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Join a historic celebration of American craft during Handwork Week at BARN

Published 6:00 pm Sunday, March 22, 2026

Artists’ talks, a live bronze pour, poetry and tours welcome the public to Bainbridge Island’s contribution to a nationwide craft celebration

Join artists, makers and neighbors for a week of free public events at Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network (BARN), April 26 through May 1, as Bainbridge Island takes part in one of the most ambitious celebrations of American craft in a generation.

Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026 is a year-long collaboration that brings together more than 280 museums, galleries and craft organizations across all 50 states to celebrate the diversity of the crafts that define America.

The heart of BARN’s contribution is Handwork Week, a series of intensive, multi-day workshops drawing students from across the country. Most workshops are fully enrolled, but evening events are free and open to all.

From left, Alisa Banks, Daniel Winterbottom and Ricardo Ruiz will be at BARN on Bainbridge Island for Handwork Week. Courtesy BARN

Free public events

Please register so they know you’re coming:

• Monday, April 27, 6 p.m.: Watch a Bronze Pour. See molten metal stream into a sand mold in a live foundry demonstration led by Bainbridge Island sculptor Jeff Oens, whose wildlife sculptures appear in public and private collections across the United States and Canada. Only six spaces available!
• Monday, April 27, 6:30 p.m.: Artists’ Talk with Richard Parrish. Hear Montana-based kilnformed glass artist Richard Parrish discuss a practice built over more than two decades. Parrish has shown work at the Corning Museum of Glass and in galleries from California to Denmark. His Tapestry series, composed of thousands of precisely cut glass stringers, balances mathematical precision with organic feeling, rooted in memories of grain fields and big sky country.
• Tuesday, April 28, 6:30 p.m.: Artists’ Talk with Daniel Winterbottom. When University of Washington landscape architecture professor Daniel Winterbottom started wandering Seattle during the pandemic lockdown, he wasn’t planning to create award-winning reportage. He was simply seeking relief from isolation. The resulting series earned him one of only four Urban Sketchers Reportage Grants awarded globally in 2021. His talk explores how art becomes a way of paying attention.
• Wednesday, April 29, 6:30 p.m.: Jeff Oens in Conversation. A second evening with the local sculptor, this time in a more intimate conversation about his practice and the role of craft in public life.
• Thursday, April 30, 6 p.m.: Ricardo Ruiz Poetry Reading at BIMA. Washington State poet Ricardo Ruiz, whose work is rooted in the stories of Central Washington communities, brings language and craft into dialogue in a reading co-presented by BARN and the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art.
• Saturday, May 2, 4 p.m.: Artist Talk with Alisa Banks at BIMA. Dallas-based book artist Alisa Banks teaches BARN’s Print & Book Arts intensive during Handwork Week. Her artist talk, held at BIMA, is open to the public and free to attend.

On Friday, May 1 from 4 to 6 p.m. the week closes with a Handwork Open House, a free community walkthrough of BARN’s studios, so neighbors can see what a week of serious making looks like up close.

Free tours of BARN are also available at 1 p.m. on Wednesdays and Sundays. No registration, no commitment, just curiosity required.

What is BARN?

BARN began in 2012 when a group of woodworkers, fiber artists, and other creative people on Bainbridge Island decided to build something together. What they built, a 25,000-square-foot facility that opened in 2017, is one of the Pacific Northwest’s most ambitious community makerspaces: 11 volunteer-run studios spanning woodworking, glass arts, fiber arts, metal fabrication, culinary arts, jewelry, print and book arts, tech, media arts, drawing and painting, and writing.

Classes are open to anyone, no membership required, and tuition assistance is available to make participation accessible regardless of financial circumstances.

A few seats remain in Handwork Week workshops

The intensive workshops are mostly full, and students have traveled from across the country to study for a week with accomplished instructors. But a few spots remain in select classes taught by local and regional artists: novelist Jonathan Evison in the Writers’ Studio; woodworker Randi Purser; urban sketcher Daniel Winterbottom in Drawing and Painting; Tech Lab instructor Brian Gillespie; bronze sculptor Jeff Oens alongside Mario Oblak and Frank Wurden in Metal Fabrication; and poet Ricardo Ruiz in the Writers’ Studio. Tuition assistance is available.

Classes are open to students 14 and older. Details and registration at bainbridgebarn.org/handwork2026.

Washington as craft destination

BARN, BIMA, the Museum of Glass, the Burke Museum, and the Evergreen State College’s House of Welcome all participating in Handwork 2026 together.

Free Handwork Week events take place at BARN, 8890 Three Tree Lane NE, Bainbridge Island, and at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. Find the full schedule and details at bainbridgebarn.org/handwork2026.