Strand Invited to Serve on Smithsonian Panel

November 15, 2012

Michael Strand, visual arts head, was invited to serve on a panel of renowned American craft-based artists for a global webcast, titled “Symposium: Nation Building: Craft and Contemporary American Culture,” hosted by the Renwick Gallery of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution. Strand’s session aired on Friday, Nov. 9, at 10:30 a.m. at http://americanart.si.edu/multimedia/ webcasts/archive/2012/nationbuilding/welcome.

According to the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s website, “the symposium will examine craft’s increasingly urgent role within contemporary American culture … The 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.”

Senior and emerging scholars presented research pertaining to the following themes: 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 do-it-yourself movement.

“I am honored to be invited and included in this important and defining conversation about the future of craft-based arts in America,” Strand said. “The symposium has managed to gather together some of the best thinkers and makers in the world to explore this important topic. As someone who works very closely with students on community-based projects, this is also a terrific opportunity to continue to build bridges of opportunity for the visual arts program at NDSU."

Strand’s invitation follows a recent citation and review of his current artistic practice in the Yale University Press, Smithsonian publication, “40 under 40: Craft Futures,” written by Nicholas Bell, curator of the Renwick Gallery of American Art.

Strand’s participation in the symposium was funded by the Renwick Gallery of American Art at the Smithsonian.  

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation’s top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.