A Textbook for Craft

August 2010 | BY admin | Fall 2010, Issue 73 | 1 COMMENT

If you can’t crisscross the country touring new museum wings and exhibitions, immerse yourself in Makers: A History of American Studio Craft (University of North Carolina Press, $65). This heavyweight starts with the Industrial Revolution and works its way to personal histories of studio craft artists through the end of the 20th century.

Authors Janet Koplos and Bruce Metcalf position Makers as a comprehensive review of the history of craft “told in human terms.” The focus is on the artists, not simply criticism of the objects they produce—and covers clay, fiber, glass, metal and wood, with mediums clumped together in each chapter.

“Craft is not a neat package with defined edges,” the authors explain in the preface. “It overlaps with design, fashion, art and industrial and folk practices.” To flesh out the history, short biographies of designers are included among longer treatments for lifetime studio craft artists.

Highlights include the greats like furniture masters George Nakashima and Sam Maloof, glass masters Harvey Littleton and Dominick Labino, and ceramists Vivika and Otto Heino and Patti Warashina. But don’t miss the last two chapters—that’s where the authors really dig in with detailed biographies, and where you’ll find the anchors of the craft community we know today.

Art in Situ

August 2010 | BY admin | Fall 2010, Issue 73 | 1 COMMENT

: The west wall in gallery 13 at the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pa.

If you’re a fan of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, get yourself to the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pa. Why now? The foundation is constructing new galleries for its $25 billion collection on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in downtown Philadelphia, set to open late next year. The current Merion galleries will close to the public next July for the big move.

To see the foundation’s original 23 galleries, we suggest you schedule a visit now. Masterworks by Gauguin, Manet, Picasso and van Gogh hang salon style from floor to ceiling in fancifully painted rooms, amid African sculptures and Pennsylvania Dutch decorative arts. Yes, it can be overwhelming, but you can relax mid-visit by walking the foundation’s 12-acre grounds, aptly named the Arboretum. The gardens include a fern collection, lilac groves, trees that date back to the 1880s, and more than 3,000 species of international woody plants.

The new galleries in Philadelphia will replicate the current galleries as closely as possible, and also provide much-needed classroom, conservation and public space. For details, visit www.barnesfoundation.org.

Architecture + Art

August 2010 | BY admin | Fall 2010, Issue 73 | 1 COMMENT

: The new McGlothlin Wing at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond emits an ethereal glow at night. Credit: Travis Fullerton

Talk about innovation. It appears nothing can stop museums when it comes to enlisting world-class architects to redesign their buildings and transform their internationally renowned art collections. This fall, there’s no shortage of mouth-watering museums to visit—and you’ll want to go for the architecture as much as for the art.

First stop? Boston. On Nov. 20, trek to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for its free community day, when the museum unveils its $504 million renovations: the Art of the Americas wing and the Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Family Courtyard, which increase the museum’s footprint by a whopping 28 percent.

Stroll through the courtyard on your way to the Art of the Americas wing. It’s billed as a “light-filled gathering place” for good reason: its spacious 12,184 square feet rise to a 63-foot-high ceiling, and the walls of glass let the art out and the light in.
The Foster + Partners-designed Art of the Americas wing is elegantly incorporated into the museum’s original 1909 Beaux Arts building. And don’t miss the views. Two glass-and-granite pavilions flank the central glass building, offering sweeping vistas of the city skyline. Four stories and 53 galleries span three millennia, starting with ancient Native American art on the first level, and ending in 20th-century art upstairs.

For more of “Architecture + Art,” pick up the Fall 2010 issue of AmericanStyle, on newsstands Sept. 7! Subscribe now and never miss an article.

Arts Travel: Art Saddles Up in Kentucky

August 2010 | BY Sara Baker | Fall 2010, Issue 73 | NO COMMENTS

: This Egyptian carved-ivory “Prancing Horse” is part of an exhibition at the Kentucky Horse Park’s International Museum of the Horse. Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Kentucky isn’t horsing around; they mean business when it comes to hosting this fall’s World Equestrian Games, an event that is estimated to bring 600,000 visitors and an economic impact of $150 million to the area.

And you can’t possibly have an event that large without involving the arts; local galleries and museums are catching horse fever, too. More than 300,000 visitors are expected to head to “A Gift from the Desert: The Art, History and Culture of the Arabian Horse,” a blockbuster exhibition at the Kentucky Horse Park’s International Museum of the Horse in Lexington through Oct. 15. It collects 350 horse-related articles and artworks acquired from 27 international museums and private lenders.

Lexington’s Artique Gallery is getting in on the fun as well. Owner Mike Stutland is transforming the local Hilton hotel into an equine-themed art gallery, and bringing acclaimed sand-sculptor Damon Farmer to town to create a 100-ton piece commemorating the games.

If you’re looking for a place to hang your hat in Lexington, check out the “A Gift from the Desert” package at the Griffin Gate Marriott Resort & Spa. You’ll get accommodations, breakfast and tickets to the Horse Park and the exhibition, starting at just $199.

For more information on the World Equestrian Games and related events, visit www.alltechfeigames.com.

Arts Travel: Expansions Planned for Museum Hotel

August 2010 | BY Sara Baker | Fall 2010, Issue 73 | NO COMMENTS

: The atrium gallery at the 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville displays Cracking Art Group’s “Red Penguins.” Credit: Kenneth Hayden

A new 21c Museum Hotel is in the works for downtown Bentonville, Ark., based on the concept that began with the award-winning hotel in Louisville, Ky. The new location, set to open in 2012, will feature 12,000 square feet of exhibition and event space, curated rotating exhibitions and live art events.

Making the art hotel even more appealing is its location less than a quarter mile from the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, currently under construction, which will display an extensive collection of American art, ranging from colonial to contemporary, in an iconic wood and glass building.

Since it opened in 2006, the 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville has organized 30 art exhibitions, featuring everyone from internationally acclaimed artists to local college students. Following this success, similar properties are under development for Cincinnati, Ohio, and Austin, Texas, with plans to develop 15 new locations over the next three to five years.

For more information on all of the locations, visit www.21cmuseumhotel.com

Shaken and Stirred

May 2010 | BY Jennifer Clary | Issue 72, Summer 2010 | 5 COMMENTS

: One of Antony Gormley’s sculptures looks out onto New York City. Credit: © Antony Gormley. A Hayward Gallery Commission. Courtesy of Sean Kelly Gallery, New York and White Cube, London. Presented by Madison Square Park Conservancy.

A new decade brought new surprises to our 13^th annual Top 25 Arts Destinations readers’ poll. Old favorites were ousted, frontrunners became runners-up, and cities that hadn’t ranked in the past finally made their marks. Each year, it’s impossible to predict how the cities will stack up in each of our three categories, but we wouldn’t want it any other way.

New York City. Chicago. Washington, D.C. For the third year in a row, these cities have remained the three best arts destinations in our Big Cities category. With 43 percent of the votes, the Big Apple took a huge bite out of the competition, dwarfing second-place Chicago, which came in with 27 percent, and Washington, D.C., which had 23 percent. Boston kicked Albuquerque, N.M., out of the top five and into the seventh spot this year.

The real upsets came in our Mid-Size Cities category, with three new towns in the top spots. Readers voted St. Petersburg, Fla., from No. 22 last year into the number one position, moving former favorite, Buffalo, N.Y., into fifth place—which was where New Orleans, now in second place, was last year. Even more surprising was Alexandria, Va., formerly in 11th place, which took home bronze after beating Chattanooga, Tenn., by a hair.

Asheville, N.C., finally did it. After years of coming in second in our Small Cities category, it earned 23 percent of readers’ votes, enough to move to the top spot for the first time. Perennial favorite Santa Fe, N.M., fell into the silver position. The small town of Saugatuck, Mich., fifth in 2009, made its way into the third spot, formerly filled by Sedona, Ariz., which did not make the top five this year.

Click the links below for a complete list of the Top 25 Arts Destinations in each category.

TOP 25 BIG CITIES
TOP 25 MID-SIZE CITIES
TOP 25 SMALL CITIES

Back to Basics

May 2010 | BY Sara Baker | Issue 72, Summer 2010 | 2 COMMENTS

: Many classes at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center are housed in old barns from the school’s previous incarnation as a working ranch.

California-based painter and professor Howard Ikemoto once told the following story: “When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college—that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared at me, incredulous, and said, ‘You mean they forget?’ ”

If we’re honest with ourselves, many of us have forgotten much of what we felt as children in art class—total freedom to express ourselves without judgment. The good news is that there are plenty of art schools all around the country that make it their mission to help adults reclaim that feeling.

There’s no better time than summer to take a break from your everyday routine, escape to a beautiful place far away from home, and spend a few days trying your hand at painting, sculpting or blowing glass.

We’ve chosen to profile the following eight art schools because of their ideal locales, strong educational reputations and impressive lists of alumni. But there are dozens more to choose from. Click the link below for a list of some of the other art schools across the country.

Web Exclusive: Click here for an extensive list of art schools and centers offering classes across the country.

For more of “Back to Basics,” pick up the Summer 2010 issue of AmericanStyle, on newsstands May 25! Subscribe now and never miss an article.

Pushing the Limits

May 2010 | BY Melanie Radzicki McManus | Issue 72, Summer 2010 | 2 COMMENTS

: Visitors can climb through MonstroCity at Bob Cassilly’s City Museum to investigate two aircraft fuselages.

You can see the wistfulness in their eyes. The two are dying to join their kids clambering up, over, under and inside the colorful, fancifully designed pieces in the oceanic exhibit—but, well, they’re adults.

A sharp-eyed museum employee spots their hungry gazes, and urges them to start exploring, too. “Go ahead and climb up there!,” he assures, gesturing toward the thick, industrial coil that winds around a tiled pillar before disappearing into the cloudlike ceiling two stories above. “This museum is for everyone, not just kids.”

Welcome to St. Louis’s City Museum, a most unusual place. Part industrial salvage yard, part playground, part art museum, its riotous jumble of colors, textures and shapes mesmerizes you the minute you walk through the door. You don’t know where to head first.

Should you slither through the gaping maw of the giant, white whale, or zip down the three-story conveyor-belt slide? But a plethora of intriguing, half-hidden paths of tunnels beckon. You can’t resist, although you have no idea where any of them lead. Like that hollowed-out tree branch stretching along the ceiling two stories above. People are carefully inching through it on their bellies, and it looks rather claustrophobic, not to mention a bit precarious. It’s precisely these types of thrills that make the museum such a hit.

For more of “Pushing the Limits,” pick up the Summer 2010 issue of AmericanStyle, on newsstands May 25! Subscribe now and never miss an article.

Editor’s Note: Where’s Rocco? Out on the Road for the Arts

May 2010 | BY Hope Daniels | Issue 72, Summer 2010 | 2 COMMENTS

: “Into the Wind” by Richard Hess.

I think I’m in love with Rocco Landesman. The new National Endowment for the Arts chairman launched an Art Works Tour last October to see for himself how the arts contribute to local economies, and so far, he’s doing (and saying) everything right.

In Philadelphia, he took in neighborhood murals; in Michigan, he checked out the arts in urban Detroit and tiny Chelsea; in San Diego, he made the rounds of old buildings adapted for arts reuse. And everywhere he went, his message was the same: “Arts,” he affirmed, “change the ethos of a community. They enliven it; they activate the public life.”

It’s a message AmericanStyle can heartily endorse, and we applaud Landesman’s efforts to raise the bar on NEA funding with Congress. His “Our Town” initiative alone—investing a proposed $5 million in up to 35 communities to support new projects, including the mapping of cultural districts and the integration of public art into civic spaces—makes my heart beat faster.

In effect, the winners of AmericanStyle’s 2010 Top 25 Arts Destinations are perfect examples of how art, culture and tourism can make great things happen. The 75 cities voted into the three Top 25 categories have reputations as arts destinations eminently worth visiting. To keep abreast of Chairman Landesman’s agenda, go to the NEA’s “Art Works” blog at www.arts.gov/artworks.

If you care about the arts (and you wouldn’t be reading AmericanStyle if you didn’t), write to your congressman in support of greater arts funding, and participate in arts events in your hometown. Better yet, plot your own Art Works Tour. That’s what I did just last week in Fredericksburg, Texas (pop. 11,000), soaking in its wildflowers, history and amazing array of galleries and visual arts venues. It’s a community of friendly people and fantastic art, from paintings and sculpture to all kinds of contemporary crafts, much of which is the work (like the raku-fired horse by potter Richard Hess at Artisans at Rocky Hill) of regional artists. Fredericksburg isn’t on our Top 25 list yet, but it should be.

One last note: we’re very proud of AmericanStyle’s completely redesigned and updated website, launched with this issue on May 18. Kudos to our webmaster Joel Bobeck and everyone on staff who made it happen. Now check it out for yourselves.

Hope Daniels
Editor-in-Chief

Arts Focus: The Power of Pins

May 2010 | BY admin | Issue 72, Summer 2010 | NO COMMENTS

: Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s “Katrina” pin recalls the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Credit: John Bigelow Taylor/”Katrina,” Designer Unknown (U.S.), 1994

As the first female Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright had a few decisions to make that her male peers did not—how to update her wardrobe, which colors to choose and, most important, what jewelry to wear. The latter was a decision practically made for her in 1994, while she served as America’s ambassador to the United Nations.

Albright had criticized Saddam Hussein when he refused to disclose complete descriptions of Iraq’s weapons programs. The Iraqi press responded to her criticism with a poem, calling her an “unparalleled serpent.” When preparing for her meeting with Iraqi officials soon after its publication, Albright remembered a pin she’d bought years earlier—a gold snake wrapped around a branch with a diamond dangling from its mouth.

Albright wore it to her meeting, not intending to make a fuss over its symbolism. While she was leaving, she encountered a member of the U.N. press corps. “As the television cameras zoomed in on the brooch, I smiled and said that it was just my way of sending a message,” she explains.

For more of “The Power of Pins,” pick up the Summer 2010 issue of AmericanStyle, on newsstands May 25! Subscribe now and never miss an article.

Style Spotlight: Summers by the Sea

May 2010 | BY admin | Issue 72, Summer 2010 | NO COMMENTS

: Metalsmith Paula Jerome relives her favorite Atlantic City, N.J., memories through her recycled sterling silver (shown) and 14kt gold “Charms Collection.” Credit: Stuart Goldenberg Photography

If you spent summers in Atlantic City, N.J., prepare to be transported back in time. Paula Jerome’s “Charms Collection” bracelets recall everything from an Atlantic City postcard and a diving horse to Fralinger’s Salt Water Taffy. The “Bathing Beauty” charm is based on Jerome’s memories of her mother posing on the beach.

“I grew up in the 1950s,” Jerome explains. “I think it was a simpler time. The historical icons represented in my charms are reflective of those times.” She spent summers from 1949 to 1975 among the white sandy beaches and salty air.

The bracelet and charms are available in recycled sterling silver and 14kt gold with diamonds. Prices range from $62 for a “Lucy the Elephant” or “Diving Horse” charm in sterling silver to $2,238 for a 14kt gold “Jitney Bus” charm.

But please don’t ask her to add any additional charms to this collection. “I went through an exhaustive legal search to discover which historic icons I could produce for this collection,” says Jerome, who now lives in Asheville, N.C. And she’s already hand-cast every single one of them. But, she says, “plans are in the pipeline to do charms from other places and cities.” Visit www.paulajerome.com for more information.