Namita Gupta Wiggers is a curator, writer, educator, and artist living in Portland, Oregon. A first generation American of South Asian descent, she is a keen observer of how people select and organize their lives. She began her career in museums, eventually serving as curator and then director of the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland. Namita sees curation as both collaborative and empathic—that the curator's job is to make room for multiple narratives to exist within a project. A lifelong learner, she believes that when she comes across something she isn't familiar with—a culture, a tradition, an artist—the onus is on her to learn more. In keeping with that approach, Namita is a co-founder of Critical Craft Forum, which provides spaces for makers to discuss critical issues to the field of craft, including a recent symposium on Gender and Jewelry in New York City. After more than a decade of focusing on writing and curating, she joins Make/Time just as she returns to making jewelry with upcoming residencies with Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts and Ox-bow School of Art.

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.

Michael Strand is a potter, an activist, and an optimist. A lifelong Dakotan, he is an Associate Professor and head of the Department of Visual Arts at North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. Michael trained at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, in ceramics, and he's a skilled artist who makes beautiful cups and bowls. As his career progressed, though, he realized that he wanted to make art that engaged people in dynamic ways. He crafts innovative projects that connect the handmade to the community, and that lead participants and the artist to new understandings of themselves and of the world. 

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.

Make/Time is back with a new season, sharing fresh conversations about craft, inspiration, and the creative process. The first episode debuts Tuesday, March 21, with potter and activist Michael Strand. Here's a preview.

Make/Time features leading makers and thinkers talking with host Stuart Kestenbaum about where they come from, what they're making, and where they're going next. A project of craftschools.us, Make/Time is made possible by major funding from the Windgate Charitable Trust.

Cynthia Schira is a weaver and designer living in Westport, New York. She taught art for nearly 30 years, and has been a practicing artist since attending RISD on scholarship as a young woman. She happened into weaving because of a scholarship opportunity, but it fit her. In the course of her career, Cynthia has given special attention to working with computers and the Jacquard loom—an early precursor to the modern computer—to explore the digital qualities and possibilities of the art form. Today, Cynthia has retired from teaching, but not from making; she continues to make new projects, collaborate with other artists, and find new synchronicities between art and the world around her.

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.

Rowland Ricketts is an indigo grower and artist based in Bloomington, Indiana. He studied traditional indigo making and dyeing techniques in Japan, where he was living after college and where he met his wife, Chinami, who is a weaver. He came to dyeing after he realized that his photography work was polluting the streams around his farmhouse in the rural Nara prefecture. Here, Rowland talks about originality, process, living with nature, discovery, and how to find a work you never retire from.

Make/Time—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. Host Stuart Kestenbaum talks with furniture designer Vivian Beer, winner of HGTV's Ellen's Design Challenge, about learning how to blend traditional making with new technology, and how her time on the tv design contest showed her that not only can great design be made more cheaply, but it should be.

Make/Time— 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. In this episode, host Stuart Kestenbaum talks with his longtime friend sculptor Tom Joyce. Trained as a blacksmith when he was a teenager, Tom Joyce's art work can be found in museums across the country, including the National September 11th Memorial and Museum in New York City.

Make/Time— 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. In this episode, Tim McCreight talks to Stuart Kestenbaum about his path to becoming a jeweler, teacher, publisher, writer, and activist.

Make/Time— 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. Stuart Kestenbaum talks with artist Sonya Clark about family, roots, textiles, and the joys of making art in a community.

Make/Time— 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. This new podcast, with host Stuart Kestenbaum, will launch August 4. Visit craftschools.us to learn more.