Three exceptional emerging artists, Laura Prieto-Velasco (Chicago), Catherine Allen (Canada), and Deborah Rudolph (Germany), discuss the development of their jewelry.
Presented by the Society of North American Goldsmiths
Artists are represented by Ornamentum, Option Art and Charon Kransen Arts, respectively.

Scandinavian artist Bertil Vallien (Hawk Galleries) discusses his sources of inspiration and why he works with glass.

Jeweler and independent scholar Bruce Metcalf (Snyderman-Works Galleries) considers the ancient roots of adornment, particularly concerning sexuality, and how traditional concerns manifest in his own brooches and necklaces.
Presented by Society of North American Goldsmiths

A discussion of the artistic and social aspects of drinking, drinking customs and drinking vessels; exploring practices of the past and insights they provide into today’s practices. Peter Pinnell, Hixson-Lied Professor of Ceramics, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
Presented by the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA)

Artists Katherine Glover (Jane Sauer Gallery); Marilyn Pappas (Snyderman-Works Galleries); Lesley Richmond (Jane Sauer Gallery); Susan Saladino (Jean Albano Gallery); and Jo Stealey (Snyderman-Works Galleries) discuss their new work.
Presented by Friends of Fiber Art International

A look back at the ingenuity and influence of the 1960s on the explosion of innovation in object making and art education. Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts honors four major Legends at the forefront of this movement: Val Cushing, Richard Shaw, Paul J. Smith and Patti Warashina. Gretchen Keyworth, director emerita, Fuller Craft Museum.
Presented by Watershed in conjunction with their SOFA CHICAGO special exhibit LEGENDS: Watershed Artists Honor Artists

A discussion of the role of collectors in the remarkable growth of contemporary wood art with collectors Ruth and David Waterbury, artist William Hunter (del Mano Gallery); curator Jennifer Komar Olivarez, Minneapolis Institute of Arts; moderated by Kevin Wallace, director, Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts. Presented by Collectors of Wood Art

Insights from this year’s Bullseye Glass conference in Portland, where noted artists, curators, designers and architects discussed kiln formed glass, from flat fusing to casting to hybrid methods, and their innovative collaborations with Bullseye Gallery. Denise Mullen, president, Oregon College of Art and Craft, Portland

Dr. Damian Skinner, inaugural recipient of SOFA’s 2010 New Voices research grant, reports on his 2011 visit to Collect in London, and the state of contemporary jewelry in Europe. Skinner is an art historian, curator, and editor based in New Zealand.
Presented by Art Jewelry Forum and SOFA CHICAGO

Earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes and floods - the world has entered a new era of catastrophes. Get expert advice from the insurance, art handling and gallery worlds on how to protect art objects and investments from natural disasters. 

Dorit Straus, Vice President, Worldwide Specialty Fine Arts Manager, and Heather Becker, President, Chicago Conservation Center, and a prominent collector. Moderated by Scott Jacobson, owner/director Scott Jacobson Gallery, NYC.

Iris Eichenberg, head of the metalsmithing department at Cranbrook Academy of Art and two former students, artists Gemma Draper and Seth Papac , discuss how concept, material, and process evolve within their working methods. Moderated by curator Davira S. Taragin. Draper is a professor at IES Abroad, Barcelona; Papac is lecturer and artist-in residence at San Diego State University.
Co-sponsored by Art Jewelry Forum and Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills MI

Randy M. Vick, Chair of Art Therapy Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, will provide an introduction to outsider and self-taught art and explore its connections to Chicago.
Presented by Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago

When Paul J. Stankard (Jane Sauer Gallery) turned his attention to the underground realm, he left the traditional floral paperweight behind to create an entirely new sculptural form. Stankard and GLASS Quarterly editor Andrew Page discuss this pivotal period in his work.

Pioneering artists Meitner, Wax and Mueller discuss their use of a variety of materials, such as glass, wood, bronze, and paper, which have shaped their work and careers and ponder how the next generation of artists may use these same materials. Moderated by Kate Elliott, Director, Elliott Arts West.
Presented by SOFA CHICAGO

Peter Held presents an overview of the life and work of seminal ceramic artist Don Reitz (Lacoste Gallery) followed by a conversation with Reitz. Held is curator of ceramics, Ceramics Research Center, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe AZ.

Robi Damelin and Siham Abuawwad, two members of the Parents Circle Families Forum (PCFF) who have lost immediate family in the Arab-Israeli conflict discuss their personal narratives, the PCFF work they are doing on the ground and the role of art in reconciliation. Presented by PCFF in conjunction with their SOFA CHICAGO special exhibit Cartooning In Conflict.

Australian artist Julie Blyfield (Charon Kransen Arts) discusses the processes and inspirations behind her fluid, poetic jewelry and metal work. Alternately personal and collective, contemporary and historical, influences include family, botany, European settlement, environmental degradation and Indigenous Australia's connection with the land.
Represented by Charon Kransen Arts

Lisa Englander and Bruce W. Pepich discuss Boyd's artful philanthropic collecting with a lively review of her collecting activities over the last fifty years, which aimed at further developing the craft field by placing artists’ work in commercial galleries, corporate collections and art museums. Lisa Englander, curator, Karen Johnson Boyd collection; Bruce W. Pepich, executive director and curator of collections, Racine Art Museum. Presented in conjunction with the SOFA CHICAGO special exhibit An Extraordinary Friend of Fiber: Karen Johnson Boyd

Artist Doug Bucci (Snyderman-Works Galleries) discusses the confluence of art, technology and medicine in his jewelry, transforming biological processes via digital technologies into meaningful, personal, wearable art.
Presented by Society of North American Goldsmiths

Lloyd Herman, director emeritus of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum moderates a discussion among collectors about their options for the future of their acquisitions. Cathy Wice (all craft media); Jack Walsh (quilts); Darcy Walker (needle art), Edith Falk (baskets) and Camille Cook (all fiber techniques).
Presented by Friends of Fiber Art International

One might ask of a team of artists working together in a glassblowing studio “Who made this?”. This panel examines the questions that arise in the highly collaborative process of glassblowing. Andrew Page, editor, GLASS Quarterly; Richard Royal, artist and glass blower, (Thomas R. Riley Galleries); James Yood, critic, essayist, and instructor, Art Institute of Chicago; moderated by James Baker, executive director, Pilchuck Glass School.
Presented by Pilchuck, Seattle WA

Fire is an essentially mysterious force; its allure as magnetic now as it was to the earliest human beings. Gareth Mason’s intimacy with fire affords him an acute perspective on that primordial power. Fire is the most taxing and rewarding of creative partners; replete with creative possibility, fickle, brutal and addictive, it can bless or bury the efforts of anyone who dares to meddle. Illustrated with images of his work and palette, artist Gareth Mason (Mindy Solomon Gallery) will discuss fire’s centrality to his practice, its potency to the human imagination, and the majesty of ceramic experience.

Artist and furniture designer/maker Vivian Beer (Wexler Gallery) discusses her work and functional objects, which exist between the worlds of design, craft, and sculpture. Working with steel, automotive paint, and recently cement, the artist is influenced by symbolic and iconographic cultural objects such as hot rods and lipstick.

Museum professionals, spanning four decades of practice, share the inside scoop on how and why their museums select and collect wood art. Nicholas Bell, curator, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum; Gerard Brown, professor, Temple University, Philadelphia, resident scholar at The Center for Art in Wood; Jennifer Komar Olivarez, curator, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Moderated by Albert LeCoff, co-founder and executive director, The Center for Art in Wood. Presented by The Center for Art in Wood, Philadelphia

In conjunction with Intuit’s exhibition Eugene von Bruenchenhein: From the Wand of Genii (September 16, 2011 – January 14, 2012), outsider art collector and dealer Carl Hammer will give an overview of the art by Wisconsin-based self-taught artist Eugene von Bruenchenhein, including photography, painting, ceramic, bone, and cement sculpture.
Presented by Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago

William Daley (Perimeter Gallery) reflects on his 40-year career of making and teaching. Janet Koplos, freelance critic and 2010 ACC Honorary Fellow, will join Daley in this open conversation.
Presented by the Council in conjunction with the SOFA CHICAGO special exhibit GOLD: American Craft Council Gold Medalists1994 – 2010

A discussion of the growth of contemporary woodturning over the past 25 years into an international art movement. Bob Bohlen, collector; Binh Pho, artist (del Mano Gallery, Thomas R. Riley Galleries); Paul Richelson, curator, Mobile Museum of Art; moderated by Kevin Wallace, director, Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts, Ojai CA.
Presented by the American Association of Woodturners

Has the relevance of the studio craft movement diminished? As fewer collectors donate their legacies to art museums collectors are confronting the pride and prejudice that shape our perceptions of museum objects. Tim Burgard, curator-in-charge of American art for the Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco.
Presented by Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass

Artist Phyllis Bramson is inspired by the “censoring side” of Henry Darger’s images, which might be often misunderstood or misdirected. In the presentation, she will address how her work and Darger’s art intersect in that regard, and the ways Darger’s concocted inner world has influencing her art making. Presented by Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago