The schools of the craftschool.us consortium (Arrowmont, Haystack, Penland, Peters Valley, and Pilchuck) want makers of all kinds to know about the dynamic educational experiences that take place in our workshops.  We believe that our programs help us understand what humankind has in common and that international exchanges are a great way to connect cultures through craft’s universal language of material, skill, and ingenuity. This year we developed an exchange program with the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in Japan.. 
 
Nozumu Shinohara, a potter who lives in Shigaraki, was selected to participate in a two-week residency program at Haystack followed by a two-week workshop at Penland.  In the fall American potter Kathy King, director of education in the ceramics program at the Office for the Arts at Harvard University, will travel of Shigaraki for a month-long residency. Shigaraki potters are known for wood-firing and a rough clay body, and Kathy works in porcelain creating drawn narratives on her pots. She says that she is looking forward to working on a different surface and experimenting with other clays.

Lily Yeh is a co-founder of The Village of Arts and Humanities, for which she also has served as executive director and lead artist. Founded in 1986, the Philadelphia-based, non-profit organization aims to build community through art, learning, land transformation, and economic development. In 2002, Lily began Barefoot Artists, which continues her style of community building through art on an international level, in places such as Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana, Ecuador, and China. Lily Yeh seeks to build a more compassionate future through her collaborative work. She told the Christian Science Monitor, “I have found that the broken spaces are my living canvas. In our brokenness, our hearts reach for beauty.”

Make/Time shares conversations about craft, inspiration, and the creative process. Listen to leading makers and thinkers talk about where they came from, what they're making, and where they're going next. Make/Time is hosted by Stuart Kestenbaum and is a project of craftschools.us. Major funding is provided by the Windgate Charitable Foundation. ​