Fuller Craft Museum presents "Crafts in America" exhibition

Fuller Craft Museum presents "Crafts in America" exhibition


Singletary, Preston. Killer Whale Hat, 2004. Blown and sandcarved glass. Photo: Russell Johnson.

See the handmade evolution of American identity past, present, and future at New England's premier craft museum.

The Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA, presents the final stop and the only east coast exhibition of "Craft in America Expanding Traditions," a multi-faceted journey into the origin and continuation of American craft traditions.

The Museum is open daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $8 adults, $5 seniors and students, free for members and children under 12. The Museum is also free for all to visit every Wed. from 5 to 9 p.m.

About "Craft in America"
Associated with the 2007 three-part Peabody Award-winning and Emmy-nominated PBS television series of the same name, this travelling exhibition opens Feb. 26 and runs through May 25.

Well-known artists such as Sam Maloof, Warren MacKenzie, Judy Kensley McKie, Garry Knox Bennett and Dale Chihuly are just a few of the pioneers of craft represented in this comprehensive exhibition of close to 150 objects spanning a period from pre-Civil War America to 2007, with an emphasis on 20th and 21st century craft. Objects and media include baskets, quilts, ceramics, furniture, fiber, glass, jewelry, metal and wood.

"We're thrilled to be hosting this important and lively exhibit," said Fuller Craft Museum Executive Director Gretchen Keyworth. "It is a slight departure for us, but it makes sense. We pride ourselves on being forward-looking. However, to understand the future of craft, it's important to understand the traditions, and to see the innovation of every age. In that way, this show is a perfect fit


Bennett, Garry Knox. GR #13, (front) 2003. Wood, fiberglass, paint, 23k gold-plated brass. 31" x 14" x 19 " Photo by: M. Lee Fatherree. As featured in CRAFT IN AMERICA.

Work by New England Masters
Artists who work in or have strong ties to New England are well represented in Craft in America. Among those included are Cambridge furniture maker Judy Kensley McKie, a graduate of RISD, whose table included in the Craft in America exhibit is part of the permanent collection of Fuller Craft; potters Mary and Edwin Scheier, who worked in the WPA and spent much of their careers in New Hampshire; Rhode Island School of Design graduate Dale Chihuly, pioneer of the Studio Glass Movement and New Hampshire furniture maker Jon Brooks.

In addition, the exhibit includes work by New Hampshire glass artist Dan Dailey, who also graduated from RISD; jewelry maker Bruce Metcalf, an Amherst, Mass. native and former MassArt teacher; furniture maker Wendy Maruyama, a graduate of Boston University's Program in Artisanry; furniture maker Alphonse Mattia, who lives in Westport, Mass. and teaches at RISD; Connecticut furniture maker Tommy Simpson; and sculptor and wood turner Christian Burchard, who attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.

The exhibition also features early 20th-century work by the Deerfield (Mass.) Society of Blue and White Needlework, whose founders revived American colonial embroidery in 1896; Shaker furniture from Enfield, New Hampshire.

About the exhibit
Craft in America: Expanding Traditions is organized by Craft in America, Inc., Los Angeles, chief curator Jo Lauria; and Curatorial Assistance Traveling Exhibitions (CATE), Pasadena, Calif. This exhibition tour is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius. Fuller Craft Museum is grateful for the generous support of the Cristina Callan Charitable Trust in presenting Craft in America.

About Fuller Craft Museum
Fuller Craft Museum, Inc., New England's only museum of contemporary craft, is dedicated to the objects, ideas, and insight that inspire both patrons and artists to explore life through the art of contemporary craft. Fuller Craft Museum is located at 455 Oak Street in Brockton, Mass. For more information call 508.588.6000 or visitwww.fullercraft.org