Handwork Week 2026 Workshop /  by Alisa Banks

Workshop at the Bainbridge BARN

I'm honored to join the instructor roster for Handwork Week 2026 at BARN (Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network), part of Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026, a nationwide initiative led by Craft in America. 

From April 26 to May 1, I'll be leading Speak Your Piece: Artist’s Books with Meaning, an intensive workshop in artist’s bookmaking, sharing techniques developed over years of practice. This week-long gathering brings together master craftspeople from across disciplines to celebrate and preserve American craft traditions while fostering innovation. 

Handwork 2026 is part of a nationwide initiative led by Craft in America to celebrate the handmade during America's Semiquincentennial. Over 250 organizations across all 50 states are participating in this historic celebration.

BARN's state-of-the-art facility on Bainbridge Island (35-minute ferry from Seattle) provides the perfect setting for intensive learning. The island offers charming accommodations, restaurants, and natural beauty to enhance your workshop experience.

Click here to learn more about me and the workshop.

Registration and details: http://bainbridgebarn.org/handwork2026

#HandworkAtBARN, #Handwork2026, #BainbridgeBARN, #AmericanCraft, #Semiquincentennial, #abanksart, #alisabanks, #bookarts, #AmericanCraft, #CraftInAmerica, #contemporarycraft, #craftart, #americancraft, #America250, #Semiquincentennial, #bainbridgebarn, #bainbridgeisland, #dfwart 

Ether: Aromatic Mythologies /  by Alisa Banks

The unique version of History of a People will be on view in Ether: Aromatic Mythologies at Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles. The exhibition will also present an interactive installation of the scents used for the book.

Ether examines the confluence of storytelling, identity, and scent by delving into ancient, modern, personal, or entirely invented mythologies. Thirteen olfactory artworks on show seek to explain our most fundamental understanding of ourselves, and how scent can impact systems of meaning in relation to the inexplicable, the historical, or the unknown.  

Ether is the first in a series of exhibitions on view in 2025 presented by Craft Contemporary that interpret the varied interactions between craft and the natural elements: air, water, earth, and fire. Ether coincides with Scent Week Los Angeles. Events include scent related exhibitions, workshops, open houses, panel discussions, and experiences. 

A free Exhibition Preview & Artist Meet and Greet is scheduled for Saturday, May 31 from 6 - 8 pm. Ether is on view May 30, 2025 — September 7, 2025

Exhibition: Unerased /  by Alisa Banks

Detail, L-R: Ancestors’ Hope and Dreams, Half, Lost

I am pleased to announce Unerased, a multimedia exhibition on view at the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center at Colorado College. The exhibition explores what it means to excavate histories by digging into one’s ancestral past through memory, culture and archive.

An Artist’s Talk will be held on Thursday, February 20 at 4pm. The exhibition is on view from February 7, 2025 through September 6, 2025.

Penland Summer Workshop /  by Alisa Banks

Penland School of Craft

I am excited to announce that I will be teaching Adventure Travelog, a week-long workshop at Penland School of Craft located outside Asheville, North Carolina.

The workshop will cover map-making, stamp carving, frottage (rubbings), and book binding, to name a few, and will take place May 25 - 30, 2025.

Full and partial scholarships with and without a work requirement are available. The scholarship portal is open until December 16. 2024. Regular registration begins February 3, 2025.

Alabastron Journal /  by Alisa Banks

Alabastron journal ships July 2024

I am pleased to announce publication of my essay, History of a People: Tracing Cultural Development Through Scent, in the premier issue of Alabastron, a journal published by the Institute for Art and Olfaction. The theme for the first volume is The Scent of Identity: Olfaction’s Role in Culture, Community, and the Formation of Self. My contribution is an embodied narrative that discusses the development and selection of the scents used in my artist’s book History of a People.

Preorders are available here. Shipping starts July 10, 2024.

Sadikichi Award Finalist /  by Alisa Banks

I am thrilled to announce having been named a finalist for the Sadikichi Award for Experimental Scent for my project History of a People for the 2024 Art and Olfaction Awards given by the Institute for Art and Olfaction. The winners of each category will be announced at the Art and Olfaction Award ceremony in Lisbon, June 7.

Holding Ground: Artist’s Books for the NMWA /  by Alisa Banks

I am honored to have been one of nine book artists invited to complete a commissioned work to commemorate the grand re-opening of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, DC. My proposed work, History of a People traces African American history and culture through scent.

Each of the six bottles (or chapters) holds a custom blended scent that corresponds to the cultural landscape of selected historical periods: Roots, Journey, Arrival, Harrow, Protest,Visioning. The scents symbolize the complex layering involved in the creation of a new culture.

Holding Ground: Artist’s Books for the NMWA, will be on display until October 2024. The celebration is year-long and the museum is planning several events. 

Back to Front: Artists’ Books by Women /  by Alisa Banks

Inheritance is on view in the 112th Annual Exhibition: Back to Front: Artists’ Books by Women, at Randolph, College in Lynchburg, VA. It is one of several on loan from the Cynthia Sears Collection at Bainbridge Museum of Art, in Washington. Ancillary to the exhibition are viewer engagement opportunities, including the repository of one-page books in the Quarantine Public Library, to which I contributed 2020, a book honoring victims of police violence. The exhibition will be on view through April 11, 2024.

In This Moment: The Book as Witness /  by Alisa Banks

History of a People, deluxe edition, closed

History of a People will be on view in In This Moment: The Book as Witness, curated by artist Julie Chen at the Environmental Design Library at UC Berkeley, January 10 – March 3, 2024.