​James Renwick Alliance for craft
​Chrysalis Award for Emerging Artists 

for emerging artists in mixed-media CRAFT
​- THE application PERIOD HAS ENDED- 
The Chrysalis Award was created by the James Renwick Alliance for Craft to support and inspire emerging craft artists in the United States. Eligible applicants are those who are in the early stages of their professional artistic careers—regardless of age—and who have completed their training within the past five years. This includes academic programs such as a BFA or MFA, as well as self-directed or alternative forms of study. Artists who have already been curated into major institutional exhibitions (such as at the Renwick Gallery) are not eligible.
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Ideal candidates demonstrate excellence in their work and a strong commitment to developing their practice in unique and dynamic ways.

Each year, the award focuses on a different medium. This year’s award will recognize an emerging artist working in mixed-media craft, defined as work that combines two or more craft materials or processes.

The recipient will receive a $5,000 unrestricted award, a one-year JRACraft membership, and the opportunity to present their work at a JRACraft event.
Thank you to Kathy Furlong and Amanda M. Phillips for generously sponsoring this year's award. 
Picture
Kristine Rumman, 2024 Chrysalis Awardee, Local, 2018, 10' x 30' x 28' Security glass, sheet glass, blown glass, fiberglass, aluminum, steel, palm plant, orange light, sand, sumac, fennel, cumin, turmeric, paprika, memory, and heritage with performer

2025 jurors

corey pemberton
Corey (American b. Reston, VA 1990) received his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2012. He has completed residencies at The Pittsburgh Glass Center (PA), Bruket (Bodø, NO), Alfred University (NY), as well as a Core Fellowship at the Penland School of Crafts (NC). He has exhibited work at the Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art (CA), The Contemporary Museum of Art in Raleigh (NC), and has work in the permanent collections of The Museum of Art and Design (NY), The Boston Museum of Fine Art (MA), and The Chrysler Museum of Art (VA). 

Pemberton currently resides in Los Angeles, California where he splits his time between the nonprofit arts organization Crafting the Future, painting, and his glass practice. He strives to bring together people of all backgrounds and identities, breaking down stereotypes and building bridges; not only through his work with Crafting The Future but with his personal artistic practice as well. 
perry price
Perry Price is the executive director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts on Deer Isle, Maine. Prior to joining Haystack, he served as executive director of the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in Houston, Texas, as director of education for the American Craft Council in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as curator of exhibitions and collections for the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts, and has served on the board of the Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF+).

​He received a BA in the History of Art from Johns Hopkins University and an MA in Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum Studies, State University of New York Oneonta and the New York State Historical Association. He is a scholar of contemporary studio craft, material culture, decorative arts, and design.
jennifer chrzanowski
Jennifer Chrzanowski is the Executive Director of Fuller Craft Museum. Prior to joining Fuller Craft, Chrzanowski served as Deputy Director—and in 2024, Interim Director—of the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland where she spearheaded the museum’s highly successful 3-day juried Craft Show, which brought together artists from across the country and attracted broad regional attention. Her curatorial work includes The Subversive Thread, named one of Bmore Art’s top five exhibitions of fall 2024 for its bold exploration of contemporary embroidery and craft.

Earlier in her career, Chrzanowski was the Founding Director of DNJ Gallery in Los Angeles, where she curated acclaimed exhibitions featuring artists such as Joe Goode, Eileen Cowin, Jo Ann Callis, and Bill Owens. She holds a BFA in film, photography, and electronic media from the University of Illinois at Chicago and an MA in photography from Columbia College Chicago.

2024 Glass: Kristine rumman

Kristine is a Palestinian-American glass artist who creates sculpture, performance, and installations that act as temporary fugitives in search of home. Captivated by compositions of architecture, her work maneuvers mirror and reflection to track, surveil, guide, and comply with its viewers. 

​Born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, the birthplace of the Studio Glass Movement, she is currently based in Brooklyn, NY and holds an MFA in Sculpture from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia, PA, as well as a BFA from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Kris has shown at many venues including Urban Glass and Art Week Miami. She was the recipient of the Saxe Emerging Artist Award from the Glass Arts Society in 2019, and was most recently awarded a residency at Sculpture space, where she plans to create an immersive public art installation.

This award was sponsored by JRACraft.

2023 FIBER: KRYSTLE LEMONIAS

Grounded in the principles of painting and sculpture, Krystle Lemonias' stitched tapestries combine intricate woodblock printing with an array of post consumer textiles to depict a contemporary narrative of care work through the lens of Black immigrant women. With her background as a Jamaican born immigrant and experience as a former care worker, Lemonias depicts the complication of what’s gained and lost in resilience.

​Lemonias earned her MFA at the University of South Florida in 2022. She has completed artist residencies at Aferro Gallery, Guttenberg Arts, and most recently at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey. In addition to her studio practice, Lemonias is a co-creator and co-host of The Hidden Critique, a podcast to support young artists of color navigating MFA programs to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education. 

A special thank you to Chris Rifkin for sponsoring this year's Chrysalis Award.

2022 WOOD: MORGAN HILL

Morgan Hill is a sculptor and jewelry designer whose work draws on a wide range of aesthetic and conceptual influences from 90's pop culture, cult films, and costume design, to her traditional Southern upbringing. Her longing to break the silence surrounding culturally censured topics drives her to create work on themes of death, abuse, depression, and suicide, as well as their counterparts of rebirth, healing, and empowerment. On the lighter side, her jewelry brand Bad Habits by Morgan Hill celebrates the pleasure of excess and indulged desires. 

Hill was a Core Fellow at the Penland School of Craft from 2015-2017. In 2018, she was an ITE Windgate Fellow at the Center for Art in Wood. Her work is carried in galleries across the US and internationally. She creates her work at Treats Studios in Spruce Pine, NC, a studio cooperative she co-founded.

This award was generously sponsored by Brenda Erickson and Barbara Wolanin.

2021 Metal: Rachel David

This year, the Alliance is proud to support Rachel David who represents a change in the future of metalworking. Her expressive work and support for women in blacksmithing signifies our support not only for her but also her effort to affirm in a gender-biased field that “skill and craftsmanship are superior to brute force.”

​Rachel David received a Bachelor of Arts from Evergreen State College in 2004 and has continued her studies through workshops at Penland School of Craft, John C. Campbell School of Craft, Nunez Community College and Haywood Community College where she recently received a machining certification. In 2019, she was featured in 40 Under 40: The Next Generation of American Metal Artists at the Metal Museum in Memphis, TN and received the Smithsonian Craft Show’s Best in Show Award and the Artists Gold Choice Award. In addition to her artistic practice, David is a founding member of the Society of Inclusive Blacksmiths which supports inclusivity through mentorship, support and scholarships. 

Our deepest gratitude to JRACraft member, Stan Asrael, for sponsoring this year’s award.

2020 CERAMICS: KATE ROBERTS

"My practice is a meditation on time and its role in the decay of objects and memories.  Inspiration is drawn from historical objects, the architecture around me, or a personal relationship.  The physical properties of my materials - parched, cracked clay and vitreous porcelain - at once delicate and dense emulate states of decay in nature yet are built and mended by hand. This contradiction, of meticulously crafting the ravages of time, is at the foundation of my work."

"I was impressed by the wide range of work presented by these ceramic artists.  They presented complex views rooted in materiality and process, unique and diverse global traditions, varieties of techniques and skills that bridged ancient processes with science and technology. So many had personal stories to tell that revealed the multicultural and hybrid fabric of this country." - 2020 Juror, Ibrahim Said

A special thank you to Rebecca Ravenal for sponsoring this year's Chrysalis Award.

In light of the ongoing pandemic, the Alliance raised additional funds to award three Awards of Excellence. These artists include Maxwell Mustardo, Eliza Au, and Chris M. Rodgers.

2019 Mixed media: Richard james

Richard W. James creates large-scale surreal figures out of meticulously crafted earthenware and found objects. Influenced by his upbringing in rural Tennessee and the craft skills handed down from his parents and grandparents, James’ often unsettling contemporary ceramic sculptures incorporate the materials and processes he associates with the informative years of his life to question the cultural lenses in which he grew up.

​​“The jurors were impressed with James’ superb craftsmanship but ultimately it was his unique vision and voice that captured our attention. We were delighted to have strong interest in the Chrysalis award from all over the United States this year, with a record number of applications, demonstrating vibrancy in the craft field” -  former JRA President, Michele Manatt 

​Thank you to JRACraft member, Pati Young, for sponsoring this years award!

2018 Glass: Dean Allison

"Dean described his work as a documentation of human form, an exploration into the ways we perceive others and a study of portraiture in studio glass. Using a combination of old and new processes and materials, he aims to capture a moment in time. He is especially interested in understanding individuals through an analysis of subtle gesture, physical attributes and the immediate perceptions those attributes spark. He described how glass is the perfect medium for him, since it has characteristics common to people: it is transparent, opaque, fragile, broken, sharp, incompatible, rough, polished and colorful." - JRA Board Member and Chrysalis Committee Chair, Nikki O'Neill

​This award was sponsored by JRACraft.

2016 Fiber: Shea Wilkinson 

"I work primarily with free motion quilting, which allows me the capability of not only forming the texture of the piece, but also the imagery and narrative, using a needle and thread. I use quilting as the anchor for my enthusiasms through different bodies of work, from extraterrestrial to natural worlds, from mythical to the scientific." - Shea Wilkinson, 2016 Awardee

We thank our many supporters, especially Darcy Walker, who so graciously funded our initial grant award.

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JAMES RENWICK ALLIANCE FOR CRAFT | 5335 WISCONSIN AVENUE NW #440 WASHINGTON DC 20015 | ​301.907.3888 | [email protected]