This Month in American Craft Council History: February 2012

With nearly 70 years of organizational history, the ACC has greatly impacted the continuing evolution of the American craft movement. Here are some ACC history highlights that occurred in the month of February:

February 1961: On February 17, 1961, the Museum of Contemporary Crafts opened a memorial exhibition of Katherine Choy and Mariska Karasz, two renowned artists who passed away in 1958 and 1960 respectively. On display in this combined exhibition were forty wall hangings of Karasz and seventy ceramic pieces by Choy. According to the press release for the exhibition: “The two artists had much in common. They each came to this country with a strong recollection of the traditions of their native lands (Karasz was from Hungary and Choy from China); yet they both developed a philosophy that gained them prominence as contemporary American artists. Their accomplishments became all the more important through the dignity they gave their individual crafts.”      

February 5-7, 1970: Daniel Rhodes, ceramist, author and editorial board member of Craft Horizons magazine, lectured in the San Francisco Bay area under the combined auspices of ACC and the Association of San Francisco Potters. At City College of San Francisco, Rhodes showed slides which demonstrated the metamorphosis of his long career, then led a two-day workshop at the College of Marin in Kentfield. At the workshop, Rhodes lectured and demonstrated the use of fibers to strengthen and expand the form possibilities of clay as a sculptural medium. 

February 17-20, 1977: Northeast Craft Fair, Ltd. sponsors the first Winter Market in the Civic Center in Baltimore, Maryland. It featured more than 300 craftspeople living east of the Mississippi. Joan Mondale, wife of vice president Walter Mondale, attended the opening and announced her plans to include contemporary crafts in the vice-presidential mansion. The market became an annual event, rapidly increasing in size. Today, the Baltimore ACC show welcomes more than 650 exhibitors and 22,000 visitors from all over the United States to the Baltimore Convention Center annually. 

February 13-24, 1980: “Art for Use,” an exhibition featuring 100 works by 72 artists, was organized by the American Craft Council at the request of the National Fine Arts Committee of the XIIIth Olympic Winter Games, 1980, Lake Placid, New York. The exhibition, which was assembled to introduce Olympic visitors to American crafts, drew more than 20,000 visitors.  Works shown included quilted wall hangings, ceramics, glass, and Mary Ann Scherr’s jewelry that doubled as heart-and air-pollution monitors. (See the Library Digital Collections for examples of Scherr’s work). After its debut at the Olympic Winter Games in February 1980, “Art for Use” was shown at the American Craft Museum in New York City from March 28 - May 25, 1980.

"This Month in ACC History" takes a look at events from the American Craft Council's 70-year history that shaped not only the organization but also the contemporary craft movement in America.