ABOUT
Artist Statement
Grace Brogan is an artist at the intersection of traditional craft and contemporary design.
Grace explores the life of raw materials and the processes that bring those items to a state of service in our current culture, with eyes open to the social, economic, and environmental impacts of that journey. Because a broom is a ubiquitous, functional object, people have a sense of familiarity and – sometimes – dismissiveness toward it. But a broom is an object open to material and design interpretation, while still remaining identifiable as a broom. In broom making, the agricultural skills of growing broom corn can be married with the arts of weaving, natural dyeing, wood working, ceramics, and more.
She has spent over 15 years learning technique from craftspeople in the mediums of fiber, ceramics, and wood. Grace participated in a winter residency where she worked on her existing brush-making techniques and dove into natural dying of cordage at Penland School of Craft in January 2020 and in the summer 2022 she was in residence with Montana’s Open AIR.
She stands behind the integrity of her brooms, which are meant to last decades when well-cared for, so come with a lifetime warranty. She takes the tradition of the craft seriously, participating in workshops with Dennis Chilcote in 2009 and Marlow Gates in 2019. She was also selected for a fully-funded mentorship with a focus on advanced broom making and the livelihood of professional craftspeople at John C Campbell Folk School with Mark Hendry and Marlow Gates in 2023, and traveled to Japan in 2024 to learn from and connect a handful of broom makers in similar early/mid-career postitions with share values.
Two of her sculptural brooms were acquired by Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in 2019 for their permanent collection following the brooms’ inclusion in a group show highlighting young artists who are bridging the gap between traditional and contemporary craft.
In recent years, she has enjoyed meeting new friends and patrons at American Craft Council and Smithsonian Craft shows. She received the JRA Craft Award for Excellence in Innovation at the ACC Baltimore show in early 2025.
Grace explores familiar household forms and sculptural objects, playing in the space of mindful and mundane, labor and ritual, ordinary and extraordinary.
She works from her studio in Missoula, Montana.
About Me
I’ve been drawing, making, and fiddling since as far back as I can remember.
I studied fine art as an undergraduate and soon thereafter worked at a school of traditional craft that allowed me to dig deeper into woodwork and textiles. I made my first broom in the early spring of 2009. I still dance between these spaces, and have explored various media and practices between.
I went on to pursue an interdisciplinary master’s degree to understand and communicate the ties between the environment, human culture, and the items and systems that support our everyday lives in ways both damaging and supportive to our social fabric and ecology. I am dedicated to values-based economies and careful use of our natural resources, and working to support thriving rural communities is a big part of how I spend my energy when I’m not in my workshop.
My work is in permanent gallery collections and everyday kitchens, and I am so grateful for the opportunities to interact with both settings.
We’ve called lovely Missoula, Montana home for over a decade now and are grateful for our spectacular community, rivers, and trails. I still harbor a deep appreciation for Minnesota, the state in which I was raised and first learned about functional art.
Thank you for inviting my work into your space.
