A utumn sparks a series of craft festivals aimed at shoppers

in a holiday spending mood. One show has risen to the

top, and remained there for thirty-one years. What does it

take to be the premiere fall fine craft show year after year?

The answer in one word: innovation. If there is one aspect craft

enthusiasts and artists alike can depend on, it is that there is always

something new at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show.

The show expanded its focus to the international craft

arena with a group of Japanese guest artists in 2001. Since

then, Finnish, German, Irish, British, and Native American

artists have been featured. A group of artists from Israel will

participate next year. This year though the spotlight turns to

Canada. “Canada has a very active and strong craft council.

They have a model program in terms of government support

of the artists. As a result, the quality of the work is very high

and extraordinarily creative,” says Nancy O’Meara, executive

director and craft show manager.

The Canadian Crafts Federation/Fédération canadienne

des métiers d’art is wrapping up Craft Year 2007, a nationwide

celebration of the more than twenty-two thousand professional

craftspeople currently working in Canada. The cream of the

crop went through a multi-level jurying process, judged by

finalists of the Saidye Bronfman Award for Excellence in

Fine Craft, Canada’s highest honor for fine craft. Twenty-six

selected artists will show their work in Philadelphia for those

collectors who could not attend one of the special exhibitions

across Canada.

For those not able to attend the Philadelphia show in

person, an online auction was started in 2006 and continues

this year. During the week of the show, thirty items from

participating exhibitors, past jurors and master artists will be

offered, all extraordinary one-of-a-kind art objects.

In 2007, the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show

attempts to help solve another dilemma. Many of the venerable

names in craft are baby boomers, now considering retirement

or cutting back their show schedules. So many times, you hear

the “graying” generation ask: But who is going to take our

place? Where is the next generation of artists? Who has chosen

the fine craft world as their spiritual and financial source?

Can they make a viable business of craft in today’s economy?

The Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show steps up with

a solution: a new category for emerging artists. The show

provides an introduction, of sorts, for new artists to tap into

enthusiastic, educated buyers.

O’Meara, speaking for the show, says: “We are one of the

first shows in the country and we work hard to maintain our

reputation as the leader. With that comes the responsibility to

foster the new generation. The nature of creativity is that it is

constantly changing and we realize that we need to be constantly

innovative as well.”

“The emerging artists category is a great idea. It allows the

craft show to highlight exciting new artists and to help them

get established in this competitive field,” says juror, studio artist

and ceramics instructor John Britt.

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“The emerging artists went through the same process as

everyone else. For our inaugural year, we are delighted to have

found four new rising stars and excited to be introducing

their work at our show,” continues O’Meara.

Mary Stackhouse, chosen as the emerging artist in the

wearables category, has been in business for three years but this

is her first major show. “My mother taught me to sew, and

I’m still using my grandmother’s Singer,” she says. Stackhouse

was a potter/sculptor, then an arts administrator for twelve

years before making the seemingly unlikely leap from clay to

wearables. “My last body of work in clay was slab work, books

and armor. It’s really not so different than the work I’m doing

now except that it’s a movable product instead of a rigid

one,” she explains. “I use some of the clay techniques, and the

sensibility is the same.”

Stackhouse works fleece into four basic forms: capes, vests,

jackets, and tunics. “The fabric, recycled from plastic, like

soda bottles, at Malden Mills in Massachusetts, was chosen for

its carefree durability as well as its drapery potential and

ability to hold shape,” she notes. “I free-associate as I work,

so each piece is unique.”

Emerging artist Daniel Randall is just finishing his Master

of Fine Arts degree in metalsmithing at Southern Illinois

University at Carbondale. “It’s quite an honor to be accepted,”

says Randall. Although he collaborates with his wife,

Yeo-Jung, on jewelry pieces, the majority of his work deals with

traditional silversmithing techniques, done with a hammer.

His hollowware designs reach into the sculptural realm.

“My forms are based on traditional forms, a cup or vase,

then distorted to look like they are becoming liquid or moving,”

says Randall. “I’m trying to break out of the traditional

silversmithing methods and approach the vessel in a loose,

sculptural way.”

For Jennifer Bauser, the emerging artist in the jewelry

category, getting into the show is a chance to widen the focus

of her work. “This is an opportunity for me to do some one-

of-a-kind work in precious materials,” she says. The artist will

be showing for the first time her Flower Brooch 1. Waves

of sterling silver wirework emanate from a center hollow-

construction bead with a recess of gold leaf. “Visually it is

very striking,” she explains. “Although it is very clean and linear,

it still has a nice movement.”

The wirework in Flower Brooch 1 is not far afield of Bauser’s

caged series, in which she blends soft, feminine freshwater

pearls with sterling silver and gold vermeil. But she employs

brushed finishes and contains the pearls in cages of swirled

or curved wire, resulting in a modern vibe. “The cages started

as a design experiment dealing with preciousness, the idea

that precious things are locked away or kept behind glass,” says

Bauser. “The cages are an architectural form, creating a space,

an environment, for the pearl to live in.”

Emerging ceramist Emily Reason describes herself as a

traditional potter. “I am really interested in form and function

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decoration,” she says of her functional pieces heavily textured

with carvings and dots. Using a six-color palette for glazes, she

also likes to contrast glossy and matte textures, although the

“glazes appear very soft in porcelain,” she notes.

Reason is a resident artist at the EnergyXchange in Burnsville,

North Carolina, a unique program for beginning artists that

uses landfill gases to fire its outdoor kiln and glass furnaces.

“It intrigues me to further explore alternative energy options

so that I may be less dependent on conventional fuels as well

as reduce my negative impact on the environment,” she states.

“I particularly like the work of Emily Reason, who is an

intelligent and talented artist with an impeccable sense of style

and form,” says juror John Britt. “Her porcelain forms are

blended perfectly with her glazes. And, she is working with

alternative fuel sources. What more could you ask for?”

Up-and-coming glass artist Pablo Soto just finished his

glassblowing residency at the energy-efficient EnergyXchange.

While Soto’s seductive glass forms are rooted in the past

masters, they have a decided twenty-first century interpretation.

He joins fourteen other artists in glass, always a category

that attracts a lot of interest. Other categories include baskets,

ceramics, fiber (decorative and wearable), furniture, jewelry

(precious and semiprecious), leather, metal, mixed media,

paper, and wood. Enhanced artist pages online are another of

this year’s innovations.

“The quality of applicants was exceptionally high,” states

juror Paula Berg Owen, president of the Southwest School of

Art and Craft in San Antonio, Texas.

“I am continually amazed at the level of crafts in America.

It just keeps getting better. Jurying this show reminded me

of watching the Olympics. At that level of talent, 0.001 of

a second is all it takes to ‘win.’ These applicants were all so

outstanding, I felt bad excluding anyone,” comments fellow

juror Britt.

Owen and Britt were joined on the distinguished jury

panel by David Barquist, curator of American Decorative Arts

for the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Martha Connell,

codirector and owner of Atlanta’s Connell Gallery; and Arline

Fisch, professor of art emeritus at San Diego State University.

One category experiencing rising interest these days is

studio furniture, well represented in the show with thirteen

accomplished artists. Michael Puryear offers his understated,

graceful furniture designs, influenced by Chinese, Japanese and

African cultural traditions that let the beauty of the wood

take center stage and make their own statement. Just days before

the Philadelphia show opens, his sleek, modern designs were

on display at the Museum of Arts & Design in New York City

as part of the exhibition Inspired by China: Contemporary

Furnituremakers Explore Chinese Traditions, organized by the

Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

Another of the high-profile artists in the show is Mary

Jackson, a basketmaker from Charleston who makes handcoiled

sweetgrass baskets from sea grasses, palmetto, pine needles,

and bullrushes collected along the South Carolina coast. The

low-country tradition of sweetgrass basketweaving was

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originated on the west coast of Africa and was brought to

America by slaves. Jackson was highlighted in the

groundbreaking television series Craft in America, which aired

nationally on PBS stations in May. The associated exhibit,

Craft in America: Expanding Traditions, also showing Jackson’s

work, is currently touring the country, opening next at the

Mingei International Museum on October 20, 2007.

Says pioneering art jeweler and juror Arline Fisch:

“The jewelry category is one of the strongest as well as the

largest by far and included a great deal of work in alternative

materials, including metal clay, glass beads and other glass

jewelry, along with a goodly amount of gold, silver and

stones. I don’t think there was much work of a minimalist or

‘industrial’ direction. There is still much more interest in rich

surfaces and contrasts of color and/or materials.”

No doubt employing some of the metalweaving techniques

that Fisch pioneered is Lauran Sundin. She weaves fourteen

karat and sterling silver wire into dynamic, contemporary

jewelry pieces in which texture is achieved through the twists

and turns of the wire mesh. Cornelia Goldsmith’s fine gold

designs are rich with stones and surface granulation. As Fisch

points out, jewelry with alternative materials is prevalent.

Kiwon Wang contrasts paper with pearls, while Holly Anne

Mitchell, a recycling visionary, has been remaking newspaper

comics into jewelry accented with sterling silver for years.

Thomas Mann and Marcia MacDonald both incorporate

found objects, while Kathleen Lamberti creates new uses for

fabric, feathers and leather.

Presented by the Women’s Committee and Craft Show

Committee, chaired by Susan Zelouf, the event raises funds to

purchase works of art and craft for the permanent collection

of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, to support educational

programs and to contribute to conservation projects. “We are

really excited that the business community is coming out to

support the show. KYW radio, the top radio station in the

market, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, the premier newspaper

in the region, are both sponsoring this year’s craft show,”

adds manager Nancy O’Meara.

Approximately twenty-four thousand people attended

last year’s show over the four-day period. “Visitors can expect

to find a wide array of exquisite functional art as well as

provocative contemporary art,” says juror Paula Berg Owen.

“We selected high-quality work, whether it was high design,

artfully traditional, quirky, funky, or elegant.”

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FURNITUREMICHAEL PURYEAR

JEWELRY SEMIPRECIOUSJOANNA GOLLBERG

BASKETRYMARY JACKSON

GLASSPABLO SOTO

PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART CRAFT SHOW

PENNSYLVANIA CONVENTION CENTER

1101 ARCH STREET, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

PREVIEW NIGHT NOVEMBER 7, 2007NOVEMBER 8 –11, 2007

215.684.7930 WWW.PMACRAFTSHOW.ORG

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