Exploding Craft

Join us for a day of discussion and celebration reflecting on The Dowse’s significant and enduring relationship with Aotearoa studio craft. Exploding Craft will feature jewellery, ceramic, textile and glass artists who look to blow up and blow out the edges of studio and expanded craft practice.

11am – Learning the Craft
Whether tuakana & teina or mentor & protégé: craft practices have long eschewed the ‘lone-wolf’ approach to artistic development. Areez Katki, Laurie Steer, Leanne Williams (Crystal Chain Gang) and Keri-Mei Zagrobelna (Te Āti Awa, Whānau-ā-Apanui) discuss the fluidity of mentorship with Dowse curator Sian van Dyk, and how this traditional element remains integral to contemporary craft’s future.

12pm – Throw things at the wall and see what sticks in a joyful mud flinging activation designed by Madeleine Child.

1pm – Toi Māori: Is craft a bad word?
Karl Chitham in conversation with makers Tracy Keith (Ngā Puhi), Natalie Jones (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne, Ngāi Tahu), and Isaac Te Awa (Kāti Māmoe, Kāi Tahu, Waitaha, Ngā Puhi) will discuss approaches to contemporary Māori art and craft and how Māori artists are redefining the craft space.

This programme is part of A Speaker Series, 50 Years of Remarkable Ideas, presented by The Dowse Foundation – where we celebrate and reflect on a jam-packed half-century of discussion, exploration and provocation at The Dowse Art Museum.