On July 1, 2025, a new executive director will take the reins at The Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts. When Jennifer Chrzanowski takes over from interim director Beth McLaughlin, she will arrive with expectations of bringing her fundraising prowess with her. In her previous role as deputy director of the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland, she helped to manage a $1.7M operating budget, $7.4M endowment, 24,000 square-foot building, and 1,700 object collection. Among her accomplishments at the AAM, which describes itself as "the cultural hub of the Eastern Shore for art, music, and educational programming," Chrzanowski launched a successful 3-day craft show. In addition to this she helped AAM grow its social-media presence, achieved record-breaking fundraising results, and more than doubled exhibition funding through key partnerships. (Charlotte Potter Kasic, known to Glass readers for her tenure at the Chrysler Museum of Art Glass Studio and Barry Art Museum, was named director of AAM in September of 2024).
Glass is one of several craft materials that has been featured at The Fuller Craft Museum, with notable exhibitions such as Stephanie Cole’s Secular Cathedral (2020), which traced Cole’s spiritual journey through stained glass Glass Lifeforms (2021); David Schnuckel’s Meaningful Gibberish (2022) which investigated notions of “mastery” and “craftsmanship” in glass art; and Material Mapping: Data-driven Sculpture (2023), which featured Norwood Viviano’s blend of information and glass sculpture. The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet caught up with the Fuller's incoming director to find out about her plans for this important museum on the glass-art map.
Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet: What interests you about contemporary crafts? What parts of your background resonate the most with the craft focus at the Fuller?
Jennifer Chrzanowski: "When I was interviewing with the Fuller we talked a lot about my 6 years of organizing the craft show. Part of what the craft show did was allow for people to eastern Maryland to meet with local and featured craft artists. I am hopeful for bringing that energy and that experience of connection to local artists to my work in Boston ... I was so nervous my first year doing the craft show because I was so new to craft and felt like "please just talk to me about photography, that's what I know." But then, after doing it, I loved it, and each year I became more and more interested in craft.”
Glass: What are your hopes for Fuller Craft Museum moving forward? What changes do you hope to bring to the museum?
Chrzanowski: "I haven't been the executive director of a museum but I was an executive director of a gallery for two-and-a-half years. But this is the first big-scale institution I will be in charge of. I feel my experience from so many different roles over the years has prepared me. I expect that coming into primarily a craft institution will be a fun and exciting change from my past experience."
Glass: How do you see glass making its way into the exhibitions/works being shown at Fuller Crafts?
Chrzanowski: "I am still learning about all of our great exhibitions and seeing some of the glass work coming out will be exciting and interesting. The Fuller has supported artists in glass in the past and I see it continuing to play a vital role in the museum. I am really excited for the new exhibition, “The Clown in Me Loves You” which is a collaborative collection between Nancy Callan & Katherine Gray—that comes to The Fuller in September."