While most may think of summertime as a break from school and studies, for artists it can be a time to break away from the studio and seek out a new learning experience. A studio artist’s practice can be a solitary activity, and the summer programming at a craft school is an opportunity to experiment, explore, hone skills, and be in community with fellow artists.
The ACC Archives hold rare video recordings, accessible in the ACC Digital Collections, of artists creating new work and learning from mentors at schools such as Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Penland School of Craft, and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. Now, thanks to a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources, we’re in the midst of digitizing, preserving, and making accessible more than 200 additional audio and video recordings. We look forward to sharing new gems of content in the coming months in the ACC Digital Collections and on our YouTube channel.
Among ACC’s existing collections, a silent film titled Penland Session 1959 shows artists hand-dyeing and weaving wool yarn, a stone faceting demonstration in the lapidary building, and ceramic artists working with a kick wheel. Another video, titled Chihuly Carpenter Glass Blowing, from the summer of 1971 features ACC Gold Medalist Dale Chihuly and his student Jamie Carpenter creating a series of abstract milk glass goblets at Haystack. These goblets later appeared in the exhibition Glass by Dale Chihuly with Jamie Carpenter at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts, which opened that September.
The same year, the Southeast Regional Assembly of ACC sponsored a series of workshops at Arrowmont School that included a lecture and demonstrations by renowned British ceramist Michael Cardew as well as presentations by enamelist June Schwarcz, ceramist Howard Shapiro, fiber artist Walter Nottingham, and metalsmith Ron Pearson, among others. Video recordings of these workshops can be found by searching for “Arrowmont School Workshops 1971” in the ACC Digital Collections.
While artists may take their summer education seriously, there is certainly time for some playful activities, as seen in images of a one-handed pottery-throwing contest at Haystack discovered in our slide study collection. We wonder which artist was determined to be the winner!
Stay tuned to this column in upcoming issues and to craftcouncil.org to learn about newly released video and audio recordings.
Beth Goodrich is the archivist for the American Craft Council. The ACC Archives hold historical documentation of ACC dating back to 1939, as well as the early history of the Museum of Contemporary Crafts/American Craft Museum (now the Museum of Arts and Design) from 1956 to 1990. Many materials from the archives are available online at digital.craftcouncil.org. To schedule research appointments with the archives, contact Beth Goodrich at [email protected].
Cynthia Bringle (left) and Warren MacKenzie (right) face off in a one-handed throwing contest at Haystack.
