This Present Moment:
Crafting a Better World

Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery

May 13, 2022 — April 2, 2023

Including works by artists David Chatt, Sharon Church, Alicia Eggert, Susie Ganch, and MJ Tyson.

This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World showcases the dynamic landscape of American craft today and marks the fiftieth anniversary of SAAM’s Renwick Gallery as the nation’s premier museum dedicated to American craft. The exhibition highlights the role that artists play in our world to spark essential conversations, stories of resilience, and methods of activism—showing us a more relational and empathetic world. It centers more expansive definitions and acknowledgments of often-overlooked histories and contributions of women, people of color, and other marginalized communities.

On view at SAAM’s Renwick Gallery, This Present Moment activates two floors of gallery space, highlighting 171 artworks from SAAM’s extensive holdings of modern and contemporary craft, in a range of craft mediums from fiber and ceramics to glass and mixed media. These objects deepen the history of the studio craft movement while also introducing contemporary artworks that push the boundaries of what we interpret the handmade to be in the twenty-first century.

This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World, is organized by Mary Savig, the Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft; with support from Nora Atkinson, the Fleur and Charles Bresler Curator-in-Charge for the Renwick Gallery; Anya Montiel, curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian; and Elana Hain, collections manager.

Images from left to right: MJ Tyson, Alicia Eggert, Susie Ganch, David Chatt