About the Jurors...

Michael Banner: For the last 37 years, Michael Banner has been a full-time professional studio silversmith and jewelry craftsman, and has been selling at crafts fairs "since the beginning of time." Banner works with his wife Maureen, also a silversmith, in their rural Berkshire County, Mass., studio.

They are represented in the collection of the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art's Smithsonian Institution, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brauer Museum of Art, and many private collections. The Banners have juried craft shows, their work has won awards in craft fairs and is included in the finest craft collections. Michael and Maureen Banner continue to love the craft fair venue and use fairs as their primary means of contact with humanity.

Leslie Ferrin: Leslie Ferrin is co-owner of Ferrin Gallery and Pinch Pottery -- a gallery and shop in western Massachusetts specializing in ceramics, jewelry and other handmade objects.

She has served as a juror on: ACC West Springfield 1989; Niche Awards 1989; Crafts at the Castle 1991; Guilford Handcrafts 1993; George Little Management, Review Committee 1993; Vermont Council on the Arts, Craft Fellowships, 1993; Massachusetts Cultural Council, Visual Arts Organizations, 1993; Kentucky Craft Marketing Program, 1994; Currents '95, SOFA Exhibition for Emerging Artists; Kraus Sikes Publishers, Review Committee, 1995; Westchester and Washington Craft Shows, 1995.

Josh Simpson: Josh Simpson is a full-time glass artist working in Shelburne Falls, Mass. He has been a juror for many craft show venues in the United States, including American Craft Enterprises (ACE), Crafts America, Crafts at the Castle (Boston, Mass.), and WBAI. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions in the U.S., France, Austria, Switzerland and Germany, and is featured in many permanent collections worldwide, including the White House Collection of American Crafts.

Simpson has received numerous merit awards, and is a three-time recipient of the ACE (Evanston, Ill.) Jurors' Award for Best in Glass. In addition to serving as founding president and current member of the Craft Emergency Relief Fund, Simpson is a member of the board of directors for the Glass Art Society and ACE, and is an associate member of the American Craft Museum, among other related activites. He has lectured and held workshops in the United States and Japan.