Design & Craft Lecture Series

CCA's Design and Craft Lecture Series is funded by Grants for the Arts / San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, the Wornick Endowment Fund, and the American Craft Council.

Unless otherwise noted, all events take place at Timken Lecture Hall on the San Francisco campus. For additional information, please call 415.703.9563

Sue Lorraine

Wednesday, September 10, 7 p.m.
Nahl Hall, Oakland campus

Sue Lorraine is an Australian jeweler and metal artist with nearly three decades of professional experience. Her work is bold and minimal, inspired by natural history and scientific collections. She is the creative director of the metal design studio at JamFactory Contemporary Craft and Design in Adelaide, where she oversees artwork commissions and architectural projects. She has exhibited in Japan, Taiwan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United States, and all of the major public galleries in Australia have collected her work.

Lorraine's lecture will cover the latest contemporary trends in South Australian jewelry and metal art and JamFactory's role in developing this sector.

Bruce Metcalf

Tuesday, September 30, 7 p.m.
Nahl Hall, Oakland campus

Bruce Metcalf has been a studio jeweler and a writer for almost four decades. He says he is always surprised at the many popular misconceptions of American craft: that the field has never experienced internal disputes; that craft education sprang to life fully formed after World War II; and that the influence of European Modernism absolutely began with the Bauhaus.

His talk will focus on these and other myths, and explore their implications for the future of the field. Metcalf has taught at Kent State University, the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and many other schools. He is currently cowriting a history of 20th-century American craft with the critic Janet Koplos. His jewelry, sculpture, and drawings have been featured in hundreds of national and international exhibitions. He is based in Philadelphia.

David Nash (Part I of a two-part lecture)

Wednesday, October 1, 7 p.m.

David Nash is one of the world's leading sculptors. Based in Wales, he is best known for large wooden works made with a chainsaw and an ax, sometimes burned and blackened with a torch. He has also created several important works of land art. This event takes place over two evenings, and attendees are encouraged to attend each.

Screenings of two rare documentaries will be shown that draw an intimate portrait of Nash's artistic approach and methods. Afterward the audience will be encouraged to write down questions for him, which he will use as a springboard for the discussion.

Haines Gallery in San Francisco will open a solo exhibition of Nash's work on Friday, October 10, from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

David Nash (Part II of a two-part lecture)

Wednesday, October 8, 7 p.m.

See description above

Walter Kitundu

Wednesday, October 22, 7 p.m.

Walter Kitundu is the Wornick Distinguished Visiting Professor of Wood Arts at CCA this fall. His studio furniture course focuses on works that utilize natural phenomena such as wind, water, tides, geologic movement, temperature, and animal behaviors.

Raised in Tanzania and living most of the time in San Francisco, Kitundu is a visual artist, instrument builder, photographer, and composer. He specializes in hand-built record players powered by natural forces. He has played in venues from Carnegie Hall to a high school in Iceland, and he been a resident artist at art centers and science museums all over the world.

He has performed with the Kronos Quartet, bassist Meshell Ndegeocello, the electronic music duo Matmos, instrument builder and visionary Douglas Ewart, the legendary Marshall Allen, kotoist and composer Miya Masaoka, Japanese sound artist Akio Suzuki, and the hip-hop band the Crown City Rockers.

Nathalie Chanin

Wednesday, November 5, 7 p.m.

Natalie Chanin was born and raised in the small town of Florence, Alabama, near the Appalachian foothills. In 2001, after 22 years of living and working abroad as a costume designer, she returned home to film a short documentary called Stitch, a road map through rural America as told by local quilt makers.

Inspired by their craftsmanship, she produced 200 one-of-a-kind hand-sewn T-shirts, which soon caught the eye of top fashion buyers. The demand for these garments launched the company Project Alabama, now renamed Alabama Chanin. Alabama Chanin enlists local artisans and utilizes sustainable materials, bringing a contemporary feel to age-old techniques and developing continuity among generations and communities.

Making Meaning and the Marketplace: Craft and the Next Generation of Thought

Wednesday, November 19, 7 p.m.

Note: a 6 p.m. reception is planned for this event.

Held in conjunction with the American Craft Council, this is the third in a series of symposia traveling to three of the nation's leading schools for craft media. It is dedicated to exploring the next generation of craft artists and their burgeoning influence on the larger culture and art market.

Three panelists from around the Pacific Rim—Derek Chen (San Francisco), Robert Foster (Canberra, Australia), and David Trubridge (Aotearoa, New Zealand)—will discuss their own businesses, focusing on cooperative design practices, new technologies, and the role of traditional craft processes and sensibilities. An open discussion will follow.

Derek Chen is the founder of Urbana Design, which produces sleek tabletop items and contemporary furniture, blending technology and handcraftsmanship. His work has been covered in numerous media outlets, including Wallpaper, the New York Times, and InStyle.

Robert Foster established F!NK in 1993 to manufacture contemporary and innovative objects designed by Australian artists. Most of the manufacturing processes take place in the F!NK studio, and each object is individually hand finished, giving it its own unique characteristics.

David Trubridge is New Zealand's best-known furniture designer and regularly exhibits in Japan, North America, and Europe. His process combines innate craft knowledge, sculptural abstraction, and computer design technology. He runs his own manufacturing workshop and a studio-incubator for recent design graduates.