ABOUT THE PARTY



HONOREES

Wendy Maruyama, Artist

Furniture maker, artist, and educator Wendy Maruyama has been making innovative work for over 40 years. She is one of the first two women to graduate with a Master's Degree in furniture making from Rochester Institute of Technology, and is now a retired professor, having taught at Appalachian Center for Crafts, California College of the Arts, and San Diego State University. While Wendy’s early creative work combined ideologies of feminism and traditional craft objects, her newer work moves beyond the boundaries of traditional studio craft and into the realm of social practice. The exhibitions Executive Order 9066 and The Tag Project, comprised bodies of work about the forcible relocation of Japanese American citizens during WWII, were shown at the Museum of Craft and Design in 2014-2015. Wendy notes “The works trace my exploration of ethnicity and identity, and conclude with the Executive Order 9066 series, which addresses the internment of Japanese Americans in the US during World War II. 120,000 Japanese Americans were evacuated and removed from their homes along the West Coast, including my maternal family members.” The artist’s wildLIFE Project exhibition, hosted by the Museum of Craft and Design in 2017, focused public attention on wildlife poaching, particularly the endangerment of African elephants and rhinoceroses. 

Wendy’s work can be found in numerous museum collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Australia; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Art and Design, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton; Mingei International Museum, San Diego; the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. and the Oakland Museum of California. She is a recipient of several prestigious awards, including the California Civil Liberties Public Education Grant, 2010; several National Endowment for the Arts Grants for Visual Artists; the Japan/US Fellowship; a Fulbright Research Grant to work in the UK; a USA Artist Fellowship, 2016; and a Masters of the Medium Award from the James Renwick Alliance for Craft, 2021.

Joyce J. Scott, Artist

Hailing from Baltimore, Maryland, Joyce J. Scott is a printmaker, weaver, sculptor, performance artist, and educator, arguably best known for her depictions of racially and politically charged subjects crafted from beadwork and blown glass. Of her own work, Scott says, “I believe in messing with stereotypes…It’s important for me to use art in a manner that incites people to look and then carry something home – even if it’s subliminal…” The daughter of renowned quilt maker and folk artist Elizabeth Talford Scott, Joyce studied at Maryland Institute College of Art and went on to receive her MFA from the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. She also received an Honorary Doctorate from California College of the Arts in 2019. 

Joyce’s works are held in the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas, Lawrence; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., among others. In 2016 she was named a Fellow of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The Museum of Craft and Design was honored to host the exhibition Kickin' It with Joyce J. Scott in 2005. 

David Gauger, President and Creative Director 

Gauger + Associates 

David Gauger co-founded Gauger + Associates, a marketing communications firm headquartered in San Francisco. The firm provides strategic planning, branding, package design, interactive marketing, content creation, and advertising for a variety of visionary organizations. As the creative director of the agency, David contributes extensive experience, from building brands for Fortune 500 companies to helping popularize the organic food movement. David has taught social marketing, advertising, graphic design, and advanced visual communications at the university level. His agency’s work has garnered hundreds of creative awards in the US, Europe, and Asia, including dozens of MAME (Major Achievement in Marketing Excellence) Awards. David is an Emeritus Board Member of the Museum of Craft and Design and has provided MCD with invaluable design and marketing guidance. 

Kit Hinrichs, Principal and Creative Director

Studio Hinrichs

Kit Hinrichs served as principal in several design offices in New York and San Francisco and spent 23 years as a partner of Pentagram before opening Studio Hinrichs in 2009. His design experience incorporates a wide range of projects, including brand development, promotion, packaging, environmental graphics, editorial, and exhibition design. He is also a noted American Flag collector and founder of the Stars & Stripes Foundation. Kit’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Denver Museum of Art; and the Letterform Archive, San Francisco. In addition to authoring Narrative Design, he has co-authored five books, including Typewise, Long May She Wave, and The Pentagram Papers. He co-founded @issue: The Journal of Business and Design. Kit has chaired the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) California Show (the first regional show in AIGA’s 100-year history), the AIGA Business Conference, and the San Francisco Design Lecture Series. He is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and an AIGA medalist. Kit and his team at Studio Hinrichs have provided impactful designs for numerous Museum of Craft and Design projects including event collateral, exhibition catalogs, and the colorful brand identity and design for MCD's Mobile MakeArt van.

Michael Osborne, President and Creative Director

Michael Osborne Design

Michael Osborne ran an award-winning San Francisco design firm for over 35 years, operated his letterpress printing shop One Heart Press for over 21 years, and taught package design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco for 27 years. He has been a featured speaker at numerous conferences and design schools and was the recipient of the prestigious AIGA Fellow Award in 2006. That same year, Michael founded the non-profit organization Joey’s Corner in memory of his son, providing pro-bono, creative services to non-profit groups focusing on health care, children’s, and social well-being issues. His design portfolio includes the 2002 and 2004 Love stamps, the 2006 and 2013 Wedding stamp set, the 2006 Madonna & Child stamp, the 2007 Patriotic Banner stamp, and the 2012 presorted Spectrum Eagle stamps for the USPS. He is also responsible for numerous familiar brand identities and packaging including Kettle Brand Potato Chips, Jack Daniel’s, BevMo!, and the Museum of Craft and Design. Michael’s work is included in the permanent collections of the SFMOMA; LACMA, Los Angeles; the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York; and the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, Washington, D.C. In addition to MCD’s recognizable logo, Michael Osborne Design created exhibition catalogs and a myriad of collateral materials while Michael was an MCD board member.

Marcel Wilson, Founder and Design Director

Bionic

Marcel Wilson is an agile and inventive designer and a recognized leader in the transformation of cities and landscapes. He founded the San Francisco-based landscape architecture, urban design, and planning practice firm Bionic in 2007, on the belief that every project offers the possibility of invention. Through Marcel’s leadership, Bionic has received significant commissions from LinkedIn, Google, Genentech, and Zeiss. At the city scale, he is leading the design of the public realm for the City of Sunnyvale and India Basin in San Francisco. The firm has won multiple international design competitions including Fort Mason Center Public Realm, The Adobe Creek Bridge in Palo Alto, and The Resilient By Design Bay Area Challenge. Bionic has been featured in numerous publications including Fast Company, Landscape Architecture Magazine, Dwell, SF Chronicle, and the Harvard Design Magazine. In 2012 Bionic was nominated for the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian National Design Award. Also a champion of arts and culture, Marcel created a Solar Terrain for the Museum of Craft and Design at the museum’s original location as part of the exhibition New West Coast Design curated by Ted Cohen. In 2015, Marcel designed the parklet for MCD in Dogpatch, providing a social space along 3rd Street for all to enjoy, in memory of the museum's co-founder Seb Hamamjian.

LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired

Headquartered in San Francisco, LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired provides education, training, advocacy, and community for blind individuals in California and around the world. Founded in 1902, the LightHouse is one of the largest and most established comprehensive blindness organizations in North America, with a wide variety of programs to suit a wide variety of needs, as well as a rich network of blindness advocates and professionals. Each month, LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired offers over 50 social and recreational activities to engage people who are blind in a supportive community. This includes activities in partnership with the Museum of Craft and Design at LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired’s facility, and at the museum through exhibition tours and MCD’s MakeArt Accessible: Access After Hours program.

Ruth Williams Opera House

Ruth Williams Opera House was founded in 1989 to offer programs at their namesake building, now officially named the Bayview Opera House Ruth Williams Memorial Theatre.  This San Francisco landmark was inducted into the National Register of Historic Buildings in 2011. An anchor in the Bayview Hunters Point community, the Opera House provides opportunities to engage in the arts for a community with a long history of disinvestment, creates a sense of belonging and community ownership of the only significant cultural resource in the neighborhood, maintains inclusiveness of the traditional population despite sweeping gentrification, and provides opportunities for education and employment to community youth and artists. The Opera House strives to nurture, educate, and inspire the next generation of artists of color; grow new informed audiences from the community and the greater Bay Area; and create spaces for artists to experiment, collaborate, and learn from one another. The Opera House began its partnership with the Museum of Craft and Design in 2004, offering MCD’s exhibition-related programs and artist-driven art-making activities in Bayview. 

2023 SUPPORTERS

DISCO BALL SPONSOR

Sharon Simpson


CRYSTAL BALL SPONSORS

Robin Azevedo

Peggy and Yogen Dalal 

Alyce and Steve Kaplan

Babette and Steven Pinsky

Dorothy Saxe

Barbara Waldman


GLITTER BALL SPONSORS

Lisa Bayne Astor and Andy Astor

Kathy and Arthur Hahn

Christine Motley and Neil O'Donnell


SPARKLE BALL SPONSORS

JoAnn and Ken Edwards

Pamela and David Hornik

Jason Kelly Johnson and Nataly Gattegno

Joy Ou 

Miriam Owen

Nina Pinsky

Roselyne Chroman Swig


IN-KIND SPONSORS

Bryr Studio, Chappellet, Peggy and Yogen Dalal, DigWineSF, Dogpatch Boulders, Ken Edwards, Embrace Calistoga, EPIC Steak, Fort Point Beer Company, Gary Hutton Design, Gilberth's Latin Fusion, Keith Goldstein, David Landis (The Gay Gourmet), Olle Lundberg, MacRostie Winery, Navarro Vineyards, Piccino, Babette and Steven Pinsky, The Plant Organic Cafe, Revel Shop SF, Sharon Simpson, Souvla, Studio Hinrichs, Waterbar, Tito's Handmade Vodka