Former awardees are some of the most outstanding artists in the Crafts field, including fiber art pioneer Gerhardt Knodel, former director of the trailblazing Cranbrook Academy in Michigan, and former UArts faculty member Bill Daley.

The James Renwick Alliance is an independent national nonprofit organization that celebrates the achievements of America’s craft artists and fosters scholarship, education and public appreciation of craft art. The Alliance was founded in 1982 and is the exclusive support organization of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the nation’s showcase of contemporary American craft.

“It is both humbling and thrilling to be recognized for doing the very thing I love most: teaching and making studio jewelry and metalwork,” said Church, a renowned jewelry maker who is a graduate of Skidmore College and earned her master's degree at Rochester Institute of Technology.

A member of the UArts faculty since 1979, Church has recently overseen student projects involving the creation of two ceremonial maces, one for the Philadelphia chapter of the Society of the Sons of St. George; the other for The Colburn School in Los Angeles. A third project involved students drawing inspiration from centuries-old Colonial Latin American artifacts to create intensely personal works composed of ceramics, stone, wood, metals, glass or fibers.

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