Craft facilities in America are under pressure today more than ever before. Institutional closures, program scale-backs, and facility consolidations are happening across the country. My own MFA program will see me as the last graduating class from Oregon College of Art and Craft, an institution with a 112-year history. East Creek, a 20 acre forest art property in the coastal mountains of Oregon that is home to a 40-foot long Anagama style wood kiln, is a research-intensive place that typifies craft production facilities across the country with a shared work, shared result process. East Creek’s 36 year history isn’t as long as OCAC’s, but it spans longer than the years of my life. At East Creek, each archetype of the pastoral art community- isolation, community, and craft tradition, is expressed and can be explored. As the current owner and steward of East Creek, my mission is to further art education. By building a world for artists where one can make, do, or be anything, I create opportunities for collaboration, connection, and belonging.  East Creek can in this way become a haven for craft tradition, one which faces an uncertain future in larger institutions