Exhibits & Events

Part of CraftNOW’s Craft Month, Confluence: Teaching, Making, Ideation and Innovation is a group exhibition organized by guest curator Thora Jacobson, formerly the Executive Director of both the Philadelphia Art Alliance and the Fleisher Art Memorial. Featuring the work of Doug Bucci, Caroline Gore, Adela Akers, Anna Boothe, Dianne Koppisch Hricko, Matthew Courtney, Mei-ling Hom, Wendy Osterweil, Jon Clark, Jessica Jane Julius, and Susan Hagen, this exhibition celebrates the interconnectedness of local institutions and the influence of teaching artists on colleagues and contemporary makers.

Philadelphia has been a leader in craft and materials-based work since colonial times, and particularly with the growth of art schools over the past 200+ years. Critical to that reputation is the teaching and practicing artists who have influenced generations of students and apprentices. These ten artists have been invited to participate with work that is about both their teaching and personal practice and to consider how those joint practices intersect, align and diverge over time and circumstances. Confluence: Teaching, Making, Ideation and Innovation focuses on artists who have an impact, not just in art schools but also in the community and other settings, and not just in their material discipline. They range from new faculty to ACC fellows, and they are as distinguished as practitioners and innovators as they are mentors and masters.

Included in the exhibition are metalsmiths and jewelers Doug Bucci who teaches at Tyler School of Art, Temple University, and Caroline Gore, on the faculty at the University of the Arts; fiber artist, ACC fellow, and chair emeritus of fibers at Tyler School of Art, Adela Akers; glass artist Anna Boothe (formerly at Tyler School of Art and Salem County Community College; ceramic sculptor Matthew Courtney (adjunct faculty at Drexel University, Westphal College, University of Pennsylvania, UArts and Tyler); former ceramist and now an environmental artist, Mei-ling Hom; and sculptor Susan Hagen (Bucks County Community College).

This exhibition is part of CraftNOW’s Craft Month: a year-round, city-wide exhibition series with the 2018 theme as ‘Making a Difference’. This year’s theme shows visitors how discovering craft promotes positive change, social cohesion, and meaningful dialogue.