From the moment Corey Pemberton (B.F.A. ’12) first stepped into the glass studio in the Fine Arts Building at VCUarts, he was hooked. The heat, the glow, the collaborative spirit, “I was completely captivated,” he says.
Two days later, he declared a major in Craft/Material Studies, with a focus in glass.
Today, Pemberton’s creative practice is rooted in three pillars, weaving together glass making with painting and his community-oriented nonprofit, Crafting the Future. His visual practice explores the idea of cultural hybridity, drawing on motifs from the African diaspora and melding them with forms from European decorative arts, Chinese and early American pottery, and textiles.
“I want viewers to think about how much better a place the world is when objects and when conversations like these exist,” Pemberton says. “When they’re considering people who don’t look like them or don’t come from backgrounds that are exactly like theirs.”
Here, Corey shares how VCUarts helped him develop his craft, and how he’s working to make the craft school experience accessible to more artists.
On Oct. 7, as part of the VCUarts Lecture Series, he’ll also talk about the unifying thread of human connection that interlaces and informs both his personal artistic practice and his work in the community. Register to attend in person or virtually.
Tell me about your first introduction to glassmaking.
I came to VCUarts with an interest in drawing and painting and illustration, but during Art Foundation, I got to dabble in other areas and really think about what I wanted to study. In the end, I was lured by the glass studio—which I never saw coming.
One night, I was exploring the Fine Arts Building with a friend and as soon as we turned from the staircase onto the second floor, I could hear a dull hum that turned into melody and rhythm. As we got closer, I could see the glow of the furnace and feel the heat. It was late at night and there were a couple of folks blowing glass. They had the music going and they were dancing while they were working. They invited us to watch, and I couldn’t take my eyes off them. I declared my major two days later, even though I’d never touched glass in my life.
How did your experience at VCUarts help you develop your craft?
When you’re first learning to make glass in the hot shop, you often emulate the things that your instructor makes or that you see somebody else make. I will say, the program was trying to get us away from that. [Glass professor] Jack Wax made a curriculum that was more conceptual. He wanted us to create things based on our own thoughts and experiences. I didn’t have that muscle yet and I was interested in technique, so I used my time to become more technically proficient. I supplemented my education at VCUarts with summer workshops at the Penland School of Craft.
My favorite part about being in Craft/Material Studies is that we were encouraged to take classes in different areas. I took workshops in drawing, painting and printmaking, and sculpture and that informed my practice. I still hold that spirit and that energy and fearlessness to travel between different media and techniques.
Did you have any meaningful faculty interactions?
Sonia Clark was the department head when I first got into craft, and she opened the whole world up for me. When she saw I was developing an interest in basketry, she turned me onto this book about sweetgrass baskets from South Africa and the African diaspora. It felt like I was being given permission, for the first time, to make work about my experience as a Black person in America. I’m of mixed race and, for some reason, I felt like I needed that permission. Her giving me that nudge was the first step towards me realizing that I am the only expert on my own experience. It took a little bit of germination, but I started to explore that more after my time at VCUarts.
What led you to found your nonprofit, Crafting the Future?
When I was at Penland, the glaring lack of racial and ethnic diversity in artistic spaces was a recurring theme in our conversations. We decided one day we needed to stop talking about it and see if we could do something about it. Annie Evelyn, who’s now the head of the wood program at VCUarts, suggested that we start an organization to mobilize and harness the energy of the artists in our community to effect some change.
It was her idea to partner with youth arts organizations and connect them with the craft school experience, which we both found so transformative. We partnered with a youth arts organization in New Orleans and raised money for two students to go to Penland, including tuition, room and board, travel, and material stipends. The next year, Penland matched our efforts and once we had their buy-in, other schools started paying attention. Now, we have partnerships with eight craft schools and nine youth organizations and provide scholarships for about 40 students every summer. We’ve also started developing programming in other areas, including exhibitions, residencies, and granting opportunities.
Do you have any advice for students or young alumni who are just getting started?
I would encourage them to trust themselves. Especially when your work is interdisciplinary, we can get in our heads. We believe that we’re supposed to be recognized for one thing, and that if we start to stray too much from that, that we won’t be building our voice or following as much as we could or should be. I would encourage people to fight that and trust that if you are true to yourself and honest about your experience, the things that come out of you will be evident that they are yours, whether it’s in your first chosen media or something that’s totally new to you.