Northwest Designer Craftartists - NWDC

“Handwork 2026: Northwest Designer Craftartists”
Postmark Center for the Arts
Auburn, WA
July 11 - October 10, 2026

NWDC joins over 250 organizations across the country to celebrate the beauty and evolution of craft in America on the eve of the country’s 250th anniversary. In this exhibition, you will experience how contemporary artists stretch and strengthen the craft tradition. Using a wide range of materials, media, and techniques, they have created a rich array of works often unified by imagination and function. We invite you to leave the outside world behind and share in moments of beauty, humor, and awe.

NWDC honorary member, Barbara Matilsky, serves as juror. Barbara Matilsky was curator at the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham from 2009-2018 where she organized the international traveling exhibition Vanishing Ice: Alpine and Polar Landscapes in Art 1775-2012. For the past three years, she has been curating the Women Rising art exhibition in conjunction with the Cascadia International Women’s Film Festival. For more information, see: barbaramatilsky.com
arts

IN RECOGNITION AND GRATITUDE for Ron Pascho‘s decades of contributions to NWDC, the board has established a new legacy fund in his name, seeded with $10,000 from our long-term savings. The income from the fund will go to the creation of a new national juried exhibition featuring the work of NWDC members and selected juried entrants. All current NWDC members will be invited to participate.

LINK TO DONATE: https://buy.stripe.com/6oUfZi2sOejNbX2gEW6Ri0a?locale=en&__embed_source=1

The principal will never be spent, only the income in support of these exhibitions. We encourage others to consider contributing, making a designation in your will, or through your IRA, or other means to build this fund and build a legacy for NWDC that will create a vibrant exhibition of fine craft in our region for decades to come.

Contact us at [email protected]

NWDC Member Artist Talk
Kristina Batiste: A Story in Eight Pots

Presented on Zoom
Sunday, April 26, 3:00 PM

ZOOM REGISTRATION LINK: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/4mYo1imWR1OaXid5BF1xOw

Join NWDC Members and other craft lovers on Sunday, at 3 PM for our next NWDC Member Artist Talk presented on Zoom. We will take a look at the key work that has shaped Katrina’s career as an artist to date.

This talk is open to the public and part of Handwork 2026: a nationwide Semiquincentennial initiative to showcase the importance of the handmade both throughout our history and in contemporary life.

Kristina is a minimalist ceramic artist based in Tacoma and Los Alamos, CA, making sculptural and functional work, incorporating concepts and ideas from social commentary and has been a member of NWDC since 2024.

NWDC’s Mission is to educate the public about Craft. It is also our intention for members to know each other – to have community. Our Zoom Artist Talks address both of these purposes. The Zoom talks grew out of a tradition from in-person meetings where members presented their life story and their work. It was a way to share with each other and to get to know each other in depth. A strong Crafts community is essential to promoting Craft in our wider culture.

When the talks moved to Zoom during the pandemic, we immediately saw a new advantage: far-away members could participate in real-time, the public could tune in, and we could make a permanent record of the talks on YouTube.

The support team for the Zoom talks include Executive Director Daniel Wallace, President Nancy Loorem Adams, Katherine Lewis, Lois Harbaugh, and Denise Snyder.

IMAGES:
Kristina Batiste, five feet, four inches forward, 2024, stoneware, 5'4" x 17" x 4"
Kristina Batiste, part of still there, 2025, porcelain, 9.5" x 6" x 0.75"
Kristina Batiste, even a woman or a slave, 2025 stoneware, pine plinth. 3.75" x 3.75" x 3.75"