Show explores crafts as a tool for care and community
A new exhibition at the Center for Craft shifts the focus from what craft is to what it does. Craft-itarianism: Community Action Through Craft brings together artists and nonprofits using making as a tool for healing, job creation, and community stability. The exhibition highlights projects working with individuals impacted by incarceration, addiction, and violence. Participating organizations and artists, including the People’s Pottery Project, Firebird Community Arts, and Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe), create spaces where craft becomes a shared process grounded in skill-building, connection, and care. Rather than centering finished objects, the work emphasizes impact. Clay, beadwork, and collaborative practices become pathways toward both personal and collective resilience. “As a curator, I’m interested in what art can do, not just what it represents,” 2026 Curatorial Fellow Alyssa Velazquez shares in a press statement. “When we invest in craft, we’re investing in people — their skills, their healing, and their ability to create stability for themselves and their communities.”
Craft-itarianism: Community Action Through Craft: Through September 27
Center for Craft / 67 Broadway St., Asheville / centerforcraft.org