Vessels: A Conversation about What We Hold in Objects and Life

Vessels: A Conversation about What We Hold in Objects and Life | Sun. Jan. 15, 2023 | 1:00 pm ET | In-person Event

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When you think of a vessel, what comes to mind? The answers are varied and more complex. Vessels take many forms: a ceramic cup full of tea to warm your spirit and body, the wooden form that sits on a pedestal in a gallery, the human body that grows and nurtures life, and a sacred space filled with care and love that deepens connections. Vessels are an integral part of life, each different, each purposeful, and yet unassuming. Join Alison Croney Moses and Bintu Conté as they delve into the manifestation and undercurrents of vessels in their lives and communities.

Image above: Alison Croney Moses, What We Hold, 2022. Photo by Michelle Davidson, Shapiro Photography.

Portrait for Alison Croney Moses by Tyahra Angus

Alison Croney Moses creates wooden objects that reach out to your senses—the smell of cedar, the color of honey or the deep blue sea, the round form that signifies safety and warmth, the gentle curve that beckons to be touched. Her work is in the collections at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She is a recent recipient of the 2022 USA Fellowship in Craft and has been featured in American Craft Magazine.

She has worked over the past 15 years in alternative education settings to build out education programs that center the communities in which they take place. She is currently the Associate Director at the Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts, where she founded the Teen Bridge and Artist in Residence programs to help cultivate the current and next generation of artists and leaders in art and craft. She holds an MA in Sustainable Business & Communities from Goddard College, and a BFA in Furniture Design from Rhode Island School of Design.

Self-portrait by the Artist

Bintu Conté is born of the Mende and Maninka tribes of West Africa. Her roots and experience shape her 20+ years as a movement artist and trainer. She creates and holds sacred space on individual, community, and organizational levels to build [BCH1] shared connectivity. In her work, she centers on Traditional West African and Black Dance movements, cypher processes, and other somatic practices to support the cultivation of awareness, healing, and community wellness.

As an artist, Conté has partnered and collaborated with culture keepers nationally and internationally, and she most recently served as a teaching artist at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She is also the co-founder of the Racines Black Dance Festival- Black Dance Boston and the founder of JAARA, a non-profit dedicated to the preservation, visibility, and advancement of Afro-Diaspora arts and culture. Outside of her art, Conté has 15+ years as a racial equity capacity builder with a variety of organizations based in the San Francisco and Boston areas.

This event is free to the public. The Center for Art in Wood interprets, nurtures, and champions creative engagement and expansion of art, craft, and design in wood to enhance the public’s understanding and appreciation of it. A suggested donation of $5 per person enables us to provide programs and exhibitions throughout the year.

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Questions? Please contact Katie Sorenson, Director of Outreach and Communications, at [email protected].