Metalsmithing Alum Rebekah Frank Engages in International Queer Project
Between October 2021 and March 2022, Cranbrook Academy of Art alumnus Rebekah Frank (Metalsmithing, ’12) participated in a digital residency with Craftspace, a craft development organization in the UK.
The result was “Queer + Metals” a Craftspace exhibition co-curated by Dauvit Alexander and Deirdre Figueiredo in collaboration with Rebekah Frank.
The exhibition explores the multiplicity of queerness—whether as identity, lived experiences, thinking, cultures, aesthetics, influences, stories, place, and imagination—in relation to metalwork and metalsmithing. It’s a means to affirm, empower and express solidarity between LGBTQ+ creatives, making visible the ways they are shaping, disrupting, and contributing to contemporary craft and design practices. Rather than provide answers or fixed ideas, it seeks to open up possibilities and make connections within a diverse, complex, and fluid community of making.
The full project included the perspective and work of over 40 international queer metals artists, including alumni Aaron Patrick Decker (Metalsmithing ’15) and Naama Levit (Metalsmithing ’20).
