Wednesday, September 21, 2016

PRESS RELEASE: Worcester Center for Crafts To Kick Off New, Innovative Youth Craft + Creativity Program With Hands-On Event This Saturday




This new approach to craft education offers youth & teens a window into creative 3-D thinking, knowledge of materials, and the habits of mind and skills needed for the 21st  century

Mayor Joe Petty, State Rep. Mary Keefe, Eric Batiste of the City Manager's Office, and Craft Center President Kim Cutler to launch the celebration at 1 p.m.

September 21, 2016 – Worcester, MA – The Worcester Center for Crafts will introduce their new, innovative Youth Craft + Creativity Program at a free event this Saturday, September 24 from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. at the Craft Center, located at 25 Sagamore Rd. in Worcester. Classes in the new program are designed with an integrated, multi-disciplined approach to youth education for ages 6 through 17 that is creative, fun and hands-on. Mayor Joe Petty, State Rep. Mary Keefe (D-Worcester), Eric Batiste of the City Manager's Office, and Craft Center President Kim Cutler will launch the celebration at 1:00 in the front lobby of the Craft Center.
The September 24 event is designed as a sneak peek into the Youth Craft + Creativity Program and will provide information, demonstrations, and hands-on activities – plus an opportunity for advanced registration at a discount. To RSVP for this free event, visit http://bit.ly/2aLBDUw.
The Craft Center has developed the Youth Craft + Creativity Program in response to parents, artists, educators and community members who have said it is needed - and needed now.We’ve identified a void in Greater Worcester that we are trying to fill,” said Honee Hess, executive director of the Worcester Center for Crafts. This new approach to craft education offers youth & teens a window into creative 3-D thinking, knowledge of materials, and the habits of mind and skills needed for the 21st  century.” The Youth Craft + Creativity Program is distinct from other classes or programs because it is designed to teach the skills of craft while using it as a window that takes students beyond the book and the screen to actually “think” and do.” Classes introduce skills to be makers as well as to the art, aesthetics, science, math, engineering, and design that are fundamental in learning and making crafts. In this way, students are not only taught to work with tools, but also to understand more about skills that transfer from classroom to the world beyond.
According to a 2012 by Michigan State University researchers, arts-and crafts-trainable skills have been proven to enhance science, technology, engineering and mathematics success in K-12 classroom. Like Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo Galilei, modern-day innovators in science and engineering are artists and craftsmen as well. The Michigan State research shows that significant arts and crafts experience is highly correlated with professional success in science and engineering as measured by outcomes such as major prizes and honors, patents, or the founding of new high-tech companies. The notable factor is not the type of art or craft, but the early introduction to arts and crafts in elementary and middle-school years followed by persistent practice of that art or craft into adulthood.
Craft education nurtures the 21st-century skills of collaboration, communication, creativity, problem-solving and resilience that are prized by employers across the economy. As explained by Honee Hess of the Craft Center, Craft enriches our society and economy in many ways, from master goldsmiths to makers who build film sets and props, from the small-batch production of designer makers and industrial designers to one-off ceramic masterpieces, and from centuries-old traditions to cutting-edge digital making and new product development. Makers contribute to sectors as diverse as engineering, manufacturing, medicine, technology, architecture, fashion and design.”
Throughout the year, the Youth Craft + Creativity Program classes will be offered for youth and teens, ages 6 through 17.  Beginning October 24, 2016, the Youth Craft + Creativity Program classes will be six-week sessions for students in age-appropriate groupings. The classes will meet once a week for two to three hours, depending on the class and age group.  After-school and on weekends, the Youth Craft + Creativity Program classes will allow youth and teens access to hands-on making: ceramics, bookmaking, architecture, stained glass, glassblowing, jewelry-making, enameling, sculpture, 2-D to 3-D, puppetry, paper-making, fiber and textile arts, and much more!

Funding to create the Worcester Center for Crafts Center’s new Youth Craft + Creativity Program was provided by the Stoddard Charitable Trust, the Fletcher Family Foundation, the Greater Worcester Community Foundation, Southbridge Savings Bank, United Bank, Webster Five, Millbury Savings Bank, and individual donors. Bay State Parent is a sponsor of the September 24 sneak preview of the Youth Craft + Creativity Program.

About Us

The Worcester Center for Crafts  is one of the oldest non-profit institutions for craft study in the United States. Founded in 1856 as the Worcester Employment Society to help immigrant women produce and sell hand-crafted wares to support their families, the Craft Center has evolved over the past 160 years into New England's leading center for craft education, exhibition and entrepreneurship. In 2004, the organization expanded and opened the New Street Glass Studio - an off-campus, 8,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art, multi-studio glass facility - in Worcester. The WCC offers the only comprehensive glass-studio program in New England available to the public. Through an affiliation begun in 2009, the Craft Center is home to the Worcester State University visual arts-studios and partners in community outreach.

The Craft Center's mission is "to sustain craft as a vital part of our community" by providing high-quality craft education and training, by supporting craft artists in their professions, and through advocacy and public-education initiatives, including adult-education classes and workshops, youth-education and outreach programs, exhibitions showcasing the work of established and emerging artists, artist residencies, lectures, family events, studio rentals, Gallery Store, and major events. The Craft Center is a member of the Worcester Cultural Coalition and its WOO PASS program, and receives funding from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. In addition, the Craft Center has an affiliation with Worcester State University.

For more information, contact Honee Hess, executive director of the Worcester Center for Crafts, at 508.753.8183 ext. 302 or hhess@worcester.edu.

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Art of a different stripe

Multimedia artist John Hyden of Worcester will be exhibiting works at his show "plywood Tiger," opening Sept 22 at the Worcester Center for Crafts. Photo/ Paul Connors

WORCESTER - Worcester artist John Hyden has a tiger by the tail and no way of knowing exactly how big the beautiful beast might turn out to be. In a new show at the Worcester Center for Crafts, “Plywood Tiger,” Hyden will unveil for the first time the full scope of his striped wooden creation - so far.

One hundred and four 8-inch by 8-inch plywood panels, their wood grain painted in tiger-like yellow and black, make up the signature piece in the show, which also includes nine large collages, some drawings and a sculpture. The exhibition kicks off with a reception, which is free, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Sept. 22 in the center’s Krikorian Gallery, 25 Sagamore Road, and runs through Nov. 5.
To read more click here.
(From the Telegram and Gazette) 

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Center for Crafts Offers New Program



WORCESTER — For a generation raised on electronic gadgets and television, the idea of pursuing crafts might seem novel, or quaint. The Worcester Center for Crafts aims to change all that, as they introduce their new, innovative Youth Craft + Creativity Program at a free event from 1-3 p.m. Sept. 24 at the Craft Center, located at 25 Sagamore Road in Worcester.
Classes in the new program are designed with an integrated, multi-disciplined approach to youth education for ages 6 through 17 that is creative, fun and hands-on. This event is designed as a sneak peek into the Youth Craft + Creativity Program and will provide information, demonstrations, and hands-on activities — plus an opportunity for advanced registration at a discount. For more information, contact Honee Hess, executive director of the Worcester Center for Crafts, at (508) 753-8183, ext. 302, or email hhess@worcester.edu.
To read more click here.
(From the Telegram & Gazette)

Plywood Tiger to be Unleashed at Worcester Center for Craft: Exhibit features work by John Hyden

Worcester, MA—An exhibit of paintings and constructions created by John Hyden of Worcester, MA entitled Plywood Tiger will go on view in the Krikorian Gallery of the Worcester Center for Crafts beginning September 22, 2016. The show will open with a reception honoring the artist from 5:30-7:30 pm on Thursday, September 22. The exhibit and reception is free to the public. The show is on view through November 5.

(L) Detail of Plywood Tiger by John Hyden     (R) The artist, John Hyden, pictured at the Worcester Art Museum


Plywood Tiger is the first solo show of Hyden’s work since 2005 and will reflect his most current thinking about art and the medium of painting. “Sometimes, there are no words that can express a thought or feeling; only a visual image can open the chambers of our hearts,” explains Hyden. “Art is the way I discover myself, the way I see what’s in those chambers.” The work on display has not been exhibited before.

“I’m not even sure what it will look like,” said Hyden. The work is made up of 104 8 inch x 8 inch plywood tiger constructions and the exhibit will be the first time they are seen together.

John Hyden has traversed from west to east, growing up in Texas and now residing in Worcester where he works at the Worcester Art Museum as a Museum Preparator with a specialty in mount making. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting from Southwest Texas State University and a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana.

Hyden has exhibited widely in the west and on the east coast. He was an adjunct professor at Worcester State College from 2005-2011 where he taught visual design (three-dimensional design) and figure drawing.

“I think visitors will be intrigued by the variety in John’s work,” said Candace Casey, Krikorian Gallery Director. “His painted surfaces, the scale he chooses, the dynamic stresses between color and form—it will speak to you!” The show includes one painting: the Plywood Tiger; two optical drawings (each 34 x 32); 9 collages; and one sculpture, made up of 9 individual sculptures, the Blake Blocks. The Blake Blocks are beautiful wooden constructions in which an origami bird with a quote from William Blake the poet on it is hidden. The conundrum of Hyden’s Blake Blocks (in order to access the message of Blake’s poetry one must destroy the Block and the bird) is like the conundrum of life. Hyden will speak about these Blocks and more at an artist’s talk will be held on Thursday, October 13 at 5:30 pm in the Krikorian Gallery.

“The title Plywood Tiger refers to work featured in the exhibit that references the pattern of a tiger’s coat,” said Honee Hess, Craft Center Executive Director. “Or is that the reference? Visitors will decide.”

Gallery admission is free of charge, as is the artist’s talk and reception. Krikorian Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm.

About the Worcester Center for Crafts:

The Worcester Center for Crafts (WCC) is one of the oldest non-profit institutions for craft study in the United States. Founded in 1856 as the Worcester Employment Society to help immigrant women produce and sell hand-crafted wares to support their families, the Center evolved over the past 155 years into New England's leading center for craft education, exhibition and entrepreneurship. In 2004, the organization expanded and opened the New Street Glass Studio - an off-campus, 8,000 square foot, state-of-the-art, multi-studio glass facility. The WCC offers the only comprehensive glass studio program in New England available to the public. Through an affiliation begun in 2009, the WCC is home to the Worcester State University visual arts studios and partners in community outreach.

The Craft Center's mission is "to sustain craft as a vital part of our community" by providing high-quality craft education and training, by supporting craft artists in their professions, and through advocacy and public education initiatives including adult education classes and workshops, , exhibitions showcasing the work of established and emerging artists, artist residencies, lectures, family events, studio rentals, Gallery Store, and major events. It is premiering its new Youth Craft + Creativity program in October, 2016. The WCC is a member of the Worcester Cultural Coalition and its WOO Pass program, and receives funding from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

YOUTH Craft + Creativity Program Featured in Worcester Sun

We are excited to share that the Worcester Center for Crafts' upcoming YOUTH Craft + Creativity Program was featured in the Worcester Sun!  See below for feature, or use the following link to view.