Namita Gupta Wiggers
Program Director, Core Faculty
nwiggers@warren-wilson.edu
(828) 771-2050
Namita Gupta Wiggers is a curator, educator, and writer based in Portland, Oregon. She is the Director of the Master of Arts in Craft Studies, Warren Wilson College, a new low-residency program focused on craft history and theory. Wiggers also directs Critical Craft Forum, an online and onsite platform for dialogue and exchange about craft, including a Facebook Group, iTunes podcast, blog, and annual sessions at College Art Association (2010-19).
Wiggers taught courses on theory of objects, history of graphic design, contemporary craft and theory, and curating through craft at Oregon College of Art + Craft, Pacific Northwest College of Art, and Portland State University from 2014-2017. In 2016, she conducted workshops on "Exhibition History as Craft History" organized by Dr. Damian Skinner and Creative New Zealand.
From 2004-14, Wiggers served as the Curator and Director (2012-14) of Museum of Contemporary Craft, where she curated and organized more than 65 exhibitions, hundreds of programs, commissioned critical writing for online and print projects including experiments with interactivity and performance such as: "Touching Warms the Art," an interactive jewelry exhibition and collection-building project; "Object Focus: The Bowl," and "Gestures of Resistance," curated by Shannon Stratton and Judith Leemann. Collection activation projects included: "The Living Room," "Era Messages," "Collateral Matters," and "Land Art: David Shaner." Exhibitions focused on undocumented studio craft histories include: "Generations: Ken Shores," "Generations: Betty Feves," and "Laurie Herrick: Weaving Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow." Intersections between art, craft and design include: “Manufractured: The Conspicuous Transformation of Everyday Objects,” curated by Steven Skov Holt and Mara Holt Skov. MoCC was the first museum on the West Coast to host a solo exhibition of ceramics by Ai Weiwei, design work by Emily Pilloton, and the papercuts of Nikki McClure.
She lectures and contributes writing to academic, museum, and conference contexts across the US and abroad. Recent curatorial projects include: ROLODEX: Craft a Conversation; Everything Has Been Material for Scissors to Shape, Wing Luke Museum of Asian American Experience, Seattle, Washington; and Across the Table, Across the Land with Michael Strand for NCECA/Charlotte Street Project, Kansas City, Kansas.
Wiggers serves on the Board of Directors of Haystack Mountain School of Craft, Maine, as an editor-at-large for Crafts (UK), and on the Advisory Committee for the Journal of Modern Craft. She served as the Exhibition Reviews Editor, Journal of Modern Craft (2014-18), on the editorial boards of Garland and Norwegian Crafts, and has served on the boards of the American Craft Council and the Center for Craft. Residencies include: Artist-in-Residence, Haystack Mountain School of Craft; Writer-in-Residence, University of Oregon; Visiting Scholar, IASPIS; curatorial fellowship with Norwegian Crafts; and artist residencies at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Ox-Bow School of Art; and University of Oregon Summer Residency.
www.namitawiggers.com
Jessie Shires
Program Coordinator
jshires@warren-wilson.edu
(828) 771-3026
As Program Coordinator, Jessie handles most of the administrative, logistical, and operational details of the program, working closely with Namita as well as program faculty, mentors, students, alumni, and the greater Warren Wilson community. She connects people with resources, anticipates needs before they make themselves known, asks the right questions, and puts together a mean spreadsheet. An enthusiastic generalist, she is delighted to find her work home here, where her professional experience, life learnings, and personal interests converge.
After earning her BA at Warren Wilson, she went on to an eleven-year career in healthcare, serving the bulk of that time as a Paramedic in a busy urban 911 system. EMS hones the skills of observation, inquiry, and synthesis, and on the ambulance, she learned to respond decisively to problems mundane and exotic, with limited resources and often at the highest possible stakes.
After returning to Western North Carolina, Jessie took on the challenges of Asheville’s signature industry, working as a fine-dining server, craft cocktail bartender, and restaurant manager. COVID-related closures and a little sprinkling of serendipity led her to MACR.
Beyond her resume, she has also been deeply shaped by the land wherever her feet touch ground, drawn to all manner of handwork, and nourished by the wise, wry, and wondrous words of more authors that she can count. She is most inspired when exploring unexpected connections and boundaries, and always looking for the next delicious surprise.
Nathan Wyrick
Director of Admission
nwyrick@warren-wilson.edu
(828) 771-5824
Nathan Wyrick is a 2014 graduate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Tufts University MFA program and a co-founder of the Boston based Petrichor Performance Collective. He has exhibited and performed throughout the US and Europe, most notably at the Piano Craft Gallery (Boston, MA), Panoply Performance Laboratory (Brooklyn, NY), Mobius (Cambridge, MA), Pacific Northwest College of Art (Portland, OR), and the Tempting Failure Festival (London, England). He is the recipient of grants through the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture & the Boston Arts Commission, the New Center for Arts and Culture and Combined Jewish Philanthropies, and a Post Graduate Teaching Fellowship award from the SMFA. He is currently based in Asheville, NC.
