Sonya Clark and Vivian Beer Among 2026 American Craft Council Award Honorees

Sonya Clark (left), and Vivian Beer (right).

Cranbrook Academy of Art is proud to celebrate two alumni honored by the American Craft Council in 2026. Sonya Clark (MFA Fiber 1995) has been awarded the Gold Medal for Consummate Craftsmanship, the Council’s highest honor, and Vivian Beer (MFA Metalsmithing 2004) has been inducted into the College of Fellows. The biennial awards will be presented at American Craft Connects: ACC Conference & Awards 2026, taking place September 4–6 at the University of Minnesota McNamara Alumni Center in Minneapolis.

Sonya Clark — Gold Medal for Consummate Craftsmanship

The Gold Medal for Consummate Craftsmanship is bestowed upon members of the College of Fellows in recognition of a lifetime of achievement and is among the most prestigious honors in the field of craft. Clark is currently the Winifred Arms Professor of Arts at Amherst College, and previously served as Commonwealth Professor and Distinguished Research Fellow at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she chaired the Craft and Material Studies department for twelve years.

A textile artist whose practice encompasses installations, performances, and sculptures, Clark employs materials including combs, beads, flags, and human hair to celebrate Blackness, interrogate the roots of injustice, and address historical imbalances. Her work has been exhibited in over 350 museums and galleries across the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and Australia, and she is the recipient of the United States Artists Fellowship, a Pollock-Krasner Award, an Anonymous Was a Woman Award, and numerous other honors. Clark was previously inducted into the College of Fellows in 2020 — the year Cranbrook celebrated her and Annabeth Rosen (MFA Ceramics 1981) for that distinction.

Cranbrook Academy of Art has a long and distinguished history with the Gold Medal, with Clark being the eleventh Cranbrook artist to receive the award. Past awardees include:

• 2024, Nick Cave (MFA Fiber 1989)
• 2024, Anne Wilson (MFA Fiber 1972)
• 2018, Jun Kaneko — former Artist-in-Residence, Head of Ceramics (1979-1986)
• 2016, Gerhard Knodel — former Artist-in-Residence, Head of Fiber (1970-1996) and Director (1995-2007)
• 2005, Frank Fenster (MFA Metalsmithing 1960)
• 2000, L. Brent Kington (MFA Metalsmithing 1961)
• 1996, Jack Lenor Larsen (MFA Fiber 1951)
• 1994, Toshiko Takaezu (MFA Ceramics 1954)
• 1993, Marianne Strengell — former Artist-in-Residence, Head of Weaving/Fiber (1937-1962)
• 1990, Ed Rossbach — (MFA Ceramics 1947)
• 1983, Harvey Littleton — (MFA Ceramics 1951)

Vivian Beer (MFA Metalsmithing 2004) — College of Fellows

The College of Fellows recognizes individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the crafts in America. To be nominated, an artist must demonstrate leadership in the field, outstanding ability, and 20 or more years of professional achievement. Candidates are nominated by active Fellows — making induction a distinction awarded by one’s peers, not by critics or collectors.

Beer is a furniture designer and maker based in Pembroke, New Hampshire, whose work employs the tools and materials of auto body fabrication — English wheels, welders, sandblasters — to produce sweeping, curvilinear metal furniture and sculpture. Her practice draws on automotive design, industrial history, pop culture, and fashion, resulting in objects that are at once functional and richly referential. Her work is held in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Arts and Design, and the Metals Museum, and is installed as public art in Portland (Maine), Cambridge, Arlington, and other cities. Beer received Cranbrook Academy of Art’s Alumni Achievement Award in 2016 and previously served as Visiting Designer-in-Residence at the Academy in 2017. She is the twenty-eighth Cranbrook artist to be inducted as a Fellow.

Learn more:

The 2026 American Craft Council Awards – American Craft Council

Award-Winning Alumni and Artists-in-Residence – Cranbrook Academy of Art