Contemporary Crafts Reinstallation

This installation draws primarily from the Museum's permanent collection of contemporary American crafts objects and includes works by potters, ceramicists, textiles artists, as well as basket and furniture makers. The earliest examples of ceramics in this exhibit, created by Austrian emigres Otto and Gertrud Natzler in 1940, introduce the viewer to "American" ceramics. Other ceramic artists represented include Robert Arneson, Richard DeVore, Rudolf Staffel, Peter Voulkos, and Beatrice Wood. Two textile artists represented are Yvonne Bobrowicz and Cynthia Schira. Dale Chihuly's large glass sculpture shows one strain of the contemporary studio glass movement. The installation also includes several pieces of jewelry on loan from local collections to complement the museum's own fine example of jewelry by Philadelphia artists Olaf Skoogfors and Stanley Lechtzin.