An Appeal From Alex Matisse

For many of you reading this, I am sure your relationship with the American Craft Council has been a long one. You have seen it grow and change over the many years of its existence. I have not. I'm writing this letter from the place of a young craftsman, still flushed with the excitement of starting out on a new road.

I grew up in a family of artists. The artistic path, nurtured in me from a young age, seems inevitable now. Trying as hard as I could to escape it, I went to college in Greensboro, North Carolina, only to find myself in a land made of clay, where the old traditions held on through the onslaught of industrialization to make North Carolina pottery what it is today. After three years of apprenticeship, first with Matt Jones and then Mark Hewitt, I bought some land and a small farmhouse in the mountains of Western North Carolina, and two and a half years ago I laid the last brick of my own kiln. I was eager to get my work into the world.

This past March, at the suggestion of some good friends, I participated in my first American Craft Council show in Atlanta. I would like to share with you that amazingly positive experience, one that surpassed all expectations and cemented the American Craft Council into my world as a vibrant and relevant voice for craft in America.

After I was accepted, the ACC staff took over and worked hard marketing the show. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution article was a result of their efforts and sent a tremendous amount of traffic to my booth. I had anxiously trucked down two carloads of pots on Thursday; by noon on Sunday I had sold out.

The ACC has introduced me to a wide network of new customers and has given me additional confidence to move forward. As my work develops over the years, I will always remember this early support from the ACC and I look forward to returning year after year.

I would like to invite you to join me in supporting the American Craft Council with a tax-deductible gift.

As a nonprofit, the Council does work every day encouraging people like me to produce their craft, take it to market, and make a living. Through American Craft magazine, the four shows done throughout the country every year, different educational offerings from the research library at the home office in Minneapolis, and thought leader discussions around the country, the Council champions craft on all fronts. The ACC does it all.

Your annual gift will support all of these efforts and much more.  Will you join me to enable the Council to continue this important work?

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration.

Yours in craft,

Alex Matisse
East Fork Pottery, Summer 2012
www.eastforkpottery.com

Click here to support the American Craft Council with a donation.