(HOST) October is the time of year when a lot of people spend time driving Vermont’s backroads in search of fall foliage. But, as museum and arts consultant Meg Ostrum notes in today’s commentary, there’s a lot more out there to discover.
(OSTRUM) Not long after I landed in Vermont over three decades ago, I came to realize that hunting for the state’s hidden treasures was almost a year-round competitive sport. First I discovered the "251 Club," whose members successfully tour every town in the state. I also learned that you didn’t have to be part of an official group. All kinds of people were on a perpetual quest to experience the bounty of remote, lost, and forgotten places tucked into the hills. As with any kind of hunting, sharing stories afterward about the adventure was half the fun.
My curatorial work helped me make many more discoveries and become a connoisseur of the state’s hidden cultural riches. Thus I became a player in the game of one-upmanship. I, too, had secrets to swap about amazing historic artifacts lying dormant in local museums. And I found gifted artists and artisans working in studios up phenomenally steep roads that challenge even the skills of intrepid UPS drivers.
In fact, these UPS drivers are among the lucky few who routinely get to see the extraordinary work of some of the country’s finest contemporary craft artists living in our midst. For the most part, these studio professionals work under the radar, selling and showing mostly out of state. So, an exhibit of 125 dazzling pieces now in its waning weeks at the Bennington Museum qualifies as a "once in a blue moon" event that fellow treasure hounds might like to see.
State of Craft is a collaborative project of the museum, the Vermont Crafts Council, and the Vermont Folklife Center. It’s a long awaited retrospective spotlighting three generations of master and emerging artists. Their work exemplifies the high caliber that has built Vermont’s reputation over the past 50 years as one of the epicenters of the American studio crafts movement.
This show will stretch your notion of craft. Though you will see exquisitely made functional pieces, the exhibit abounds in highly original transformations of glass, wood, clay, fiber, and metal. For instance, take Mario Messina’s glowing light sculpture at the entrance, fashioned from handmade paper and wood into the form of a giant tentacled marine animal. Or JoAnne Russo’s tall basket, adorned with metal fasteners and beads and topped with spiraled cords. It evokes an elegant costumed female figure about to unravel. No matter where you look, you feel as if you’re in the presence of animate objects.
Admittedly, our state’s geography makes Bennington a pilgrimage, but it is one well worth the effort. State of Craft is a large exhibit, but like the best treasure hunting episodes, it affords intimate discoveries that allow you to lose a sense of time – and, likely, to find a new repertory of magical experiences to pass on.