For the past year, an exhibition of artwork from Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts has greeted millions of passengers along Concourse T of the nation’s busiest airport – Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. In 2008, over 43 million passengers boarded flights through the Atlanta hub. The Arrowmont exhibit will conclude on February 24.
It is the largest display of the school’s Permanent Collection to date and is titled: FROM TRADITION TO INNOVATION: ENRICHING LIVES THROUGH ART and showcases 61 art objects plus a 17-piece Fiber Project and represents the work of 76 artists in ceramics, fiber and wood. The earliest work on display was created in 1970 and the most recent in 2008.
Accompanying the exhibition are 6 exterior text panels that give a brief history of the school from its beginning as the Pi Beta Phi Settlement School to its transformation into Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. These panels also include general information about the school’s workshops, information about the Permanent Collection and a list of the exhibiting artists.
The exhibition’s curator is Martha Connell, owner of Connell Gallery in Atlanta, GA and a member of Arrowmont’s Board of Governors. “The craft objects of the future are limited only by the vision and virtuosity of the maker. Places such as Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts provide environments that foster creativity and give instruction in methods and materials to make the imagination a reality,” said Connell of the exhibition.
“It shows the breadth of their permanent collection,” said David Vogt, manager of the Airport Art Program at Hartsfield-Jackson, who described the exhibit as “very visually engaging.” According to Vogt, the array of objects shown at the airport includes unusual and distinctive teapots, vases, bowls, quilts and other crafts. “You have artists working with materials in unique ways,” he said. Vogt said the pieces offer proof of the timelessness of traditional, handmade crafts. The objects displayed also demonstrate the evolution of the craft field over the past 40 years, he added.
The artists whose pieces were chosen for the exhibit are, or have been, instructors at Arrowmont. Vogt said his favorite pieces in the exhibit are those turned from green wood, because once the artist is finished turning the piece, the final shape of the object changes through the drying process. “It’s that unknown factor,” he said.
In 1970, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tenn., established a Permanent Collection to be used on campus and to provide a traveling exhibition of contemporary artworks to expand Arrowmont’s educational outreach and extend its mission of enriching lives through art around the world. The collection has grown to include over 800 objects illustrating all disciplines taught at the school. The collection chronicles the changes that have occurred in the craft field over the past 40 years as works in ceramic, fiber, wood and other media have evolved from functional items into art objects. The works in the collection have been acquired in numerous ways and many were created at the school during the course of a workshop.
The consistency of Arrowmont’s diverse Permanent Collection speaks volumes for the organization as a major cultural institution and demonstrates a mastery of materials and a unique artistic vision
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