 October 2008
Greetings!
The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design (CCCD) has launched ENEWS to keep you current with all our programs, exhibits and events. ENEWS will be sent out monthly with most news linking to more lengthy information found on our website www.craftcreativitydesign.org. Announcements cards will still be mailed for upcoming exhibits and talks. If you are on our mailing list to receive an announcement card for exhibits and would prefer to receive the information through ENEWS, please let us know and it will save us a stamp! Dian Magie, Executive Director CURRENT EXHIBITION
Celebrating the Bringle Sisters: Clay & Textile Mentors
September 5 - December 5, 2008 Artists Talks & Reception: Thursday, Oct. 9 at 5pm This exhibition presents the works of textile artist Edwina Bringle and potter Cynthia Bringle. These sisters have dedicated much of their lives to teaching, influencing innumerable students. This exhibition celebrates their contributions by exhibiting select works from throughout their lives. Cynthia Bringle
Cynthia Bringle, Frog Vessel, wood-fired stoneware, 2007, 7.5 x 12"
"When I was new to my art and struggling to find my own way, there were many potters working in my part of the world, but there was no one like Cynthia Bringle. Cynthia's doors were always open, her willingness to share and teach provided others and me leadership and showed me how I could model myself. The fact that she was making pots and making a living made me believe that it might be possible for me to do the same. Cynthia made pots that were based on utilitarian pottery, but treated them as one-of-a-kind objects. This creative playfulness is, in my opinion, Cynthia's hallmark. Her example has helped me to embrace the idea of continuous experimentation with my own work." -Ceramic artist and sculptor Michael Sherrill
Edwina Bringle
Edwina Bringle, Orange blanket, wool, 2007, 60 x 40"
"Edwina was my first weaving instructor and introduced me in 1973 to the world of textiles. She is an extraordinary teacher-clear, precise, calm and patient. When a loom needs fixing or a warp thread breaks, she has a solution. Encouraging words come when most needed. She enables you to stretch beyond the limits you might initially set. Through Edwina you'll observe colors and textures in your surroundings with fresh eyes. Her work warms your body and delights your soul. The Bringle sisters are gifts to Penland School of Crafts and our students and community. They are extremely generous with their time-as volunteers, advisors, mentors, teachers, and friends. They bring a kind of humor, tenacity and grit, wisdom, history, and stability to the life of the school. All that in addition to the beautiful work they produce!" -Jean McClaughlin, Director of Penland School of Craft
INSPIRED DESIGN CONFERENCE
January 7-10, 2009
REGISTER NOW! Registration forms at www.craftcreativitydesign.org/education/textiledesign or contact CCCD at 828-890-2050 to have a registration form mailed to you. DESCRIPTION: A conference that features international speakers in five growth areas of
Textile & Entrepreneurial textile design WHO SHOULD ATTEND? textile artists and designers, university faculty and students, investors in entrepreneurial textile opportunities, est. attendance 250-400 PLACE: Hendersonville, NC DATES: January 7-10, 2009 Keynote Speakers Session Speakers
CRAFT RESEARCH FUND GRANTS AWARDED
Review panel: The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design, is pleased to announce the awards from the CRAFT RESEARCH FUND for projects and graduate research. A total of 19 applications for research project grants and 13 applications for graduate research grants. The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design board approved the panel recommendation awarding 10 grants totaling $95,000. The mission of the Craft Research Fund is to advance, expand and support scholarship on U.S. studio craft. This is the fourth year of giving this award. 2009 Guidelines and application will be posted on the CCCD website with a July 1, 2009 deadline for awards for proposals beginning after October1, 2009. Grants awarded in 2005-2007 also appear on the CCCD website. 2008 Craft Research Fund Research Project Awards $15,000 Maria Elena Busnek $15,000 Stephanie Zollinger $15,000 Betty Bright $12,900 Miguel Gómez-Ibáñez, North Bennett Street School $10,000 Mark Shapiro 2008 Craft Research Fund Graduate Research Awards $10,000 John T. Synder, East Carolina University $5,000 Sandra Jenkins, Corcoran College of Arts & Design $5,000 Jennifer Lindsay, Corcoran College of Arts & Design $3,500 Gabriel Craig, Virginia Commonwealth University $3,500 Scott Perkins, Bard Graduate Center OF RELATED INTEREST
American Craft Council Show in Charlotte, NC New artists, new work, and a Green Craft component will be on display at "The American Craft Show" in Charlotte at the uptown Convention Center, October 31 - November 2, 2008. Celebrating its 14th year in Charlotte, this much-anticipated event delivers the nation's leading 200 artists and their latest designer jewelry, furniture, clothing, home decor and more, to the public. Guests can indulge in daily raffles and live demonstrations and meet the artists who create these one-of-a-kind treasures. Tickets are $8 per person or $14 for a two-day pass. Free entry for America Craft Council members. SOFA Chicago 2008, November 7 - 9, 2009 Don't miss "The Philanthropy of Craft: Innovative Ways to Maker Your Charitable Contributions Count" as part of the SOFA Lecture Series CCCD's Director, Dian Magie, will participate in this panel along with John E. Brown III, Executive Director, Windgate Charitable Foundation; Cindi Strauss, Curator, Modern & Contemporary Decorative Arts and Design, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and Jean McLaughlin, Executive Director, Penland School of Crafts. Cherokee Pottery: People of One Fire exhibition features a collection of visually stunning and culturally significant pottery made by the Cherokee people spanning centuries of dramatic culture change. From its utilitarian, ceremonial, and decorative uses in prehistoric times to its contemporary appeal as fine art, the pottery of the Cherokees has continued as a vibrant and distinct part of their culture. This traveling exhibition is sponsored by the Cherokee Preservation Foundation of North Carolina and features over 80 pieces. www.cherokeeheritage.org. On view at the Mountain Heritage Center in Cullowhee, NC, August 4 - Nov. 16, 2008. PUBLICATIONS
A Theory of Craft: Function and Aesthetic Expression by Howard Risatti. Published by Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. What is craft? How is it different from fine art or design? Risatti examines these issues by comparing handmade ceramics, glass, metalwork, weaving, and furniture to painting, sculpture, photography, and machine-made design from Bauhaus to the Memphis Group. He describes craft's unique qualities as functionality combined with an ability to express human values that transcend temporal, spatial, and social boundaries. Craft must articulate a role for itself in contemporary society, says Risatti; otherwise it will be absorbed by fine art or design and its singular approach to understanding the world will be lost. Thinking Through Craft is co-published in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Written by Glenn Adamson, Deputy Head of Research and Head of Graduate Studies at the Victoria and Albert Museum, "this book is a timely and engaging introduction to the way that artists working in all media think about craft. Workmanship is key to today's visual arts, when high 'production values' are becoming increasingly commonplace. Yet craft's centrality to contemporary art has received little serious attention from critics and historians. Dispensing with clichéd arguments that craft is art, Adamson persuasively makes a case for defining craft in a more nuanced fashion. The interesting thing about craft, he argues, is that it is perceived to be 'inferior' to art. The book consists of an overview of various aspects of this second-class identity - supplementarity, sensuality, skill, the pastoral, and the amateur. It also provides historical case studies analyzing craft's role in a variety of disciplines, including architecture, design, contemporary art, and the crafts themselves." Source: www.amazon.com Ornament as art: Avant-Garde Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection This richly illustrated 528-page catalogue, available at amazon.com, features an introduction and essay by Cindi Strauss, an essay by Helen Williams Drutt English, an interview of Drutt by Strauss, a chronology of major events in contemporary jewelry, a complete illustrated checklist of the Drutt collection and artist biographies. This catalogue accompanies a landmark exhibition that explores contemporary jewelry from a global perspective. The exhibition traces the development of artist-made jewelry and honors its craft roots while also placing the work within a larger framework of seminal movements in 20th century art. Ornament as Art showcases a broad array of national and international works made between 1963 and 2006. The exhibition includes 300 objects, including 275 pieces of jewelry and drawings, watercolors, sketchbooks and sculptural constructions by the artists. Cindi Strauss, curator of modern and contemporary decorative arts and design at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, organized the exhibition; Robyn Kennedy, chief of the Renwick Gallery, is coordinating curator for the exhibition in Washington. Makers: 20th Century American Studio Craft (working title) At the first "Think-Tank" convened by CCCD in 2002, of craft faculty, museum director and curators, scholars and critics, the initiative ranked as most important to the advancement of the field was a history of American Craft in the twentieth Century. The journey toward making this a reality can be tracked on www.craftcreativitydesign.org/research/history.php. 20th Century American Studio Craft by Janet Koplos and Bruce Metcalf is with the publisher, the University of North Carolina Press. Long awaited, the book, researched and written under the auspices of CCCD, will include 500+ images and also serve as an undergraduate text. It will be released in late 2008. The University of North Carolina Press is making craft history and criticism a focus of the Press. Cahiers métiers d'art* Craft Journal, is a nonprofit organization that encourages and publishes critical, historical and technical research on local and international craft. Membership includes a subscription to the Cahiers métiers d'art* Craft Journal published twice a year. Each issue presents essays from international researchers in both French and English; book and exhibition reviews; and profiles of craftspeople from around the world. (www.craftjournal.ca) Denis Longchamps, publisher and managing editor, is interested in critical, technical and historical research on craft from all regions of the world. The first issue of The Journal of Modern Craft, edited by Glenn Adamson, Victoria & Albert Museum, UK; Edward S. Cooke, Jr. Yale University, USA; Tanya Harrod, Royal College of Art, UK, is the first peer-reviewed academic journal to provide an interdisciplinary and international forum in its subject area. It address all forms of making that self-consciously set themselves apart from mass production - whether in the making of designed objects, artworks, buildings or other artefacts. Published three times a year in March, July and November. To place an order/subscription visit www.bergpublishers.com and download order forms or email custerserv@turpin-distribution.com. About Us
The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design is an inter-institutional Center of the University of North Carolina. The mission of the regional UNC Center is to support and advance craft, creativity and design in education and research, and, through community collaborations, to demonstrate ways that craft and design provide creative solutions to community issues. The mission of the nonprofit CCCD is to support the mission of the UNC center through funding, programs, and outreach to artists, craft organizations, schools in the community, region and nation. email: info@craftcreativitydesign.org |
