2020
Winter
In February, Corey Pemberton and Cedric Mitchell organize the first Better Together event in Los Angeles, CA. Better Together is an event series celebrating and supporting the careers of newly and firmly established BIPOC makers by hosting events that feature black and brown artists, performers, and entrepreneurs.
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YAYA fiscally sponsors Crafting the Future and we launch our membership program on February 14th, 2020.
Spring
We were awarded a grant from The John and Robyn Horn Foundation to send 4 artists to Penland School of Craft!
Summer
Painting of George Floyd by Laila James of YAYA.
In the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the incredible uprising of protests in the pursuit of justice for the horrific treatment of Black folk in our society, our CTF community overwhelmingly grew. CTF membership rose from 50 to 1500 donors in a matter of months because every one of our members wanted to take action on the ground level and change the systems of racism and transform disparity of social and economic support for Black and Brown people to a more equal and representational system.
During the summer of 2020 there was great interest in the work CTF had begun. Our mission was spread on social networks, in podcasts, and in print media such as Glass Quarterly (above), American Craft Magazine, JRA Craft Quarterly, Perceived Value, Cut the Craft, and Talking Out Your Glass.
Better Together and Crafting the Future officially merge! And Cedric Mitchell joins the team. Mitchell establishes the Network Page on the CTF site.
STEAM Exchange in Louisville, Kentucky became our second youth arts partner!
The mission of Steam Exchange is to facilitate passion-driven learning experiences where individuals explore the arts, the world, and themselves through creative play and production.
2020 Summer Programming
Because of the impacts of COVID 19 we were unable to send artists to Penland School of Craft as originally planned. We spoke to our partners, YAYA and STEAM Exchange, and asked how best to serve them locally.
In lieu of in person art/craft instruction CTF artists SaraBeth Post, Cedric Mitchell and Cristina Cordova, provided a series of virtual workshops on glass, candle making and ceramics, for young students attending YAYA.
CTF provides a $1000 grant to senior intern, Shaun Jones of STEAM Exchange, to help him establish a screen-printing business. Check out the Shaun Jones fashion line, 17 Fits, here.
Fall
Syamini Breathwaite interning for CTF and Joe Cariati at LA Glass Center
Syamini Breathwaite is hired as CTF’s first intern! Watch her in “Turn on the Light” a video by CTF and Raven Trammell that highlights the importance of representation in increasing diversity in the fields of art, craft, and design.
Our Community astounds us!
HeartWood Forge Fundraiser
Postmarked Fundraiser
We knew our community would want to band together to create changes in their communities that they had long felt helpless to change alone. What we didn’t count on was how they formed smaller groups holding auctions and raffles to leverage their artwork and raise incredible funds. Will Manning of Heart Wood Forge came to us and wanted to raise funds for an endowed Scholarship at Penland School of Craft. He and his collaborators raised over $25,000 to go towards the endowment!!!!! Will Manning also inspired the creation of Crews. A more formal way for groups to band together and fundraise for Crafting the Future. To raise more funds for the endowment the Penland Crew was formed! And they held the Postmarked campaign that raised over $12,000. After this many groups formed and began holding raffles and auctions!
