FRIDAY TOP FIVE: MARCH 27, 2020

Read about artist resources, a $300,000 grant for the Renwick Gallery and ways to bring culture to your home.

1. The Windgate Foundation has donated $300,000 to create the Kenneth R. Trapp Acquisition Fund at the Renwick Gallery in honor of former curator-in-charge Ken Trapp who passed away in late October. The American Jewelry Forum's posting about it can be found here.

​​2. Cerf+ is conducting a national survey for studio-based artists and they have started a COVID-19 response fund, that you can contribute to here. Others have started to create artist resource lists, here are just a few:

• https://creative-capital.org/2020/03/13/list-of-arts-resources-during-the-covid-19-outbreak/
• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YLCAMoIjZTcW4em0Pzi_UIMVTv8TbQ-hlCSsx6UqfZM/edit
• https://www.americansforthearts.org/by-topic/disaster-preparedness/coronavirus-covid-19-resource-and-response-center
• https://www.wbur.org/artery/2020/03/24/grants-funds-resources-artists-nonprofits-covid-19-coronavirus?fbclid=IwAR2xuo4FCFLb_YeeQxvNeJh8nsxU8a5Jd98pqmtrGm2hwHMIy8wn5f0I3OQ

3. BBC covers "Bringing Arts and Culture into the Home" and craft organizations and artists around the world are doing just that.

• The Archie Bray is doing a live Broadcasts every week at 1PM. Stay posted on their instagram @archie_bray.
• Check out the online Pecha Kucha by 4 glass artists from the UK 
• NCECA Expo Artist Talks are on Instagram all this week and the sale goes online.
• Ceramic artist, Grayson Perry is getting his own TV show to encourage people to make art in their own home
• Garth Johnson, curator of the Everson Museum of Art, moves his class at Syracuse University online and opens it to the public.

4. The American Craft world lost an important advocate this week, Nanette Laitman of New York past away. She was an art collector and a philanthropist who supported the Museum of Art and Design for over 25 years and funded the Nanette Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art. This is one of America's most important craft art resources and a great listen. Many of the participating artists have received awards from the James Renwick Alliance. 


5. Both The House and The Congress have now passed a $2 trillion federal stimulus package with $232.5 million going toward the cultural economy. The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities will each be given $75 million, the Institute of Museum and Library Services will receive $50 million. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, will get $25 million and $7.5 million.

Let us know your #craftnews with @jracraft on Instagram or by emailing us at [email protected]. ​

---