About this Event
Kick off Spring Craft Weekend with a free, welcoming symposium featuring presentations and conversation with JRACraft’s 2026 Honorees: Piper Shepard, Winnie Owens-Hart, Keke Cribbs, Thomas Loeser, and Bruce Pepich. Come for fresh perspectives, compelling stories, and the chance to experience contemporary craft as both living practice and cultural history.
HONOREE SPEAKERS
Piper Shepard (fiber)
For several decades, Piper Shepard has cut cloth into lace-like filigree patterns, sometimes regimented in structure and other times akin to freehand drawing. The central concept for her work is ‘the ethereal textile’. In both her architecturally sited projects and studio pieces, she conjures sources such as lace, open work textiles, botanical imagery, and remnants of pattern and ornament. Her method is informed equally by the qualities of cloth—among them, the physical tolerance of the material itself—and the rich domain where cloth intersects with its own place in history and memory.
Winnie Owens-Hart (Ceramics)
Winnie Owens-Hart is a ceramicist, educator, filmmaker, and author specializing in ceramics and culture. Owens-Hart’s handbuilt pottery often explores women’s issues. She began her professional ceramics career in the 1970s and opened her first studio in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1972. In 1977, she represented the United States at FESTAC in Lagos, Nigeria, and later apprenticed with Indigenous potters in Ipetumodu, becoming part of the pottery community. She has produced documentary films, including Style & Technique-Four Pottery Villages and The Traditional Potters of Ghana-The Women of Kuli.
Kéké Cribbs (Glass)
Kéké Cribbs is known for reverse painting vitreous enamels on glass and crafting intricate reverse-fired enamel mosaics, often incorporating complementary materials such as ceramics, metal, fiber, painted wood, and sculptural concrete in both two- and three-dimensional mixed media works. Her vibrant, luminous pieces range from narrative wall works and glass mosaic boats with sculptural elements to more abstract, meditative compositions that explore light, reflection, and the dreamlike journey of life.
Thomas Loeser (Metal/jewelry)
Tom Loeser has spent his career creating furniture that works like puzzles. His chests and wall cabinets invite us to open the drawers and to figure out how the pieces work. The carved and painted surfaces lead the eye in different directions, creating an optical experience that goes beyond the simple form of the piece. Loeser was trained to be a skilled craftsman, but he prefers to create furniture that is more playful than impressive, offering his viewers a chance to check their "furniture reflexes."
Bruce Pepich
Bruce W. Pepich is the former Executive Director and Curator of Collections of the Racine Art Museum (RAM) and the Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts. During 51 years on staff, he led the museum through a series of strategic initiatives, beginning in 1981, that achieved regional and then national attention for the institution. RAM is now regarded as one of the nation’s leading centers for contemporary craft, with the permanent collection growing from 326 pieces to over 14,000 works in that time. Bruce is a published writer and has served as a juror for over 150 national and international art competitions and fellowship awards including the US Artists and Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Awards and the Cotsen Prize for Bamboo Basketry. In 2012, he was inducted as an Honorary Fellow into the American Craft Council’s (ACC) College of Fellows and upon retiring in 2025, was awarded the title Founding Director Emeritus, Racine Art Museum. He currently serves on the ACC’s Board of Trustees.
Learn more about the Symposium and other Spring Craft Weekend events at our website! With three days of programming, there is an opportunity for everyone to get involved.
Your registration for the Symposium on Eventbrite is valid solely for entry to the Symposium and does not guarantee entry to other Spring Craft Weekend events. You can register for other events on the Spring Craft Weekend webpage and learn more about other JRACraft programs at jracraft.org!
Casual attire. Limited on-street parking at meters; several paid parking garages are available in the neighborhood. We recommend entering on G Street to access McEvoy Auditorium.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Smithsonian American Art Museum, 8th Street Northwest, Washington, United States
USD 0.00
