Exhibit Places Vermont At Center Of Craft Movement

Michelle Holzapfel at work in her studio.

(Host) There was a time when industrial mass production threatened to do away with "hand-made" things.

But in the mid-twentieth century, a counter trend emerged. A new generation of craftspeople began making a living by creating objects that were both useful and beautiful.

An exhibit at the Bennington Museum places Vermont at the epicenter of that movement, as VPR's Susan Keese reports.

(Keese) The exhibit features 120 extraordinary works, most by living Vermonters. It explores the studio craft movement in Vermont over the last 60 years.

But Bennington Museum curator Jamie Franklin says the migration of urban, largely college-educated craftsmen to Vermont began even earlier.

The first national crafts council was launched in 1938 at a conference in Shelburne.

(Franklin) "Vermont became this sort of enclave of artists who made their living making objects out of wood, clay, textiles, glass metal. It was kind of a trickle in the late 40s and 50s."

(Keese) Franklin says the movement really took off with the back-to-the-land movement of the 1960s and seventies. People fled the mechanized, consumer culture of the cities and suburbs in search of a more connected lifestyle.

(Franklin) "So they were moving to Vermont to buy cheap land and to live a simpler life and make a living in a very real, authentic in the sense that  they take raw materials, they make objects of great beauty but also often something you can eat out of, something you can hold, something you can put a flower in, something you can wear."

(Keese) Franklin says it wasn't Vermont's historic crafts tradition that motivated the modern crafts migration.

David Gill, who founded Bennington Potters, didn't know about the local pottery tradition when he arrived in Vermont in 1948. The original Bennington pottery hadn't been made since the late 1800's.

(Franklin) "He found a barn that he could afford and convert into both his home and his factory, and that's how he ended up here."

(Keese) When other artists arrived they found plenty of unanticipated inspiration. Weaver Carol Crawford learned her art on an old loom that was in the barn of a commune where she lived.

Nationally known wood turner Michelle Holzapfel was a student at Marlboro College in 1969. Her influences included loggers and millworkers who became her neighbors.

Holzapfel's sinuous wood sculptures push the boundaries between craft and fine art. One is called "Vermont Spoons."

(Franklin) " It looks like possibly some spoons and a bowl but of course t's never intended to be used because the spoons and the bowl are all connected so it only references functionality."

(Keese) Other works retain their function but reflect innovative techniques. A vase titled "Dreams" by Hardwick artists Wendy and Harry Besette shows a haunting blue and green Vermont landscape.

Franklin says Harry blows the glass. Wendy creates the design with an enamel that is actually ground glass.

(Franklin) "And then Harry encases it in clear glass again and then blows it and expands it out. The image is really integral to the glass itself, which makes it really fascinating." 

(Keese) Franklin says Harry Bisette once apologized to a neighbor for the noise coming from his studio. The neighbor said, ‘No problem. We love the fact that you're here making things.'

The fact that many Vermonters seem to feel that way is an important part of the story.

The Bennington exhibit is the centerpiece of a statewide showcase that continues through this fall, with lectures and shows all over Vermont.

For VPR News, I'm Susan Keese.