Our jurors visit each exhibitor during the Festival as part of the jury process and subsequently award $20,000 in prize money. These award winners are announced at the awards ceremony at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday during the Festival, at the Allen Street Stage.
Our 2025 jurors:
Lindsay Ketterer Gates is the Executive Director of Touchstone Center for Crafts. She has an undergraduate degree in Fine Arts (1996), a graduate certificate in Non-Profit Management/Arts Administration (2002) and a Masters of Business Administration (2018). For over 25 years she has been a studio artist whose work is in the permanent collection of the American Embassy in the Republic of Djibouti, The Museum of Art and Design in NYC, Yale University Art Gallery as well as other international collections. She has work on tour in the exhibition ‘Rooted, Revived, Reinvented: Basketry in the 21st Century’ and recently had work on loan in the American Embassy in Bandar Seri Begawan and ‘Innovators and Legends; Generations in Textiles and Fibers”. Lindsay’s work has been featured on the cover of Metalsmith Magazine and on the pages of American Craft Magazine, FiberArts, Fiber Art Now, Surface Design Journal, Shuttle, Spindle and Dyepot Magazine, FIBERARTS Design Book VII, 500 Baskets, Making Good: An Inspirational Guide to being an Artist/Craftsmen, to name a few.
Kyle Houser is an accomplished artist, educator, and arts administrator based in the vibrant cultural hub of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Kyle received a Bachelor of Science degree with an emphasis in Studio Arts from Florida State University and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. With over two decades of experience in art education, Kyle brings a wealth of expertise to his work as Executive Director of PCA&M. Throughout his career, Kyle has maintained a rigorous professional studio practice of his own. His ceramic works have been exhibited and sold through galleries, exhibitions, festivals, and tours since the mid-90s, and his most recent work includes mixed media-based painting and drawing. His art has been collected by private and public collectors across America and as far away as Australia and Croatia.
Jon Weary attended Temple Rome study abroad program in 2009 & graduated Tyler School of Art with a BFA in 2011. His work has been exhibited recently at Fjord Space, Philadelphia (“As slow, as new, as single”) in March 2024, and at Ejecta Projects, Carlisle (“A Tune Subtle and Vast”) in February of 2023. Other 2024 group shows in Philadelphia include”Price Lists and Placements” at Moore College of Art & Design, “Plantasia” at Commonweal Gallery, “Vox XIX” at Vox Populi, and “I really like that!”, an exhibition of work from Dona Nelson’s personal art collection held at Tyler School or Art. Weary’s works are in numerous prominent private collections throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic US. In January 2025 Jon is scheduled to have a solo exhibition at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA for the university’s visiting artist program.
Juan Carlos Caballero-Perez is a professor in the Metals & Jewelry Design Program at Rochester Institute of Technology since 2001. He received his MFA and BFA at Rochester Institute of Technology, School for American Crafts. Carlos is a New York State Foundation of the Arts Fellowship Recipient, Craft Alliance of New York State Career Development Grant Recipient. His work is in several publications including On Body and Soul: Contemporary Armor to Amulets Breaking Ground: A Century of Craft Art in Western NY and 500 Bracelets. Work includes the creation of one of a kind jewelry as well as sculpture, including work installed at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester, NY, Pieters Family Life Center, Henrietta, NY, ArtWalk, Rochester Institute of Technology, both in Rochester, NY and Fairport Public Arts, Fairport, NY.
