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Store Reveal + Exhibition Opening
Date: Thursday, July 16 , 2026
Time: 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Description:
Contemporary Craft is excited to invite you to TWO big events on Thursday, July 16 from 6:00 – 8:00 PM! For this double-feature evening, we’ll be revealing the Store’s updated new look, and celebrating the opening of Bodies in Motion: Melissa English Campbell in the David Zeve Gallery for Regional Artists!
About the Store Refresh
Our Store has been under construction for the summer, undergoing a big refresh! On the evening of Thursday, July 16, we’ll be revealing its new look, a new range of artist-made pieces, and celebrating a new stage for the Store. This refresh is inspired by Contemporary Craft’s origins as The Store for Arts and Crafts and People-Made Things in Verona, Pennsylvania, as conceived by our founder, Elizabeth “Betty” Rockwell Raphael.
We’ll still carry the hand-crafted housewares, artworks, and gifts that you expect from us, but with larger collections from slightly fewer artists, thoughtfully curated to help you discover new favorites and learn even more about the artists you already love.So join us to celebrate, meet a few of the artists represented in the Store, and be the first to shop new collections!
About Bodies in Motion: Melissa English Campbell Opening Reception
Please also join us in celebrating the opening of Bodies in Motion: Melissa English Campbell in our David Zeve Gallery for Regional Artists! This exhibition of new large-scale, colorful weavings was inspired when artist Melissa English Campbell recognized an unconscious survival response in herself—a pattern of assimilative imitation, strategic precision, and the pursuit of belonging. She learned that this kind of mirroring is an adaptive mechanism commonly shared by many immigrants and their daughters.
As an expression of this experience, each of the handcrafted weavings on view exists in relation to a mirrored counterpart. While images are repeated, each work maintains its own character, allowing the pairings to form larger, more complex images holding similarity and difference in productive tension. Suspended, the textiles absorb sound and sway gently in response to air currents and passing bodies, creating a vibrantly patterned environment that also serves as a space of quiet comfort.
Please join the artist for this opening reception on July 16, from 6:00 – 8:00 PM.
The Store Reveal and the Opening Reception of Bodies in Motion are both FREE events, open to the public. Registration is preferred but not required.
Location: Contemporary Craft, Raphael Building (5645 Butler St., Pittsburgh, PA 15201)
Photos by Julie Celidonia (left) and Ash I. Campbell (right).
A Swim (In Clouds Reflected) by Melissa English Campbell. Photo courtesy of the artist.
