‘MOUSE TRAP,’ MADE OF NEEDLE-FELTED WOOL, WAS CREATED BY TREVIN DAVIS, AN ARTIST FROM DALLAS. IT’S FEATURED IN THE FIBERART INTERNATIONAL 2025 AT CONTEMPORARY CRAFT | PHOTO BY TREVIN DAVIS

Contemporary Craft, an organization dedicated to engaging the public in creative experiences through craft, recently received a $2.5 million endowment from the Windgate foundation to provide continuing support for the projects and programs at this 54-year-old institution.

The foundation based in Little Rock, Arkansas, also has provided a $360,000 multi-year grant to help pay for the organization’s recent expansion into the Timmons Studios building — which they recently opened across the street — and for studio programming.

The news comes just as Contemporary Craft is about to kick off its major Fiberart International 2025 show on Friday, June 20, which will feature the work of 36 artists from around the globe. This world-class triennial drew 400 entries from 30 countries. The artists were born in such places as Zimbabwe, India, South Africa, Malaysia, Greece, Japan, Canada and places across the United States.

‘HOMO NATURAE,’ BY PARIS-BASED ARTIST BRIGITTE AMARGER, IS ON DISPLAY IN THE FIBERART INTERNATIONAL 2025 AT CONTEMPORARY CRAFT | PHOTO BY BRIGITTE AMARGER

Works by half of the artists will be featured at Brew House Arts on 21st Street on the South Side. The show in both locations runs through Aug. 30. An opening reception is scheduled at 5:30 to 8 p.m. Friday at both locations. Produced by the Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh, the show is free and open to the public.

With the new space across the street, Contemporary Craft is reintroducing its woodworking program, building out its fiber and metal programs and offering a new blacksmith studio, according to Mandy Wilson, marketing director.

Expansion was in the organization’s long-term plans, but after the building across the street became available, leaders sped up the process to take advantage of the perfect opportunity.

Founded in 1971 by Elizabeth Rockwell Rapheal, Contemporary Craft began as a single store in Verona, called “The Store for Arts and Crafts and People-Made Things.” The store grew into a gallery and was then relocated to the Strip District in the 1980s and ‘90s.

‘THE LACE FOREST,’ BY ARTIST SUSAN LENZ, IS ON DISPLAY AT FIBERART INTERNATIONAL 2025 AT BREW HOUSE ARTS | PHOTO BY SUSAN LENZ

The organization then moved into the current Contemporary Craft Raphael Building in Lawrenceville during the pandemic in 2020 and has doubled its space with the Timmons Studios building.  The organization provides a myriad of resources and opportunities for both full-time artists, and those simply interested in honing or even beginning a craft.

Contemporary Craft offers both a national artists-in-residence program, in which it takes six artists for a month or six months at a time, as well as a regional artists-in-residence program spanning a 100-mile radius of the Pittsburgh area.

It offers scholarships for students, giving greater access to their various workshops.

Additionally, it offers multi-week workshops, including general crafts such as, weaving, metals and more specific lessons, including laser cutting certification and other more specialized classes.

The organizaton also hosts clubs for dedicated crafters of a certain medium, such as loom club and gem club, which allows participants to meet others with similar crafting interests.

“That’s one of the powerful things about the weaving series and the metal series, is that when you are making it such a way to express yourself and be with other people. And then you do that every week, week after week you really start to get to know people,” says Leslie Riker, Contemporary Craft’s donor relations manager..

Scheduling and pricing for workshops can be found here.