CCCD announces inaugural Materials-Based Research Grant recipients

Press release from the Center for Craft Creativity and Design:

The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design (CCCD) is pleased to announce the inaugural recipients of the Materials-Based Research Grant. Selected from 46 applicants, three project teams will receive $10,000 each to pursue mutually beneficial innovation in craft and STEM research, including exploring the effects of farming practices on the material properties of bone china, crafting with nature through growing 3D forms with bacterial cellulose, and developing a technique for producing analog lava flows.

“As the leading supporter of craft and higher education in the United States, CCCD is proud to support the expanding definition of craft-based research through innovative material practice and collaboration,” said CCCD Executive Director, Stephanie Moore.

The goals of this peer-reviewed grant are to advance, expand, and support innovative and mutually-beneficial craft-based research in the United States. This includes fostering new craft-based approaches to STEM research; supporting craft practice, experimentation, and applications outside the field of art; advancing innovative research in craft materials (e.g. wood, metal, fiber, clay, glass); exploring the inter-relationship among the fields of craft, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; and fostering new interdisciplinary approaches to craft informed materials-based research in the United States.

This year’s selection panel included: Martin Conreen, Director, Institute of Making, University College London and Senior Lecturer in Design, Goldsmiths, University of London; Kieren Jones, Course Leader, MA Material Futures, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London; and Leila Kinney, Executive Director, Arts Initiatives and MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Material Concerns, an exhibition exploring the phenomenon of craft and cross-disciplinary practice in the United States is planned for CCCD’s Benchspace Gallery & Workshop in Asheville, NC in 2018 and will include the projects by the 2017 Materials-Based Research Grant recipients.

2017 Materials-Based Research Grant Recipients:

$10,000 – Effects of farming practices and animal husbandry on the material properties of bone china
Gregg Moore, Associate Professor of Art and Design, Arcadia University
Tobias Landberg, Assistant Professor of Biology, Arcadia University

To test the hypothesis that factory farming technology, relative to traditional farming practices, reduces the bone mineral content that improves bone china quality.

$10,000 – Crafting Cum Vivo: Growing 3D forms with bacterial cellulose
Ryan Hoover, Faculty, Interdisciplinary Sculpture, Maryland Institute College of Art
Walter Zimbeck, Manager, 3D Printing, Technology Assessment & Transfer, Inc.

To research and develop bioprinting methodologies to 3D print forms with bacteria that produce cellulose microfibers, creating three-dimensional objects with novel material properties optimized for the object’s form.

$10,000 – Building lava flows for scientific and artistic displays: A craft and science synergy
Jeffrey Karson, Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, Syracuse University
Robert J. Wysocki, Assistant Professor, Sculpture Program, Syracuse University

To develop a technique for producing analog lava flows made from real basaltic lava (as erupted on Hawaii, Iceland, seafloor, etc.) that are suitable for display for scientific, educational and artistic purposes.

See www.craftcreativitydesign.org/about-us/news/ for project details and descriptions.

The Materials-Based Research Grant program is administered by The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design and supported by the Windgate Fund at the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina.