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NM / Santa Fe
Santa Fe Clay
Decalcomania
to June
26
santafeclay.com
The complexity of decals in
today’s ceramic arts are repre-
sented in this invitational show.
N Y /N ew York
© Cooper-Hewitt,
National Design Museum
National Design Triennial:
IVhy Design Now ?
to Jan. 9, 2011
cooperhewitt.org
Designers in various fields
speak to contemporary and en-
vironmental concerns in a mix
of media, including Oki Sato’s
pleated paper
Cabbage Chair.
N Y /N ew York
Museum of Arts and Design
Portable Treasuries: Silver
Jewelry from the Nadier Collection
to Aug. 8
madmuseum.org
Dramatic pieces from Northern
Africa, the Indian Subcontinent
and Southeast Asia are also
reflections of social rank among
the regions* peoples.
N Y / Syracuse
Everson Museum of Art
F it to be Bound
tojulyn
everson.org
N Y
State artists explore the
book form—whether traditional
or sculptural, paper or mixed
media, miniature or immense.
.org/edu
Education in
Craftsmanship
Craftsmanship is the watch-
word of the North Bennet
Street School in Boston, which
offers rigorous training in eight
disciplines. Located in an early-
ipth-century brick building near
the historic Old North Church,
the school has been training
people for employment for 125
years, pioneering the concept
of placing students in a classroom
with a master to learn a trade.
The Boston philanthropist Pau-
line Agassiz Shaw opened the
school as the North End Indus-
trial Home in 1880 to serve im-
migrants, and in 1885, when the
focus shifted from employment
opportunity to education, it
was renamed the North Bennet
Street Industrial School. His-
torical highlights include the
adoption of a unique Swedish
woodworking program; the
Saturday Evening Girls Club,
which gave rise to a popular
pottery program; and the direc-
torship (1915-54) of George
Greener, who introduced many
crafts programs, including sev-
eral for returning veterans.
By 1985, with the school’s
social service programs trans-
ferred to other agencies, the
word “industrial” was dropped,
and the mission became solely
teaching craftsmanship. Today,
the disciplines are bookbinding,
calligraphy and paper arts, car-
pentry and home, jewelry and
metals, locksmithing, market-
ing, woodworking and musical
instruments. The last includes
piano technology (introduced in
the 1950s)© and violin making
and repair©. “The diverse pro-
grams we offer are connected by
a common commitment to the
development of the highest level
of hand skills,” says Miguel
Gomez-Ibanez, president of
NBSS
since 2006. “The aim of
the school is to continue to pro-
duce the most highly skilled
makers in each of our fields.”
The approach is based on the
best part of the apprenticeship
system, with practical projects
the main substance of students’
training. Beginning with the
first assignment and continuing
through the course, a student
takes on increasingly difficult
work, a method that develops
not only hand skills but also
an understanding of procedures
used in the trade. The courses
have been developed with the
help of employers and trades-
people in each field.
The full-time faculty com-
prises 17 instructors, and there
are visiting lecturers. The aver-
age student body is 170, and
the school graduates roughly 90
trained craftspeople a year from
its full-time programs. In the
fall and spring, 150 part-time
workshops are offered. “We
don’t want to grow,” says
Gomez-Ibanez, “we just want
to get better at what we do.”
Graduates receive a diploma,
and can work toward a bach-
elor’s or master’s through
n b s s ’s
associations with other
degree-granting Boston schools.
For Gomez-Ibanez, an archi-
tect who trained at
n b s s
in
cabinet making and was presi-
dent of the Furniture Society
for four years, it all comes
down to the primacy of crafts-
manship. “One key to the
mind-set here is that we are not
an art school,” he says. “W e
don’t call our graduates artists,
although their work is often
considered art.” — b .s.
nbss.org
020 amcrican craft june/july io
www.WorldMags.net & www.Journal-Plaza.net
Sato photo Masayuki Hayash.
