Craft Center Is Planning Its Golden Anniversary Show

BROOKFIELD — A special exhibition celebrating Brookfield Craft Center’s 50th year of public service is being planned by co-chairs Robert Dancik, an artist and board member of the center, and Judith Russell, the gallery director of BCC.

Scheduled to open August 22 in the Center’s Lynn Tendler Bignell Gallery, the exhibition will showcase works by 59 of the country’s most renowned master craft artists, all of whom have studied, taught or exhibited at Brookfield Craft Center over the past 50 years plus a number of emerging craft artists affiliated with the Center. The exhibition is being coordinated with a gala 50th Anniversary Party & Auction to be held at The Washington Club in October.

“50<>50: The Craft Continuum,” as it has been titled, will also offer a preview of many of the extraordinary items going to the highest bidder at the October auction event. The show will include jewelry and other works for the home and body in metal, wood, glass, ceramics and fiber.

The exhibition will remain on view until October 10. It will be accompanied by a special CD catalog with artist statements and essays by leaders from the country’s fine crafts community.

“We’ll be showing works that are not only exceptional examples of their particular medium, but also representative of nationally and internationally recognized fine craft artists who have started trends over the years,” said Mr Dancik. “We plan to offer a look at the best of each decade in the craft center’s history.

“There will be some work by old timers who represent the trends of 50 years ago, but there are also trends that transcend decades and continue to this day, such as the incorporation of found objects in jewelry. We’ll also show cutting edge contemporary craftwork that suggests trends reaching into the next 50 years,” continued Mr Dancik. With is own artwork, Mr Dancik combines jewelry design, sculpture and a teaching career as skillfully as he combines found objects with metal and other materials in his own artwork.

“’50<>50’ will demonstrate what we are all about – what we’ve been accomplishing over the last five decades, in training artists and helping them achieve their goals,” said Ms Russell. “It’s just amazing to see how some former students have blossomed into very successful, accomplished artists.

“This show will cover the full spectrum of courses we teach here and represent what’s happening in the craft world today,” she added, “including both functional and purely aesthetic and conceptual work.”

Ms Russell manages and helped create the Center’s Multiples Gallery/Gift Shop. She has seen it grow from representing about 50 artists in the early 1980s to over well over 300 fine craft artists today.

Informal gallery lectures are also planned in conjunction with “50<>50.”

“It will be like a mini art history course, so that gallery visitors and collectors can learn more about fine craftsmanship and how to recognize it,” said Mr Dancik. “This fits right in with the mission of Brookfield Craft Center, which is to preserve and promote the skills and values of fine craftsmanship and good design.”

“The goal of all of our 50th year events,” says BCC Executive Director Jack Russell, “is to celebrate the craft center’s past achievements and highlight our plans to renovate and revitalize our campus to better serve students, faculty, artists and fine craft enthusiasts for the next 50 years.”

Housed in six historic buildings, the center’s colonial vintage campus straddles the Still River at Halfway Falls on Route 25 in Brookfield, just east of the “four corners” intersection with Route 7/202. BCC was founded in 1954 to promote and preserve fine craftsmanship and to support America’s fine craft artists by the exhibition and sale of their work.

For more information, call 203-775-4526 or visit www.BrookfieldCraftCenter.org.