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Carefully Crafted

Curated by Melanie Egan & Jillian Barreca

This group of talented artists are expressive with materials married to strong ideas.

The Harbourfront Centre Craft & Design Studio is a unique Canadian career-oriented program and facility. It is an artist-in-residency, incubator and training centre that uses a self-directed and transformative learning ethos, which is open to post-graduates and those with equivalency training demonstrating a thorough and comprehensive understanding, conceptually as well as technically, in one of five areas: Textiles, Glass, Ceramics, Design or Jewellery. Central to the Studio’s vision is a commitment to supporting contemporary craft and design practice. On any given day, our Artists-in-Residence are shaping and advancing this field through focused making and thinking.

This group of talented artists are expressive with materials married to strong ideas. They are emboldened by an environment dedicated to supporting perspectives that add to the expansive conversation within contemporary craft and design practice.

Melanie Egan

Director, Craft & Design, Harbourfront Centre

Melanie Egan has over 35 years of experience in the field of craft and design. She is Director of Craft & Design at Harbourfront Centre; Canada’s foremost artist-in-residency devoted to ceramics, glass, textiles, jewellery and design. She is a curator, organizes symposia/conferences, lectures, writes, mentors and advocates for craft & design in Canada and internationally. She has curated numerous exhibitions including, The View from Here – a critical response to Canada150 (2019); The Mind is the Hand is the Bomb that Blows: Anders Ruhwald (2018); Aberrant Tales: Lindsay Montgomery (2016) RE: Position – curated with Paul McClure for Toronto International Jewellery Festival (2013); and edited Crafting New Traditions: Canadian Innovators and Influences - published by the Canadian History Museum (2008).

Jillian Barreca

Assistant, Craft & Design, Harbourfront Centre

Jillian Barreca is a Toronto-based arts worker. She is passionate about supporting emerging and mid-career artists who work across craft, design and visual art. Currently, Jillian works as the Assistant for Craft & Design at Harbourfront Centre where she helps run Canada’s leading Artist-in-Residence Program in textiles, glass, ceramics, jewellery and design.

 

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