Sarah Darro Named Curator + Exhibitions Director

Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) is pleased to announce that, following a national search, it has named Sarah Darro as its new curator and exhibitions director.

“HCCC is excited to welcome Sarah Darro back to Houston,” said HCCC Executive Director Perry Price. “After three years producing innovative and exciting exhibitions at the Center as our curatorial fellow, Sarah has continued to develop and deepen her curatorial voice in craft at peer institutions across the country and earn impressive accolades for her work. Her accomplishments, her relationships with artists and communities, and her novel approach to exhibition development and design will find a receptive home at HCCC and within the cultural community of Houston.”

Over the past decade, as a curator, writer, and visual anthropologist working at the nexus of contemporary art, craft, and design, Darro has established an intersectional curatorial vision that is invested in reinvigorating museum spaces as forums for discourse, innovation, action, and engagement through experience. Her research interests include artist communities and collectives, relational aesthetics, movement and performance practice in craft, architecturally influenced design, radical accessibility, systems esthetics, and the life histories and agency of objects.

A former HCCC Windgate Curatorial Fellow from 2015 – 2018, she has since completed a curatorial research fellowship in modern and contemporary glass at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY, and is currently the gallery manager of the Center for Craft in Asheville, NC, where she also founded the Green Room Gallery, a “movable kunsthalle" and dedicated long-form color study. In late November, she will return to HCCC, and to Houston, her favorite art city, to begin her new position. Darro commented, "I am thrilled to serve as the next curator and exhibitions director of Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Stewarding the exhibitions program of an institution that has led the charge in expansive, community-driven explorations of craft is a tremendous honor. I look forward to joining the passionate team at HCCC and to developing rigorous, adventurous curatorial presentations that reflect the vibrant cultural fabric of Houston and harness the enormous potential of new and unfolding narratives of craft."

In her new role, Darro will be responsible for leading the development, execution, and management of exhibitions and related programming at HCCC. She will work closely with HCCC Windgate Curatorial Fellow Cydney Pickens, as well as the organization’s staff, to design and implement public programs that support HCCC’s mission and strategic goals.

More about Sarah Darro
Sarah Darro is the 2022 Jentel Foundation Art Critic at the Archie Bray Foundation and was the 2019 American Craft Council Emerging Voices Scholar Awardee. In addition to her prior roles at HCCC, the Corning Museum of Glass, and the Center for Craft, she has held museum positions at a range of institutions internationally, including the Mu?tter Museum (Philadelphia, PA), Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford, United Kingdom), Villa La Pietra Museum (Florence, Italy), and the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts (Philadelphia, PA). She holds a Master’s degree in visual, material, and museum anthropology from the University of Oxford and dual Bachelor’s degrees in art history and anthropology from Barnard College of Columbia University. More information about Darro’s curatorial practice can be found at https://www.sarahdarro.com/.

About Houston Center for Contemporary Craft
Serving as a treasured resource in the Houston arts community for more than 20 years, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) is a nonprofit visual arts center dedicated to advancing education about the process, product, and history of craft. HCCC showcases emerging and acclaimed artists in exhibitions, introduces visitors of all ages to contemporary craft through hands-on and virtual programming, and supports the development of working artists through its artist residency program.

HCCC is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 AM – 5 PM. Closed major holidays. Admission is free. Before visiting, the public should visit the website to view the latest visitor guidelines. All programs and events are subject to change or cancellation in response to the current COVID-19 conditions. HCCC is located in the Museum District at 4848 Main Street, three blocks south of the Wheeler Ave. MetroRail station. Free parking is available directly behind the facility, off Rosedale and Travis Street.

HCCC is supported by individual donors and members and funded in part by The Brown Foundation; Houston Endowment, Inc.; the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance; Texas Commission on the Arts; the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kinder Foundation; the Morgan Foundation; Windgate Charitable Foundation; and the Wortham Foundation. HCCC is a member of the Houston Museum District and the Midtown Arts District.

For more information, call 713-529-4848 or visit www.crafthouston.org. Find HCCC on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @CraftHouston.