As the year comes to a close, the Evansville Museum staff has been hard at work putting together the biennial Mid-States Craft Exhibition. This year, 42 artworks created by 33 artists have been selected by juror Maya Brooks, who currently serves as the Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh and Winston-Salem. The Mid-States Craft Exhibition is open to artists from Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, and Tennessee who work with the following media: enamel, glass, metal, mixed media, textile, and wood. In honor of the incredible people and art included in this exhibition, we have highlighted a piece from every state represented in the Mid-States region below.
Laura O’Donnell is an instructor at Eastern Illinois University, where she teaches ceramics and art history. She received a B.A. in Ceramics from Wittenberg University in 1992, followed by her M.A. in Art History and her M.F.A. in Ceramics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1998 and 2000, respectively. O’Donnell has published articles dissecting ceramics and sculpture in various journals.
Anita Bracalente has been a practicing visual artist for over fifty years, exploring mediums such as painting, stained glass, fiber art, and photography throughout her career. Despite being formally trained as a painter, Bracalente became enthralled with textile work and developed a method of knitting with beads that effectively combines her admiration of indigenous handicrafts with her reverence for nature.
More of Anita’s work can be found at her website: https://anitabracalentevisualartist.com/
Carlos Gamez de Francisco was born and raised in post-revolutionary Cuba, educated in an academic style heavily influenced by the Russian Academy. By the age of 15, he was painting 8 hours a day. He arrived in the United States with no knowledge of English, and he committed himself to learning 100 words each day. His work is heavily imbued with symbolism, often featuring insects. In his work, flying insects represent freedom, falling insects represent chaos, and insects at rest represent balance.
More of Carlos’s work can be found at his website: https://www.carlosgamezdefrancisco.com/
Huey Lee is a ceramic artist from South Korea currently based in Kansas City, MO, where he serves as a studio technician in the Artist-in-Residence program at KC Clay Guild. Lee studied under renowned artists such as TaeGon Kim, Inchin Lee, and Gil-bae Kim. He holds a BFA from Kyung Hee University and an MFA from the University of Georgia.
More of Huey’s work can be found at his website: https://www.hueyleearts.com/home
Weiting Wei received her Bachelor of Education at Fujian Huanan Women’s Vocational College in 2005 before pursuing her MFA in Visual Arts at the Columbus College of Art and Design in 2018. Her work is deeply tied to her identity as a mother and caregiver, and she relates her understanding of material behavior and artistic processes to domestic tasks because they foster familiarity with forms and muscle memory. Wei’s recent work is inspired by the natural forms of organisms captured through her unique perspective, influenced by the dynamic shapes and intricate details of nature juxtaposed with childhood memories and diverse emotional states women experience throughout their lives.
More of Weiting’s work can be found at her website: https://weitingwei.com/
Melissa Newman is an artist and educator based in Nashville, TN. She holds a BFA from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga as well as an MA and MFA in Painting from the University of Iowa. Newman has taught Foundations and Painting classes at Middle Tennessee State University since 2008. Her work is influenced by her roles as artist, mother, teacher, and wife. Newman’s artmaking process is cyclical in the sense that she sees and experiences the world affects the images she creates, while making images affects the way she sees the world.
We thank our generous exhibition sponsors, the Efroymson Family Fund, Mr. and Mrs. G. Richard Eykamp, and Dr. Dan Whitehead, in addition to our award sponsors, John and Konnie Schlechte, Margaret Dennis, Kevin and Margaret Koch, Steve and Susan Worthington, Mary S. and David A. Bower, Les and JoAnne Miley, Patricia Mitsos, Rick and Janet Zeiher, and Jean Graham Lee, for making this exhibition possible. The 48th Mid-States Craft Exhibition opens on December 4th, 2025, and will be on view until February 22nd, 2026. There will be an awards ceremony held on December 13th, 2025, from 6-8 pm CST. This reception is open to the public, with a cash bar and hors d'oeuvres. Stop by the museum to see these remarkable works in person, alongside 36 other unique pieces!
