A Collaboration Announcement
In light of Governor Wolf’s recent announcement to transition several Pennsylvania counties, including Fayette, to “green” status as of June 5th, we wanted to share some information regarding our plans.
Touchstone Center for Crafts is excited to be part of a group of museums and cultural institutions from across Southwestern Pennsylvania that is collaboratively preparing our organizations for safe re-openings.
The shared priority of the group is the health and safety of our visitors, staff, and volunteers. We are working together to develop and share best practices, in conjunction with federal, state, and local recommendations. These best practices will reflect the unique needs of our institutions and will help to ensure you feel comfortable and prepared on your return to Touchstone and other Southwestern Pennsylvania museums and cultural institutions.
Our group started meeting in late March and now includes thirty different museums and arts organizations that span Allegheny, Westmoreland, and Fayette Counties. We are meeting digitally on a weekly basis to share plans and discuss key elements of re-opening, including visitor guidelines; our facilities; staff and volunteers; and diversity and equity issues. Although each institution is evaluating re-opening under their own schedule, we are confident that these shared conversations will facilitate safe and smooth re-openings across the region.
While this group convened for the purpose of collaborating on best practices for reopening our institutions, it has opened the door for other vital collaborative efforts, such as addressing our support for racial equity and ending the cycle of violence and oppression affecting people of color in our community. This group will continue to meet to listen to the needs of our community and discuss specific actions that can be taken by each institution to make a change.
Touchstone’s campus will remain closed to the public until further notice. We’ve made the decision to not hold any events or workshops on campus for the remainder of the 2020 season. Our staff is busy scheduling virtual programming for Teens and Adults, tackling some major administrative and maintenance projects, and preparing for our 2021 season. Until then, we are glad to continue connecting digitally and look forward to welcoming you back to campus again soon!
Please follow our social media: Facebook and Instagram, and check the Virtual Events page on our website frequently to see what’s being offered!
Touchstone to participate in the Festival of Combustion at Carrie Blast Furnace in Pittsburgh
On Saturday, September 28th from 1:00-10:00 pm, Join Rivers of Steel for its signature event, the Festival of Combustion—a celebration of industrial arts and American crafts!
Showcasing the creativity and innovation of our region’s artists, makers, and builders, the daylong festival includes hands-on activities, craft demonstrations, live music, tours, an artisan marketplace, food, festivities, and much more.
New this year to commemorate its fifth anniversary, the Festival has expanded evening performances! Rivers of Steel and 91.3 WYEP are excited to present acclaimed Nashville singer-songwriter Nikki Lane headlining the show, with the throwback rock and roll sounds of the Ruen Brothers, an English duo from a blue-collar steel town, getting the evening started.
Fireworks, flame performances, an evening iron pour, and a host of arts activities will also light up the night in the western courtyard of the Carrie Blast Furnaces.
A family-friendly event, new hands-on activities this year include Fiestaware Mosaics and free kids zone workshops for the little ones. Live demonstrations include iron casting, blacksmithing, glassblowing, raku ceramics, welding, fabrication and more!
With craft beer, food trucks, live music, and an artisan marketplace, you won’t want to miss Rivers of Steel’s biggest event of the year!
Click for more informationTouchstone Center for Crafts Board of Directors Selects Lindsay Ketterer Gates as New Executive Director
DATE: March 7, 2018 RELEASE: IMMEDIATE
News from Touchstone Center for Crafts
Farmington, PA —
Touchstone Center for Crafts is happy to announce the selection of Lindsay Ketterer Gates as their new executive director. Lindsay comes to Touchstone from Peters Valley School of Craft in Sussex County, New Jersey where she currently serves as the Director of Development. In addition to her enthusiasm for the craft community, Lindsay brings along strong leadership skills and experience in nonprofit management to assist Touchstone in their efforts to advance excellence in the arts and crafts community. Lindsay is an enthusiastic supporter of the immersive craft experience offered at Touchstone. She states, “it is so much more than what it appears on the surface. Yes, you are attending a ‘class’ and learning a skill, but you are also in a Craft think tank with other creative minds.” Under Lindsay’s leadership, Touchstone will continue to cultivate an art and craft community with unique opportunities for emerging artists, while attracting a wide and diverse student body of learners and makers.
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Lindsay is currently serving as the Vice President of the National Basketry Organization, has an undergraduate degree in Fine Arts, a graduate certificate in Arts Administration and is an MBA Candidate at Ramapo College of NJ (May 2018). She is a nationally known studio artist whose work is included in the permanent collection of the American Embassy in the Republic of Djibouti, The Museum of Art and Design in NYC, Yale University Art Gallery as well as other international collections. She recently had work on loan in the American Embassy in Bandar Seri Begawan and was included in the prestigious touring exhibition ‘Innovators and Legends; Generations in Textiles and Fibers”. Her work is currently touring museums as part of the exhibition ‘Rooted, Revived, and Reinvented: Basketry in the 21st Century’. Lindsay is sought to teach and lecture nationally and has spoken and taught at the Smithsonian’s American Craft Museum – Renwick Gallery, St. Louis Art Museum, Textile Study Group of NYC, Haystack Mt. School of Crafts, Arrowmont School of Crafts, Peters Valley School of Craft, SOFA Chicago and the Fiber Arts Guild of Pittsburgh. Lindsay’s work has been featured on the cover of Metalsmith Magazine and on the pages of American Craft Magazine, FiberArts, Fiber Art Now, Surface Design Journal, Shuttle, Spindle and Dyepot Magazine, FIBERARTS Design Book VII, 500 Baskets, and Making Good: An Inspirational Guide to being an Artist/Craftsman to name a few. In 2005 she was awarded an Individual Creative Artists Fellowship by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, administered by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. Please visit Lindsay’s website at lindsaykgates.com to see some of her work.
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Touchstone Center for Crafts is situated in the Laurel Highlands region of Southwestern Pennsylvania about 70 miles from Pittsburgh. Now enjoying its 46th year, the craft school offers weekend and weeklong workshops in traditional and emerging craft forms, along with events, symposiums, and educational programming. Touchstone recruits some of the best artists in the country to teach beginning and experienced artists a broad selection of traditional and contemporary interpretations of: blacksmithing, ceramics, glass, metals & jewelry, mosaics, painting, drawing, printmaking, fiber & paper arts, and more! Touchstone’s unique 150-acre wooded campus features art studios; the Blaney Lodge housing the Kinard library and art galleries; a variety of overnight accommodations, including cabins and dormitories; as well as many options for hosting private events. Learn more about Touchstone Center for Crafts and view the 2018 Workshop Schedule at www.touchstonecrafts.org.
For information about Touchstone Center for Crafts, email info@touchstonecrafts.org or call 724.329.1370.
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Touchstone Center for Crafts
1049 Wharton Furnace Road
Farmington, PA 15437
724-329-1370
touchstonecrafts.org
