvention, skill, rhythm, concentration, and storytelling—shape both creative and teaching practices. Through hands-on textile-making, reflective writing, and dialogue, participants investigate the intersections of artmaking, pedagogy, and identity. By centering ASU-affiliated educators as makers and storytellers, the project highlights craft as a framework for professional reflection and community-building across generations of teachers. The initiative culminates in a collaborative exhibition at ASU’s School of Art, showcasing textile works, written reflections, and public engagement that celebrate the role of craft in education and illuminate its power to connect creative practice with classroom teaching.

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Part of the Mesa Arts Center, Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum is a visual arts space dedicated to the presentation, interpretation, collection and preservation of contemporary art, with a special focus on traditional media. Committed to showcasing outstanding regional, national and international exhibitions, the museum supports and elevates artists from around the world through solo, group and juried exhibitions.

Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum fosters community engagement through artist talks and enriching educational experiences for all.

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The Sonoran Glass School is a public-access educational center for glass art. Our mission is to actively engage established and emerging artists of all ages and abilities in the glass arts and to teach a full range of glass-working techniques. Our facility offers four studios for the many types of glass-working including kiln forming, glass blowing, torch working, and coldworking. We strive to share our passion and knowledge for the glass arts with the public through educational classes, experiences, seminars, and community events.

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