Ox-Bow photos courtesy of Ox-Bow archives.
.org/ .edu
Ox-Bow
at 100
The appeal of Ox-Bow, School
of Art and Artists’ Residency,
ill Michigan, has been its bucolic
seclusion and scenic beauty, the
better to foster its mission “to
serve as a haven for the creative
process through instruction,
example and community.” ©
Ox-Bow was founded in 1910
by Frederick Fursman and Wal-
ter Marshall Clute, artists asso-
ciated with the School of the
Art Institute
in
Chicago
(SAIC)
who sought a respite from their
clamorous city (and from the
formal ideas of the Institute)
and found it in Saugatuck, a
town surrounded by dunes, for-
ests, lakes, rivers and a lagoon.
There they began teaching sum-
mer painting classes. Ox-Bow
was first called the Summer
School of Painting, though craft
courses were introduced early
on, in makeshift studios; the
first formal studios for specific
media were not built until the
1960s, ’70s, ’80s, and they con-
tinue to be added.
Today, Ox-Bow’s 115-acre
campus hosts programs in ce-
ramics©, glass, painting and
drawing, papermaking, print-
making and metals. More than
400 students (from ages 18 to
90) come to the campus in the
summer to be mentored and
engaged by 60 faculty, 10 visit-
ing artists and 15 residents. (In
the last four years, winter ses-
sions and a fall residency were
introduced.) Among the numer-
ous figures, who have been stu-
dents, instructors or resident
artists are Lenore Tawney, Jo-
seph Siegenthaler, Nick Cave,
Paul Marioni, Hank Adams and
Tim Barrett. A constant for the
school from the start has been
its relationship with
SA IC,
for-
malized in a sponsorship agree-
ment in 1995.
For summer 2010, the craft
courses being offered include
ceramics with Andrea and John
Gill, glass with Ryan Gothrup
and jewelry with Anne Mondro.
Ox-Bow has announced a Cen-
tennial Residency Contest, in
which two-week residencies for
summer 2010 will be awarded
through a portfolio competition
to three artists. Among several
centennial activities scheduled
in Chicago and around Michigan
are three exhibitions of works
by Ox-Bow artists at the Grand
Rapids Art Museum (June
4-Aug. 22).
Studying craft at Ox-Bow,
notes the executive director
Jason Kalajainen, “provides a
unique opportunity for artists
who work in non-craft-based
media to find avenues to engage
these materials and traditions in
their studio practices, as well as
offer those who have strictly
craft-based practices to move
beyond that tradition and think
about using the media in new
ways.”— b .s .
ox-bow.org
P A / Wayne
Wayne Art Center
A rt Q uilt Elements 2010
Apr. 17-May 19
wayneart.org
Chosen for their conceptual
qualities and technical prowess,
the quilts of 50 artists from 25
states and four foreign coun-
tries grace the center’s gallery.
© TN / Memphis
National Ornamental Metal
Museum
Iron: Twenty Ten
May 29-Aug. 29
metalmuseum.org
Unique perspectives on black-
smithing, includingjoshua
Goss’s
Shell Format #7,
are
offered by some of the best
in the field.
TX / San Angelo
San Angelo Museum
of Fine Arts
San Angelo National Ceramic
Competition
Apr. 16-June 20
samfa.org
This popular biennial with
works by
U .S.,
Canadian and
Mexican artists exploits a range
of attitudes.
W I/Racine
Racine Art Museum
Thermati Statom:
Outside the Box
to July 25
ramart.org
Groups of collaged and painted
glass boxes, with interior forms
recalling everyday objects, line
r a m
’ s
6o-foot-long sidewalk-
level gallery.
apr/mayio american craft 023
