2014 was an exciting year for the Arts/Industry program. Not only did we celebrate our 40th Anniversary with a sweeping retrospective exhibition at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and a well-attended opening celebration, but we also had many opportunities to work with the NCECA Milwaukee conference!
The Arts Center partnered with NCECA to offer a special preconference tour of the Arts/Industry studios at Kohler Co. and of the exhibition Arts/Industry: Collaboration and Revelation. It is always a pleasure to give group tours of the Arts/Industry factory studios and introduce visitors to the artists-in-residence, but never more so than when we have an interested and engaged audience. We also hosted an NCECA bus tour of the Kohler Design Center and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, and we were part of the 2014 Collector’s tour, led by Leslie Ferrin.
The Arts Center offered NCECA members free admission to the opening of Arts/Industry: Collaboration and Revelation, and we were overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response of conference attendees ready and willing to make the drive from Milwaukee to Sheboygan after a busy week of workshops, exhibitions, and lectures. Thank you! We were thrilled to see so many of our alumni, friends, and supporters.
Arts/Industry also partnered with NCECA on the 2014 emerging artist awards by offering a residency to an NCECA emerging artist. We are pleased to announce that David Eichelberger will be an Arts/Industry artist-in-residence during summer 2015. David was formerly an artist-in-residence at Penland School of Crafts and is currently teaching in Floyd, Virginia.
In some ways, we wish that the NCECA annual conference could always happen in Milwaukee so that Arts/Industry could be geographically nearby, but we are looking forward to being in Providence in 2015. Please stop at our resource table to learn more about the many opportunities the residency program offers.
Although Arts/Industry: Collaboration and Revelation, the exhibition, has completed its run, the companion book of the same name is available in both hard and soft cover. The volume covers the history of the program from the perspective of its founder, Ruth DeYoung Kohler. It also includes essays by Arts/Industry alumni and hundreds of gorgeous photographs of work produced by the artists-in-residence! You can purchase the book online at www.jmkacstore.org
