Crafting Commerce Cohort (C3) Labs

Gwynne Rukenbrod Smith currently serves as the Project Manager for Craft Your Commerce at Mountain BizWorks. She is the former Executive Director for the Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG), an organization dedicated to the support and advancement of contemporary jewelry and metal artists.  Before that, Gwynne was the Executive Director for HandMade in America, an economic development organization that focuses on growing craft economies in Western North Carolina.  While there she created Craft Labs a professional development series of classes for artists.  From 2008 -2010, Gwynne was the Curator of Fine Craft at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. There she coordinated the traveling exhibition Craft in America and curated a significant blacksmithing exhibition, Forged, Tempered, Quenched which combined historical blacksmiting with contemporary pieces, illustrating the growth in the field over the last century. She is an accomplished glass artist as well as an arts executive.  She ran a successful glass business for several years.  She has worked with both rural and urban communities teaching her professional development and entrepreneurship workshops across the country for over 18 years.  Gwynne believes in helping artists and small business owners expand their markets and create sustainable businesses.   She currently serves as the Board Chair for the North Carolina Glass Center and lives in Asheville, NC with her husband and two dogs.