Head, Heart, and Hand:
Making and Remaking at Berea College Student Craft

Digital Exhibition here

On view at the Ruth Davis Design Gallery on the campus of the Univeristy of Wisconsin-Madison from October 18, 2023 - March 3, 2024

Heart, Head, and Hand: Making and Remaking at Berea College Student Craft explores what it means to make on campus—and the power of design and craft to inspire creativity across disciplines. Founded in 1893, Berea College Student Craft has become a well-established center for student-led design production in the United States. Student Craft includes weaving, woodcraft, ceramics, broomcraft, and craft education outreach programs. These areas engage not only with experiential learning but also with the cultural myths and values that are embedded in objects fashioned by hand. With a history rooted in Southern Appalachian material culture, automobile tourism, and mail-order catalogs, today’s program focuses on student-centered pedagogy and the curious, speculative, inclusive and future-looking potential of craft in the making—heart, head, and hand.

Heart, Head, and Hand was collaboratively curated by Aaron Beale, Associate Vice President of Student Craft, Hunter Elliott, Director of Apprenticeships, and Erin Miller, Director of Weaving at Berea College and Danielle Burke, a Ph.D. student in Design Studies and the Jane Graff Fellow in the Center for Design and Material Culture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.