Bainbridge Island Museum of Art is proud to participate in Handwork 2026, a nationwide celebration of American craft marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. As part of this historic initiative, BIMA will present a dynamic year of exhibitions and programs showcasing the depth and diversity of the handmade—from artists’ books to finely crafted furniture, Indigenous traditions to contemporary textiles, and much more. We’re excited to honor the makers, materials, and stories that connect our region to the broader narrative of American craft, and to invite our community into the rich world of handwork past, present, and future.
BIMA joins more than 250 museums, cultural centers, schools, and organizations across the country in this unprecedented effort to elevate the role of craft in shaping American life—including fellow Puget Sound Region partners like BARN on Bainbridge Island, Northwest Designer Craftartists in Langley, and the House of Welcome Cultural Arts Center in Olympia. From local studios to national institutions, Handwork 2026 brings together a powerful network committed to celebrating creativity, honoring diverse traditions, and inspiring new generations of makers—telling the story of America, one handmade object at a time.
Hear more about BIMA’s Handwork 2026 efforts on our blog post and learn more about how the national initiative came to be in a guest blog from former Craft in America Executive Director, Carol Sauvion!
This retrospective exhibition showcases the legacy of garden designs and sculptures of George and David Lewis, formerly known as Little and Lewis. Their story of love and labor began in the 1980s, when David moved from Washington, D.C. to Bainbridge Island, and George moved subsequently from Houston, Texas. Their separate interests in art, ancient architectural ruins, gardens, and water features combined into a thriving and well-documented creative business. This retrospective is titled Deeply Rooted in honor of their well-documented career as artists, and their community service and ties to Bainbridge Island and beyond.
The Puget Sound region is rich with educational and studio-based resources for artists. This group exhibition will be curated with nominees selected by more than twenty Craft-based programs and professional groups. These include Pilchuck Glass School (Stanwood), Pratt Fine Arts Center (Seattle), Northwest African American Museum (Seattle), Wing Luke Asian Museum (Seattle), Seattle Metals Guild (state wide), House of Welcome (Indigenous Longhouse arts center, The Evergreen State College, Olympia), Schack Art Center (Everett), Bainbridge Island Artisans Network (BARN, Bainbridge Island), Northwind Art (Port Townsend), Northwest Designer Craftartists (multi state), and Hilltop Glass Program (Tacoma, WA). This exhibition will highlight excellence from emerging craft artists, while exploring traditional definitions and boundaries within and imposed upon the field.
Aimee Lee (Ohio) is an artist who makes paper, writes, and advocates for Korean papermaking practices. Her initial Fulbright research helped her build the first hanji studio in North America and write her award-winning book, Hanji Unfurled. Her second Fulbright award as a senior scholar focused on further research of Korean papermaking tools, and continued her training since 2009 with various national and provincial Intangible Cultural Property Holders.
Lee trains the next generation of papermakers in the Korean tradition from the Korean diaspora and beyond in her private hanji studio east of Cleveland, and in workshops around the world. This solo exhibition will highlight several works from our Cynthia Sears Artists’ Books Collection, in addition to lent artist’s books works by this internationally engaged and recognized artist.
Explore the expansive and inventive world of artists’ books in this debut exhibition, which will return on occasion!
These unique works blur the boundaries between object, narrative, and experience, with definitions intentionally left open and artist-driven. Created as one-of-a-kind pieces or in limited editions, artists’ books reveal meaning over time through the interplay of form, material, and content. Ranging from familiar book-like structures to sculptural and experimental formats, they often incorporate drawing, printmaking, collage, photography, textiles, and creative writing—inviting touch, interpretation, and discovery while challenging how art can be experienced.
Each time this exhibition is on view, it will feature a range of artists and their artists’ books—so be sure to visit today to explore this vast, dynamic world!
Carletta Carrington Wilson merges poetry, collage, and installation to explore memory, ancestry, and the power of objects.
Based in the Pacific Northwest, she uses fabric and found materials as portals to the past, linking personal and collective histories. Her work reclaims generational knowledge through image and text, navigating time, identity, and place. Each piece becomes a site of remembrance, where hand, memory, and material converge to create meaning.
Co-Curator Robin Little Wing Sigo (Suquamish/Duwamish) partners with BIMA to present a survey of Indigenous (Native American and First Nations) craft artists, working in traditional and contemporary forms. Media will include fiber/textiles, wood carving, ceramics, glass, and jewelry art. Wearables will include both ceremonial regalia and fashion items.
More than twenty artists who have lived and worked in the Salish Sea region are featured, including Larry (Ulaaq) Ahvakana, Peg Deam, Joe Feddersen, Denita and Joey Holmes, Barbara Lawrence, Betty Pasco, Preston Singletary, and Jennifer Angaiak Wood.
Sigo is the Suquamish Foundation Director and co-creator of SaltFire, a nonprofit based in the strength of Indigenous joy, rest, and whimsy. She has advised and assisted BIMA with previous Indigenous exhibitions and programs, and is on BIMA’s Advisory Council. Indigenous Craft is the fourth major Indigenous exhibition BIMA has produced since opening in 2013.
This show is open through November 1, 2026.
Special thanks to:
Cloth, Paper, Stitches brings together a selection of artists’ books from the Cynthia Sears Artists’ Books Collection that foreground the tactile and expressive possibilities of cloth, paper, and thread. Through processes such as sewing, weaving, cutting, and folding, these works expand the idea of the book beyond a purely visual or text-based object into something materially intimate and physically engaging.
At this moment—a time marked by fracture and uncertainty—this exhibition highlights artworks where material itself becomes the language of care, community, and transformation. The artists represented in the exhibition use both traditional and experimental techniques, merging handwork with conceptual approaches to storytelling. Some of this work was created slowly over time and other pieces were produced in urgency, but all function as vital acts of shelter and resistance.
Pratt Fine Arts Center, located in Seattle’s Central District, has been a community arts hub for the past fifty years. Pratt serves artists of all ages and abilities, year-round, with affordable classes and studios. Initially established by the City of Seattle, Pratt was named for the civil rights leader Edwin T. Pratt, a civil rights activist in Seattle and the Executive Director of the Seattle Urban League who was murdered in 1969. This group exhibition includes more than seventy-five artists working in diverse media such as glass; sculpture in metal, stone, wood, and mixed-media; jewelry art; paper and felt-making; and 2D art including drawing, painting, and printmaking. Featured artists include former and current instructors, students, board members, and staff. This show celebrates and spotlights the impact that Pratt artists and supporters have made in the broader region since 1976.
This exhibition closes January 31, 2027.
BIMA presents the first ever retrospective of the late master artist Heikki Seppä (1927-2010). Originally from Finland, Seppä was one of the most influential metalsmiths of the 20th century. This retrospective explores the life and artistic legacy of this master craftsperson, including his varied metal forming techniques, some of which he invented. The retrospective includes more than 50 works from BIMA’s Permanent Art Collection, such as jewelry in silver, gold, and mixed media; a silver coffee set and other serving pieces; and small conceptual sculptures such as his iconic iron heart and peacock. The exhibition is expanded to include work by living artists who employ the techniques he used and taught. Also on view are his teaching demonstration pieces, a selection of his tools—several of which he made himself—and design prototypes of awards.
Special thanks to:
Curated by Colette Gaiter
This exhibition brings together a collection of artists’ books that explore Black histories, identities, and futures through the language of the book as an art form. Featuring works by artists across disciplines, from printmaking and photography to sculpture and graphic design, the exhibition highlights how books can serve as powerful spaces for storytelling, cultural memory, experimentation, and resistance. Through handcrafted volumes, zines, scrolls, and sculptural book objects, Booking celebrates the creativity, resilience, and expansive vision of Black artists who are redefining what a book can be.
Many of the books are specifically about experiencing Blackness. They range from personal stories to historical information illuminated through creative interpretations. Insights within the books’ pages encourage viewers to ponder unfamiliar points of view. “Universality” is a quality seldom applied to Black stories in mainstream Western spaces. These books invite close looking and reading. Revealing a wide range of creative expression about a range of topics through words and images, the works in this exhibition inform and captivate viewers, extending imagined boundaries for contemporary book art.
This exhibition closes February 21, 2027.
Samuel Spurrier is a fiber artist, pattern maker, and botanical dyer living on Bainbridge Island. This solo exhibition features exquisite work in eco-printing, a sustainable natural dyeing technique that permanently transfers the pigments and tannins of the flower and leaf directly to the fabric.
Spurrier’s love of nature and flowers comes from his childhood in upstate South Carolina. He grows and forages all the botanicals used in his work. Combining eco-printing with his passion for textiles, he creates clothing, embroidered tapestries, and artist’s books. His aim is to capture the fleeting beauty of the blooms of summer, a brilliant but brief season on Bainbridge Island.
