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The Smithsonian Renwick Gallery hosts a symposium held in conjunction with the exhibition 40 under 40: Craft Futures. November 8 and 9, 2012.
This free symposium is open to the public, and no registration is required.This symposium will examine craft’s increasingly urgent role within contemporary American culture.
Coinciding with the fortieth anniversary of the Renwick Gallery as the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s branch museum for contemporary craft and decorative arts, this program seeks to broaden the dialogue surrounding craft’s recent histories, and to articulate rapid changes to the field since the beginning of the current century. Research presented by both senior and emerging scholars will complicate our understanding of modern craft as a response to mass culture, and probe the evolution of the field beyond the studio movement. Themes include: the politics of craft within the museum, new directions in technology and education, craft at war, converging practices in craft and contemporary art, changing aesthetics, craft’s role in industry, and the burgeoning DIY movement. For more information on the symposium – click HERE to jump to the Smithsonian website.
Symposium: Nation Building: Craft and Contemporary American Culture McEvoy Auditorium, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington,DC. – November 8 and 9, 2012 
Hey Folks…. If you are coming to DC to participate in the Renwick Craft Symposium with Nicholas Bell on the 8th and 9th of November, we’d love to meet you! Many of you are staying over the weekend, so please join us for donuts and coffee at a Meet and Greet at the Washington Glass School. This is the studio where Tim Tate, Michael Janis and Erwin Timmers and other studio artists work from and is ground zero for the Glass Secessionism movement. We are a 15 minute drive from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Let us know if you need a ride. We can pick folks up and drop them back. There is also tons of parking right in front of the glass studio. We would love to see you there!
What: Meet and Greet for Symposium attendees and friends.
Where: The Washington Glass School 3700 Otis St. Mt. Rainier, Md. 20817 202-744-8222 When: Saturday, November 10th from 10am to 12 noon.