Craft Research Fund Grant
2012
Fleur and Charles Bresler Curator of American Craft and Decorative Art
Voices in Studio Glass History: Art and Craft, Maker and Place, and the Critical Writings and Photography of Paul Hollister
Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture https://exhibitions.bgc.bard.edu/studioglasshistory/
Both a digital exhibition and an archive, Voices in Studio Glass History: Art and Craft, Maker and Place, and the Critical Writings and Photography of Paul Hollister rethinks and reinterprets the history of postwar American studio glass. This project builds upon the work of critic and historian Paul Hollister, who published over eighty essays and reviews in the field. Concurrently, he recorded candid interviews with artists and photographed them at work. Voices in Studio Glass History unites these materials for the first time, including unseen images, recently transcribed interviews, and a fully annotated bibliography with linked and downloadable articles. Extensive original research informs this reinterpretation of what became known as the studio glass movement, grounded in unprecedented opportunities to create work outside of factory settings from the 1960s onwards. In new interviews, over fifty artists, curators, critics, historians, and gallerists reflect upon the movement’s past and discuss its future. What emerges are themes of experimentation, shared knowledge, community building, international exchange, critical debate, the impact of museums and galleries, and fluidities among the categories of art, craft, and design.
At Bard Graduate Center, Voices in Studio Glass History was co-created by Barb Elam, Associate Director of Visual Media Resources and Study Collection Librarian; Associate Professor Catherine Whalen; and Jesse Merandy, Director of Digital Humanities/Exhibitions.
This research was supported by a Craft Research Fund grant from The Center for Craft.
This project was made possible by support from The Paul and Irene Hollister Endowment at Bard Graduate Center. Paul Hollister (1918–2004) was an influential critic of contemporary studio glass and glass historian. Irene Hollister (1920–2016) was a philanthropist, advocate for glass scholarship, and founding administrator of the Association for Computing Machinery.
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