HOUSTON, TX.- Houston Center for Contemporary Craft announces the impending departure of Curator Kathryn Hall, who will leave her long-held position this June to relocate to New York City and pursue a series of independent projects. The Center also announces a national search for a new curator to begin work this summer.
“The impact that Kathryn has made on the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft over her decade-long career here is immeasurable,” shares HCCC Executive Director Perry Price. “Without the exhibitions she has curated, the work she has fostered with artists and colleagues from the Houston area and across the country, and the scholarship and ideas she has generated, the field of contemporary craft and the arts community of Houston would be much diminished. We have been the grateful recipients of her talents and look forward to future continued collaboration. The staff and board of HCCC wish her nothing but success in her future pursuits.”
Hall began her career at HCCC as a curatorial fellow in 2012 and was promoted to curator in 2015. Viewing craft as a “universal connector and powerful catalyst for inspiring curiosity,” she has curated 25 exhibitions in nearly 10 years, exploring themes ranging from food and culture to the environment and social practice. As a curator, she looks at every project as an opportunity to learn something new and most values working with socially engaged artists and creating shared experiences for visitors. Consistently well received and critically lauded, her shows have both entertained and educated audiences with fresh and thought-provoking concepts.
Hall’s first large group exhibition, Dining and Discourse: A Discussion in Three Courses (2015), explored the historical and contemporary relationships between craft and dining. Featuring an array of functional wares and furniture, the show included socially engaged programming, documented through a Tumblr blog in the early days of social media. In United by Hand (2017), the work of veterans/artists Drew Cameron, Alicia Dietz, and Ehren Tool initiated important conversations around civilian connections to war and military action through craft-based projects that centered community participation.
In addition to social engagement, wonder and curiosity have also played important roles in Hall’s exhibitions. Both Light Charmer (2018), featuring neon and plasma sculpture and performance art, and Escaping Earth: The Kinetic Work of Casey Curran (2020) used kinetic movement to spark interest in the relationship between science and craft. Exhibitions like Nathalie Miebach: The Water Line (2019) and Forms of Inheritance: The Work of Anna Mayer (2021) demonstrated the fragility of the environment, while Justin Favela: All You Can Eat (2019) explored the appropriation of Latinx culture through Tex-Mex cuisine and Later, Longer, Fewer: The Work of Jennifer Ling Datchuk (2021) advocated for women's rights.
Hall has also organized several traveling exhibitions originating from HCCC, including Wendy Maruyama: The wildLIFE Project (2015-2018), Tom Loeser: Please Please Please (2018 - 2020), and OBJECTS: REDUX—How 50 Years Made Craft Contemporary (2019).
Throughout her tenure, Hall has been a wonderful and dedicated team member of the close-knit staff at HCCC, as well as a superb leader and mentor of three curatorial fellows and eight exhibition interns, helping them learn the myriad aspects of curatorial work. About her experience at HCCC, Hall commented, "It is hard to put into words the amount of gratitude that I have for the Craft Center, its staff, board, and the communities that the organization nurtures. I am grateful to have had my start in an institution that values collaboration and understands the benefit of supporting emerging artists and arts professionals. I appreciate the space and creative freedom that the Center has afforded me, and I am indebted to the staff and artists whom I have worked with. HCCC is a unique part of Houston’s vibrant and collegial art scene, and it has set high standards for any work that I will do in the future."
Although she will be relocating to New York City, Hall will continue to be involved with HCCC on a consulting basis. In an advisory capacity, she will help the organization to make a smooth transition for its new curator and upcoming exhibitions programming and will also curate some previously developed projects for the Center as an independent curator.
