A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
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A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
Crafting the Future: Exploring the World of Craft at Crystal Bridges Museum
Our host Allen Woody sits down with Jen Padgett, Windgate curator of craft at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, to talk all about the exciting new advancements happening around craft at the museum.
Tune in to hear Padgett talk about how ceramics, textiles, and other craft objects are integrated throughout the galleries, and get the inside scoop on the recently opened focus exhibition Takaezu & Tawney: An Artist is a Poet, which debuts 12 new acquisitions to the Crystal Bridges collection, and tells the story of a remarkable friendship between two women who shaped craft history in the US.
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Welcome to Visit Bentonville's podcast in New American Town. As always, we're coming to you from Hackston Road Studios off the bustling Bentonville Square and I'm your host, alan Woody, joining me. Today we have Jen Padgett. She is the first in Dow Curator at Crystal Bridges. She is the Wingate Curator of Craft. Jen, thank you so much for joining me. First off, tell us what the Curator of Craft does.
Speaker 2:It is my pleasure to join you and I'm so excited to tell you about this new position and what is really exciting work that's happening at Crystal Bridges now. So, as the first Wingate Curator of Craft, my goal is to advance the program around craft across the museum.
Speaker 1:Can you define?
Speaker 2:craft for me. Sure, we take a broad kind of look towards craft and really embrace a range of different materials and artists and ways of making, but it's all really centered around this idea of skilled making, so individuals that might use textiles or ceramics or metal, fiber or wood, using different materials, and really becoming the kind of leading experts in the technique but then that kind of artistry that they bring to it, the way that artists engage with these, think about material and process and make something really extraordinary out of that work.
Speaker 1:Nice, and so how do you fit in? I mean, I know what a Curator does, but just help me a little bit how you go about being curating craft at Crystal Bridges.
Speaker 2:Yes, and we're at this moment, with this new position and also with an endowed fund that supports acquisitions, supporting new work being added to the collection, and that's called the Fund for Craft, that we're at this moment where we're bringing new work into the Crystal Bridges collection. So, in my role, thinking about how we can expand the stories that we tell in our galleries and really taking the kind of starting point of this phenomenal collection of American paintings and works on paper and sculpture and then thinking about how the addition of ceramics or textiles, other craft objects, can help us to expand those stories. So we've been collecting in this space already in the past, but really having this new kind of focus and thinking about how these works integrated throughout the galleries can also help to guide our future expansion. As you might know, crystal Bridges is expanding our physical gallery space with the addition of a new building that will be opening in 2026.
Speaker 1:Cool. I love how wide of a glass you essentially have to use in order to do this, and it seems like to me, when you kind of cross the road of craft and fine art, which is where we're at there at Crystal Bridges that you kind of invite a lot more people to the party, because right now there's a lot of people that do crafts at a very high level, or craft of any kind at a very high level, that wouldn't consider themselves artists. But really, any time you're creating something out of your own head, or even something that you've followed, making it unique, you're creating art which is really cool. What got you into this particular direction of curation?
Speaker 2:I have always been really excited by looking at the intersections between different categories of making.
Speaker 2:So when I was in a graduate program and I was working on my PhD, I wrote a dissertation that was all about these intersections between painting and design.
Speaker 2:So a painter like Stuart Davis, who is an artist that Christopher just has in the collection doing a rug design and thinking about what that meant to have modern art within the space of the home or in this different material, so I've always been interested in how do we look across these kind of categories that sometimes can have different hierarchies or different values assigned to them, that idea that some people might say, oh, a painting is something that's in this kind of special position within the gallery, but what about a rug? Or what about, you know, a quilt or something that is a textile? And for me it's about trying to level some of the kind of differences and think about the interesting connections between them. And then also really how exactly to your point, you can bring in a wider range of different perspectives and ideas and really connect with audiences by having this kind of wider scope. So folks that might be very talented and say wood carving or wood turning, being able to come see these really phenomenal works here in the future is one of our goals.
Speaker 1:It is craft fair season in Northwest Arkansas, where we've got a lot of different craft fairs coming out alive and open, especially as we head towards the holidays. Was that a conscious decision to kind of make it coincide with this season, or is that just a happy accident?
Speaker 2:I would say a happy accident, a happy, happy coincidence maybe that it lines up so nicely because our overall initiative around craft is really at this early stage and we'll be continuing to grow and continuing into the future, so it doesn't have a set you know end point, but really, through the support of this endowed fund, is something that will be integral to the nature of the museum. And then the opening of an exhibition that is in October that focuses on some of the new acquisitions by two artists, lenore Taney and Tishiko Takezu. Just a great coincidence that it lines up with craft season here, and my hope is that people that are passionate about ceramics and textiles we especially have those objects in the exhibition will come and see these works and first of all wonder how did that person make that or what was the exact technique they used, but also just to have this great kind of moment of introduction to these really major figures in American craft.
Speaker 1:And it's so cool. And I know you mentioned a couple of things that really fire me up because one of the things that I think and this is going to sound ridiculous to you, but the first time I ever went to Silver Dollar City, this is going to sound so dumb to you I walked by the place where they were blowing glass and they were making sculptures out of glass and I stood there for 90 minutes. I kid you not, I stood there for an hour and a half watching them make phases and other glass thing and I was just mind blown by the skill. Who came up with that, like the whole thing, and it's really fascinating to me. And I feel that way about ceramics too, because I married a potter. But what about these things fires you up and what specific medium gets you really excited?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have to say I don't find that story silly or stupid at all. I think that's exactly what folks get energized by the opportunity to see somebody really skilled at work, and to transform these materials that start out in perhaps a kind of formless state in the setting. That's really extraordinary and for something like glass that happens very quickly that you're going from this molten material so then, all of a sudden taking the shape. It is not, it's magnetizing.
Speaker 1:And you can't even see color, like you can't even see color until it's all done and dried, and it just blows my mind.
Speaker 2:Oh, that is one of the great appeals of craft that I did, that the process and also seeing the process helps you to have a different level of appreciation and engagement and excitement about the objects themselves.
Speaker 2:Yes, ma'am, so craft is partially about having that encounter with a really wonderful object in the gallery, but then also building that knowledge of what it took to create that object, whether it's the technical skill or the many years of study. The idea that the artist really needs to get in touch with the nature of the material they're working with and that in some cases they might be the only person that knows how to create the thing that they're making, is really special. So for me, I think that attention to process and how something is made is something that we want to bring out in the galleries, and it's also something that can energize how people think about, say, painting like how do people create oil paintings or temperate paintings. The process and once you understand that, can help demystify a little bit of the artistic practice and also perhaps encourage people to experiment on their own or engage in making art themselves.
Speaker 1:Like a Bob Ross effect, like yes just watching him in that cathartic way, with his soothing voice, effortlessly make something beautiful. And then you try it and you're like gosh.
Speaker 2:That is one of the skills of a really great artist that they make what they're doing look easy.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And you mentioned that you said you were married to a potter, and I'll say that definitely, potter is one of those things where when you see someone on the wheel and they're throwing something, they make it look rather effortless, and then when you sit down to the wheel, it can become quite clear how much coordination and yeah, so you have tried then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, with a potter they make pots or cups or things that are beautiful, or bowls or vases or whatever. When I tried it, I made a lot of mud and a big mess. It was bad.
Speaker 2:You know that's just a different kind of outcome, but you just got to keep at it and I would say that persistence for people who get into it is really key.
Speaker 2:And you asked about particular materials and my real great love is ceramics. I do a little bit of ceramics as a hobby myself, and so having that kind of understanding of the material and then seeing artists who have for decades been innovating within that space and in the exhibition that we have coming up, the artist Toshiko Takeiizu and her work in ceramics, which I think that you'll find really intriguing creating these forms on a wheel that are closed at the top, so, instead of being open like a bowl or a vase, creating these sculptural objects that then have this hollow interior and then, on the exterior, using glazes, almost like a painter might use paint. So things that are gestural, that show the process of working, that have really interesting color and texture, and that idea that an artist can draw on all of these different properties of the medium that they're working in to create something that really speaks to you and really has that kind of impact and mesmerizing effect when you see it in the galleries.
Speaker 1:Tell us about some of these exhibits that are available right now in this space at Crystal Bridges.
Speaker 2:Yes, so the new exhibition of Toshiko Takeiizu and Lenore Tani is in our permanent collection gallery space, so open to the public, free as part of the overall general admission, which is free, of course. So the ability to come in and see this focus show that has seven ceramic objects by Takayazu that artist I just mentioned that creates these closed forms and then there are five works by the artist Lenore Taney, and Lenore Taney was mostly known for her work in weaving, and in the exhibition we have two enormous weavings, so one is about 10 foot across by about nine foot high, and then the other one is around 12 foot.
Speaker 1:So would that be considered a tapestry or just a weaving?
Speaker 2:You know, it's, I would say, just probably a weaving is how I would describe it, but it definitely has that kind of quality of immersive kind of space and in this case it's very geometric, so it fills largely like a square, and then she's woven it so that there's the appearance of the circle in the center, that she separates some of the warp, the vertical threads going up and down, and so it has this great geometry to it and when you're standing in front of it it's this radiant orange and it really immerses you and it very much gets to this idea of almost a meditative experience. So Taney the artist was very interested in meditation herself and even at one point moved to India, lived in an ashram and would who doesn't chant?
Speaker 2:and who listen.
Speaker 1:she had a very dynamic life and she did everything in terms of experiencing different kind of ways of living and just last year I was to a point where I wanted to retire to an ashram and do a lot of chanting and some meditation.
Speaker 2:You might have the similar experience to her, in which she went, thought it was great and then at one point she was writing some letters and she said oh, this has been nice, but we're five hours of chanting. Like I'm kind of done with that.
Speaker 1:So I really like some fried chicken she had her film.
Speaker 2:she had her spiritual enlightenment there and then she said, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna come back to the US.
Speaker 1:So that is the other side of spiritual enlightenment. Where now we got to go somewhere? Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 2:Yes, that was enough of that she. She says so that idea that those kinds of modes of you know, having this meditative, slow experience of things, is both something that you might experience in the galleries. So, taking time to look closely at the objects, to really stand in front of this work and let that kind of beautiful color and the texture of the work just radiate, and then to be able to also learn more about her story. So in the exhibition we focus on the friendship between Takei Zou and Tani, because these two artists were friends.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's really a wonderful kind of lineup and it is a sense of that multiple stories. So these are works that we brought into the collection and whenever we have works that are new acquisitions, we always you know hope that we can have a moment to highlight them in the galleries and, in this case, being able to have all of these works on view together and knowing that these two were friends for 50 years, that there's really great correspondence oh yeah, they met.
Speaker 1:It makes an amazing story now.
Speaker 2:Oh, and it's very much about that kind of human connection, like learning about them as people, as individuals, as opposed to just seeing the objects as something that can bring you into a different kind of space and appreciation. And we have a video in the galleries that shows different clips of Tani and Takezu at work and have combined them so that it feels almost conversational, so that you have these moments when Tani is talking and you see video with both of them at work and it really just adds to that sense of getting to know them as individuals, getting to know their friendship, which was this really wonderful and long kind of history between them where they traveled together.
Speaker 2:they had tons of correspondence and would write to each other quite often. And then we actually in the galleries have a space where there's a postcard writing engagement. So we provide a postcard and folks can write a letter to a friend, address it and drop it in a mailbox and Crystal Bridges will mail it for them to their friend and hopefully they'll come visit the museum as well. So encouraging that social connection, that sense of relationships through correspondence and through artistic inspiration is also one of the big things of the show.
Speaker 1:And it kind of invites you to create your own story, your own Crystal Bridges story with a friend.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And on one of the postcards, on one of them, we just have a simple grid and the idea that somebody could draw a design of their own. In the exhibition there are some drawings that Tani did on gridded paper, so you can see these great drawings very precise, where she draws these lines on the gridded paper. That people can take this postcard which has this grid and either do something inspired by Tani do something of their totally own making, encouraging that sense of expression as well.
Speaker 1:Very cool, Jen. I've really enjoyed our visit. Is there anything we didn't talk about that we should have? I mean, there's lots we didn't talk about, but anything that we should have.
Speaker 2:I'll mention that on view. In addition to that focus exhibition about those two artists, we also have two works on view that are also new to the collection. By the Potter George Orr, who was based in Biloxi, mississippi, was this extremely inventive and imaginative Potter who took somewhat simple or kind of utilitarian shapes and then made them into something extraordinary.
Speaker 1:So it's also a moment to introduce. Is he hand built or wheel thrown?
Speaker 2:Mostly wheel thrown, so wheel thrown, and in one case the two works. There's one that's a bottle that has a kind of a ring shape, so it has a center that's open and so it has this great kind of shape. And then the other is a vase that or threw on the wheel and has extremely thin walls and then he sliced it in half. So it is both a kind of reference to this shape of a base, something that you think of as maybe being functional, but then he cuts it in half to really emphasize the kind of sculptural qualities of it. And then also, as anybody who's interested in making pottery might look at this and really marvel at the finesse that he used to create these very thin, very even walls, which is a sign of his skill as well.
Speaker 1:And that's. That's a really interesting thing you bring up, and I thought about that when when you were talking about Miss Takesu's work as well, in that to to hand wheel throne. Something that's hollow creates a ton of issues when you're firing it. So there's a ton of skill in just that, and just not only sculpting it, but these people have to figure out how they're going to fire it, how they're going to glaze it after that and have it all work and stand up to the heat and all of that stuff. So there's ridiculous amounts of skill and they're almost showing off when they just cut it in half and be like I can do this too.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you definitely get that.
Speaker 2:It's a flex you know showing the full range, and I hope that people see that and are both just wowed by the artist's skill but then also maybe feel like I want to give that a shot, I want to try that or I'd like to know more and that kind of goal to have people be inspired by the work that they see and also connects so nicely to great programming that we'll have coming up in January and February and March. So for anybody that's interested, keep an eye on the Crystal Bridges event calendar because we'll be adding different opportunities for people to have hands on experiences that are connected to the work on the show.
Speaker 1:Very, very cool. And what's the website again?
Speaker 2:So if you go to crystal bridges dot org and then click on, let me make sure I give the real time It'll be, it'll be calendar. Yes, so, make sure that's the name of the tab. You just go to crystal bridges dot org. Click on the calendar and that'll show events by date.
Speaker 1:Jen, thank you so much for joining me today. Really enjoyed our visit and thanks to everyone listening. Remember you can catch all of the new American town podcast episodes on streaming channels, following our social platforms or going to visit bentonvillecom. Don't forget to follow. Visit Bentonville on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and TikTok. We have tons of exciting events coming to Bentonville in 2023. Check out our event calendar and plan your trip today. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next time.