Marilyn Zapf

Director of programs and curator, Center for Craft, Asheville

Marilyn Zapf’s dedication to craft began early, with metalsmithing at high school, then a degree in jewellery and metalwork and an MA in the history of design. Zapf is the director of programs and curator at the Center for Craft in Asheville, North Carolina, a non-profit that awards over $400,000 each year to craft scholars, curators and artists. In 2022, she created the Craft Archive Fellowship, which supports archival research on under-represented craft histories in the United States. Zapf has organised numerous exhibitions for institutions including the Smithsonian Museum of American Art and the Mint Museum, among others, and in 2022 was curator and project leader for ‘WMC The Basket’, a public art installation in Asheville centred around Cherokee craft traditions in western North Carolina. She previously served as a trustee of the American Craft Council and writes for publications including the Journal of Modern Craft, the Journal of Design History and Crafts about topics including feminism and craft and the effect of industrialisation on making practices.

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