We are working to ensure that the AAPI Craft Directory remains an active and accessible resource for the community. Details forthcoming.

Let’s build an
AAPI Craft Directory

We are developing a directory of self-identified Asian American and Pacific Islanders working through craft today. This project is a directory and a tool: what conversations come next? How does research catalyze community, action, and visibility? 

The directory was introduced as part of our exhibition, ROLODEX. Craft a Conversation, which was on display at the Center for Craft from June 4 - August 20, 2021. Though that exhibition has closed, the directory continues to build.

Why focus on Asian American and Pacific Islanders working through craft? 

According to the Pew Research Center, Asian Americans are one of the fastest growing groups in the US since 2000. Despite nearly 23 million Asian American in the US population, a recent study by Leading Asian Americans to Unite for Change (LAAUNCH) found that 58% of their respondents could not name a prominent Asian American (Hint: Vice President Kamala Harris). 

Drawing inspiration from the Black Power Movement, students at the University of California, Berkeley are credited with unifying pan-Asian groups under the term “Asian American” in the 1960s. This grouping deliberately rejected the outdated, geographically-based, and problematic term “Oriental.” 

In the 1980s, the U.S. Census expanded the category, combining Asian American and Pacific Islanders. Today, this governmentally-determined grouping feels too broad to many, as it includes more than 20 countries and thousands of Pacific Islands, each with unique histories, cultures, languages, and craft histories.

We want this project to catalyze conversations. This directory is intended to be a conversation starter to bring people of AAPI heritage together.

If you are working through craft and of AAPI heritage, we hope you’ll add your information.

If you are a craft researcher, please consider this directory a tool for making connections. Instead of reading about us, talk directly with us to understand who we are, what we make, and how we shape American Craft. 

EXHIBITION and BACKGROUND

As part of the program partnership between our MA in Critical Craft Studies at Warren Wilson College and The Center for Craft, we were developing an exhibition to be on public view from May 28 - Aug 20, 2021 at the Center’s location in downtown Asheville, NC.

The world has shifted since we began planning this exhibition — so we shifted too.

This project is different from our original plans and centers, instead, on Asian and Pacific American communities, with both a visual component — photos of AAPI craftspeople in community and conversation with one another — as well as a more permanent digital Directory of AAPI craftspeople and craft organizations. Visit the Center for Craft’s website to learn more about the exhibition.

We chose not to represent our global majority through a small set of objects, or to focus on trauma and violence. This project aims to catalyze the present and the future. Within our program, we will engage the Directory as an ongoing resource for research and connection, and we hope craft researchers and enthusiasts will join us.

It CENTERS our communities.
This is a spatial and virtual gathering to catalyze more: more ways to come together, to be visible to one another, to see ourselves in all our complexities. We need to see ourselves to be able to understand and build our narratives, to include multi-racial and LGBTQIA people in contemporary craft histories.

It centers our COMMUNITIES.
To quote Ocean Vuong,  “No one celebrates themselves alone. It’s never one person in the spotlight…”

It centers OUR communities. 
“Be prepared to be unfathomable to the rest of the world,” Vuong said.
“We need you, and we are ready for you.”

Let’s create a resource and research tool to build our “fathomable” future in craft.

Please share the link to this webpage to friends and colleagues who may be interested in participating, or visit us at @macraftstudieswwc on Instagram to link to the project and to share the invitation.

With appreciation,

Namita Gupta Wiggers (she/her/hers)
Director | Master of Arts in Critical Craft Studies | Warren Wilson College