Podcasts about glenn adamson

It makes sense that if you want to cut down on the amount of spam email you get, just unsubscribe from those emails. WAIT! That could make things worse. There is a better way to handle spam emails, and I begin this episode by explaining how. https://www.yahoo.com/news/warning-hitting-unsubscribe-unwanted-emails-115900557.html Predicting the future is a losing game most of the time. Still, a lot of influential people spend a lot of time and money trying to do it. People forecast where the stock market is going, they predict trends in fashion, technology and everything else. It makes you wonder if all that effort and money trying to predict the future actually helps to make it happen. So why is the future so unpredictable? What forces do shape the future? Joining me to discuss this is Glenn Adamson, former director of the Museum of Arts and Design, New York. He has held appointments as Senior Scholar at the Yale Center for British Art and he is the author of the book, A Century of Tomorrows: How Imagining the Future Shapes the Present (https://amzn.to/442HOfb). People have been floating the idea of a 4-day workweek for over 60 years. Yet it is still not the norm. Why hasn't it caught on? Is it a good idea? Will it ever be a real thing? Here with some interesting insight into the 4-day workweek is Juliet Schor. She is an economist, and professor of sociology at Boston College. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, People and 60 Minutes. She is also the author of a book called Four Days a Week: The Life-Changing Solution for Reducing Employee Stress, Improving Well-Being, and Working Smarter (https://amzn.to/4jQSvr0). There are a lot of weight loss programs and strategies available for people. But what if there was one simple, common sense, easy to do tactic that is proven to help people lose weight effectively? There is. It so simple. And I will tell you exactly how to do it. https://www.ornish.com/zine/proven-benefits-keeping-food-journal/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For as long as he can remember, Leonard Koren has been searching for beauty and pleasure. Throughout his career, the author and artist—he prefers the term “creator”—has spent considerable time putting to paper expressions and conceptual views that architects, artists, designers, and others have long struggled to find the proper framing of or words for. In 1976, when he launched the counterculture publication WET: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, he ushered in the idea of “gourmet bathing,” which has maintained a potent cultural niche in the nearly 50 years since. With Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers, published in 1994, Koren introduced the Japanese expression for “beautiful, imperfect, and impermanent” to the West, where it quickly took on a life of its own. Perhaps one of Koren's greatest talents is his rare ability to translate philosophical meditations on seemingly esoteric subjects into accessible, approachable texts about ways of being, seeing, thinking, making, and feeling. On the episode, Koren details his best—and worst—baths, and explains why he views his life as one long aesthetic experience.Special thanks to our Season 11 presenting sponsor, L'École, School of Jewelry Arts.Show notes:Leonard Koren[4:01] “Undesigning the Bath”[7:30] Century Tower[7:30] 7132 Hotel (Therme Vals)[9:26] “WET: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing”[9:26] Max Palevsky[9:26] Craig Elwood[13:32] “From ‘WET' to ‘Wabi-Sabi': Leonard Koren's Adventurous Aesthetic Journey”[13:32] Mick Jagger[13:32] Richard Gere[13:32] Debbie Harry[17:09] Charlie Haas[18:25] “The Slow Lane”[18:25] Pilar Viladas[21:49] “How to Take a Japanese Bath”[21:49] “Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers”[21:49] “Wabi-Sabi: Further Thoughts”[28:23] Okakura Kakuzō's “The Book of Tea”[31:38] Glenn Adamson[31:38] Sen no Rikyū[39:29] “Noise Reduction: A 10-Minute Meditation for Quieting the Mind”[42:32] “The Haggler's Handbook”[44:22] “283 Useful Ideas from Japan”[46:56] “The Flower Shop”[46:56] Blumenkraft[46:56] “On Creating Things Aesthetic”[46:56] “Which “Aesthetics” Do You Mean?”

Glenn Adamson is reprising his performance as Strat in Bat Out Of Hell for its 2025 UK tour.Glenn previously played Strat on tour across the UK, US and Australia in addition to a West End run at the Peacock Theatre. Bat Out of Hell has book, music and lyrics by Jim Steinman, direction by Jay Scheib, with musical supervision and additional arrangements by Michael Reed.Glenn's other theatre credits include: Dave in Closer To Heaven (Turbine Theatre), Rick in Bat Boy In Concert (London Palladium), understudy Galileo in We Will Rock You (London Coliseum), Theo and understudy St Jimmy in American Idiot (Australasian Tour/Arts Theatre/UK Tour), Billy in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Union Theatre) and Terry in Secret Love (UK Tour). In this episode, Glenn discusses why he's excited to be reprising his performance as Strat and the challenges that come with playing such a demanding role, as well as his path into theatre and journey through the industry so far.Bat Out Of Hell kicks off its UK tour in Edinburgh on 6th January and is booking through to September 2025. Visit www.batoutofhellmusical.com for info and tickets. This podcast is hosted by Andrew Tomlins  @AndrewTomlins32  Thanks for listening! Email: andrew@westendframe.co.uk Visit westendframe.co.uk for more info about our podcasts.  

Bible Study Don't just take our word for it . . . take His! We would encourage you to spend time examining the following Scriptures that shaped this sermon: . Sermon Outline Because we follow a crucified King, we must Persist when rejected with Christ Forgive when reviled for Christ Believe when offended by Christ Sermon Questions The minister, John Stott, famously ascribed to our culture an "anti-authority mood." What do you think he meant? This sermon uses Jesus's trade (Mk 6:3, "Is not this the carpenter...?") as a window into the meaning of discipleship. What other biblical truths need to be considered, to avoid the misguided conclusion that Jesus is an obsessive moralist, and moral perfectionism? Twice in Acts (18:6, 20:27), the apostle Paul says that he is "innocent of the blood of all," because he had discharged the duty entrusted to him by God. Can you say the same? Or is there a relationship, or area of life, where you are resisting risky discipleship, because of the prospect of rejection? In what ways are Christians reviled (if that isn't too strong a word!) in our culture? How should we respond? Jesus "marveled" because of the unbelief of God's people (Mk 6:6). By contrast, he "marveled" at the belief of the Roman centurion (Mk 8:5–13). What is the warning here? And what is the next step for obedience? Resources Referenced Eckhard J. Schnabel, New Testament Theology (Baker Academic, 2023) C.F.D. Moule, The Gospel according to Mark, CGTC (Cambridge, 1979). Ezra Gould, The Gospel according to St Mark, ICC (T&T Clark, 1912). William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark, NICNT (Eerdman's, 1974). David Esterly, The Lost Carving: A Journey to the Heart of Making (Penguin, 2013). Tim Ingold, "Walking the Plank: Meditations on a Process of Skill," in Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description (Routledge, 2022), 63–81. Glenn Adamson, Fewer, Better Objects: The Hidden Wisdom of Things (Bloomsbury, 2018). Questions? Do you have a question about today's sermon? Email Sam Fornecker ( ).

We meet Glenn Adamson, artistic director of Design Doha, and visit The Eames Archives in California. Plus: a reflection on this year's Ralph Saltzman Prize.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A series of conversations with Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and people who have been part of Qatar's architecture & culture development journey.In this episode, Her Excellency welcomes Artistic Director of Design Doha, Dr Glenn Adamson.Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Glenn Adamson is a curator, writer, and historian. He has previously served as Director of New York's Museum of Arts and Design and Head of Research at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. He is the author of numerous books including 'Fewer, Better Things: The Hidden Wisdom of Objects' (2018); 'Objects: USA 2020'; and 'Craft: An American History' (2021). The conversation centres on the inaugural Doha Design Biennale, its significance in showcasing Qatar as a burgeoning design destination, and the convergence of architecture, design, and craft in the region. There's also a focus on the importance of craft and artisanal work in contemporary design, highlighting the value of traditional techniques in modern contexts.The Power of Culture Podcast is a Qatar Creates production.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Julianne Moore is one of our greatest living actors: an Academy and Emmy award winner, and the first American woman to be awarded top acting prizes at the Cannes, Berlin and Venice film festivals. She is also an avid collector. In this episode, Julianne joins curator and author Glenn Adamson, curator Dakin Hart, gallerist Jean-Gabriel Mitterrand, and Sotheby's Florent Jeanniard, for a conversation about 20th Century designers, including Isamu Noguchi and Claude Lalanne, and the role design plays in our lives.  To see the works discussed in this episode, or to watch an extended version of this talk, visit https://www.sothebys.com/en/series/sothebys-talks/inspirational-living-important-design-with-julianne-moore And, to step further into the world of Sotheby's, you can visit any of our galleries around the world; they're open to the public. For more information, visit sothebys.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Glenn's a brilliant curator and writer with a particular interest in craft. If that conjures up an image of lace doilies and crocheted waistcoats, then don't panic!Back in 2011, he put together the amazing 'Postmodernism' exhibition at the V&A in London, which was a riot of Memphis pattern and colour; and more recently, he's co-curated a show called 'Mirror Mirror' at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. Glenn writes beautifully – and his book Fewer, Better Things was a really big influence on my own book, A Modern Way to Live. A phrase he uses a lot is 'material intelligence', which is the idea that we should try to understand the things we choose to live with – where they've come from and how they've been made. I don't know if it's material intelligence or old-fashioned fate that led Glenn to find his home in Upstate New York, but it really is the physical manifestation of everything he believes in. We also chatted about his place in east London, what it's like to be an identical twin, his thoughts on the metaverse and all sorts of other things. Glenn is one of the most erudite people I know and his thoughtfulness is something we could all learn from.This episode was recorded in person at Glenn's east London home.For more: Head over to The Modern House website for images of the places discussed Watch the B-52's 'Love Shack' music video Check out the house built by a librarian's collection of bricksRead more by Glenn AdamsonSign up to The Modern House newsletter for weekly interiors inspiration Executive Producer: Kate Taylor of Feast CollectiveProduction: Hannah Phillips Music: FatherGraphic Design: Tom Young Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week host Benjamin Miller welcomes back an old friend: Glenn Adamson, ANTIQUES contributor and now editor of Material Intelligence, an online quarterly published by the Chipstone Foundation. The upcoming issue of the journal concerns leather, one of the oldest as well as the commonest human-worked materials. From its sartorial to industrial applications (machine belts—sorry American bison), and its prevalence in sadomasochistic paraphernalia, Ben and Glenn cover the gamut.

In this episode Steffan and Bobby chat to the crazy talented Glenn Adamson who just finished playing the lead role of 'Strat' in the London run of "Bat Out Of Hell" and is currently in “We Will Rock You” at the London Coliseum for the Summer. His previous credits include American idiot, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice and Secret Love: the Doris day story. They chat about Glenn's passion for running, how he looks after himself on such physically and vocally demanding shows and what to do after an audition! Enjoy the episode! The next intake for Fit2 Perform is launching soon!! Drop us an email at talk@fit-2.co.uk to get on the waiting list!  Join Fit2 Perform today and start your journey towards a stronger, healthier, and more confident you!! Don't forget to leave us a rating and a review (preferably 5 stars!) and if you've got any questions you want answered, head to Instagram @fit2_talk and slide into those DM's!

The term “polymath” is unquestionably overused, and often just plain wrong, but it suits the multi-hyphenate British designer, creative director, and artist Samuel Ross, whose hard-to-pin-down practice spans high fashion, streetwear, painting, sculpture, installation, stage design, sound design, product and furniture design, experimental film, and street art. Best known for founding the Brutalism-tinged fashion label A-Cold-Wall, which sits at the nexus of streetwear and high fashion, and for his work, earlier in his career, with the late Virgil Abloh, Ross also runs the industrial design studio SR_A and has collaborated with brands including Nike, Converse, and Timberland. On this week's episode of Time Sensitive, he talks about notions of ritual, essence, and alchemy; how his work straddles the line between the organic and the synthetic; and why he always thinks in threes.Special thanks to our Season 7 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.Show notes: [03:59] “Samuel Ross: Coarse” at Friedman Brenda[06:41] Glenn Adamson[22:48] Hettie Judah's Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones[27:45] Vitsoe 606 Shelving System[30:46] Virgil Abloh[37:02] “Samuel Ross: Land” at White Cube[42:05] Rhea Dillon[46:24] Sondra Perry's Typhoon Coming On[46:43] Christina Sharpe's In the Wake[46:46] Saidiya Hartman's Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments[50:30] Steve McQueen's Small Axe[52:41] John Berger[58:19] 2wnt4[58:53] Pyrex Vision[58:55] Kanye West[58:56] Donda[01:04:09] A-Cold-Wall[01:05:46] Jerry Lorenzo[01:09:25] Black British Artist Grants[01:12:22] SR_A[01:12:50] “Fashion Design: Samuel Ross/A-Cold-Wall” at the V&A Museum[01:13:22] Grace Wales Bonner[01:13:54] Mac Collins[01:13:59] Nifemi Marcus-Bello[01:20:44] David Drake

Why Make Podcast, Wendy Maruyama Episode Part 1 Transcript Time Code00:00 Robb HelmkampHello and welcome to Why Make, where we talk to makers from different disciplines about what inspires them to make.With your hosts Robb Helmkamp and, Erik Wolken Erik Wolken. If you would like to learn more about the makers we interview on Why Make please go our website why-make.comRobb HelmkampAnd please help support the Why Make podcast and Why Make productions by making a tax refundable donation to us on Fractured Atlas.Erik WolkenFractured Atlas is our new non profit fiscal sponsor which allows us to access a wide range of funding possibilities including funding available only for non-profits Robb HelmkampVisit https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/the-why-make-project or go to the donate to Why Make page on Why-Make.com 01:01 Robb HelmkampWelcome to our first podcast of the 2023 season of Why Make. This episode is part one of our in depth conversation with the artist Wendy Maruyama.Erik Wolken Wendy Maruyama is a furniture maker, sculptor and retired educator who resides in San Diego California. Wendy's work has tackled a wide scope topics from traditional furniture forms to exploring her Japanese heritage and the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during WW2 to the issue of endangered species.Robb HelmkampAs we discuss later in the podcast Wendy was born with significant hearing loss and cerebral palsy and at her request, to aid our listeners, we have included a full transcript of our conversation on our web page for this episode which can be found on the podcast page of why-make.com It can also be found in the episode notes on Apple podcastsErik WolkenPlease join us and take a listen to our wide ranging discussion with one of the more amazing artists in the woodworking field, Wendy Maruyama.02:03 Erik Wolken Okay, are we ready to have a very serious conversation about nothing?Wendy MaruyamaOh, yeah that will be fine by my book.Erik Wolken We'd like to welcome Wendy Maruyama to the Why Make? Podcast.Robb Helmkamp Welcome Wendy. Welcome to Why Make!Wendy MaruyamaThank you! Thank you for having me, you guys.Erik Wolken The question we always start the podcast with is: What is your first memory of making something?02:00 Wendy MaruyamaWell, you know, I can remember when I was maybe four or five years old, my mom used to bring home these little art kits, craft kits, maybe not coloring books. But things that you had to like put together. And I remember very distinctly a paper cutout book where we had to fold them and they were sort of kinetic. I remember I was more interested in the whole fabrication process verses drawing and painting. Although I did draw and paint when I was little, but I preferred punching holes in paper and you know that sort of thing. So I would say that would be my earliest recollection of making stuff.Erik Wolken Right. So you are an active maker. You liked to be involved in the making. You weren't a passive maker.03:47 Wendy Maruyama Right. Got to be more than just a piece of paper and crayons. I want to ...Even if it meant crumpling paper up or stabbing a piece of paper with a dowel rod, or...Robb Helmkamp Not just making marks but making holes in things too, changing the shape of it.Wendy MaruyamaRipping things apart. I remember needle craft stuff too. Like working with yarn and string. And of course you know back in the 50s the kinds of toys one would get would be very much based on gender and I never got the little hammers and the screwdriver kits for kids, you know. I got the sewing kit and the dolls and that kind of thing. So hopefully that changed a little bit now, but I do remember that pretty clearly because I would go to my cousin's house. I had male cousins and they all had the really cool cars (coins?). That wasn't made available to me because I guess mom felt like I needed more of a Homemaking Type Kit.Erik Wolken What was your first introduction and attraction to furniture and woodworking when did that come?05:12 Wendy MaruyamaWell, you… if you want the earliest: I remember in 6th grade camp, we got sent away to some mountain retreat. When we were all in 6th grade and I really kind of hated it because I hate camping and I hate hiking. I am just not into the outdoor scene. But the most fun things I remember… we had to find a piece of wood in the woods and bring it back to craft room and sand it. Make it all pretty and put oil on it. And I remember the transformation of the wood once I sanded it and made it all pretty and put oil on it, kind of magical. I think my mom still has this piece of wood somewhere. I think I saw it on her dresser a couple of years ago. But anyway, so that would be my earliest memory. But then my first piece of furniture happened when I was 19. I was taking a craft class at a junior college that was in San Diego called Southwestern College and they had an excellent craft program. And this would be the 70s and craft was really enjoying a huge revival at that time and so I was taking jewelry and ceramics. The craft class, we didn't really have a woodworking program, but we had a craft class, which introduced us to all sorts of things, like batik and textiles. And so that we did a little bit of ceramics and weaving and then woodworking was the final project and I was really intrigued by the fact that, you know, I was able to use the machines. And the other good thing was that the woman that was teaching class also made furniture. So kind of like wow, you know, Joanne can work in wood! You know, I'm going to learn how to work in wood. So anyway... I made a three legged chair that was really kind of organic, kind of poorly made, but I didn't know what I was doing. We didn't have any machines for doing mortise and tenon and she (Joanne) didn't use joinery in her work. It was kind of a California thing. We used a lot of dowels you know, and I think that was inspired by Sam Maloof who used a lot of dowels to fabricate his furniture and the dowels were decorative of course too. You know were you use contrasting woods with dowels. And back in those days, we were using a lot of leather so I had leather seat and it was uh pretty hippy influenced work. And its funny because I have the chair in my studio now and I want to replace the seat and maybe clean it up a little bit, you know. But anyway, that was my first piece of furniture. That would be 1971 maybe seven? Yeah '71.Robb Helmkamp That's great that you still have it.Erik WolkenYou'll have to send us a picture of that piece. And if it was truly hippie Wendy, you would have macramé the seatWendy MaruyamaOh, maybe.09:26 Erik Wolken Did you know who Sam Maloof was when you were 1909:30 Wendy MaruyamaUm. No I didn't actually. But you know looking back, I remember thinking, "Why did I use dowels?" Oh and it was screwed together. Screws and the dowels were really there too hide the screw head. Anyway, I didn't know Sam's work until I went to San Diego State. I transferred from Southwestern to San Diego State. Now Larry Hunter was my teacher there and he was the one who kind of exposed me to a lot of makers at the time. Wendell (Castle) well, of course, was a biggie and he had a huge Influence on California woodworkers and we had some really amazing woodworkers in California too. Larry Hunter being one of them and Jack Rogers Hopkins who I think is greatly under appreciated for his work. He did some massive stack lamination pieces. Personally I think that he I think he was really the first person to really incorporate stack lamination into furniture. And I think that Wendell started using the same techniques, around the same time, but my feeling is that Jack was really the early pioneer for that method of working.One day I remember seeing a movie not a video, but it was a movie, you know we he had a movie of him building a music stand from start to finish. It was a much different method of construction and stack lamination. That movie was probably made in the late 60's, 67 maybe. B ut my main influence at that time was Tommy Simpson. I was really just wowed by Tommy's work at that time, you know? So sculptural. And it wasn't merely about woodworking, it was more about fantasy forms that one could make. I think all of his work was made with wood. But, I think could have been interpreted into Paper Mache, plaster, with the kind of forms he was creating with wood. And of course it was all painted. So my first piece of furniture that I did for Larry Hunter was a desk that was very inspired by Tommy Simpson. But it's all made out of chicken wire, plywood and Paper Mache.Erik WolkenAnd this was in a woodworking class you did that? 12:40 Wendy MaruyamaYeah this was a woodworking class. And so I think maybe it was like an introduction and maybe I showed this piece and Larry might have said well it would be faster if you made it out of chicken wire and plywood. You know, you might be able to achieve the form more quickly. So maybe he was trying to you know encourage me to create that form with the little knowledge that I had in woodworking. It was beginning class so it's interesting how he let me do that. If I was teaching a beginning class, I probably would not have said, "Oh make it out of Paper Mache." But uh in hindsight, I wish maybe I could have encouraged that. But, I think I was to deprogramed by the time I started teaching out. I had too many educators that, you know, dictated what woodworking should be and how it should be taught.Erik WolkenSo what were those first what pieces you actually created for him like?14:02 Wendy MaruyamaWell let me tell you, the assignments that I got were so totally different from what most of us are familiar with. And you have to remember this is the early 70's! One assignment was to go out into the woods and be with nature, look around and find something beautiful that was natural. And thinking about it now sounds so crazy. But anyway, so I found a seedpod out in the woods and decided to make a carved hand mirror that was inspired by this seedpod. But that was one assignment. And the second one, was um, I decided to make a music stand or a book stand and I wanted it to emulate a whales tail. You know, when a whale breaches in the ocean and it dives you see that beautiful tail coming out. Well the upper part of my bookstand had a lamp and the tail was really part of that lamp. You know, looking back I'm kind of glad I had those kinds of experiences when I was more naive and perhaps a little more open minded about what furniture could be. There were fewer limitations, if I remember, back in those days.Robb Helmkamp It's really neat to see you incorporating nature into your work already with the whale. I mean, how prescient is that about work that we're going to talk about later in the podcast. But, I think that was one of my most favorite things about living in California was being able to see the whales out in the ocean and go whale watching.16:08 Wendy MaruyamaI agree. Talking about California after having been on the east coast for a while. And then coming back to California the plants are so different here, you know, just sort of otherworldly. The cactus, you know, even the more tropical looking plants that you see, the colors are so different. And I think that had a profound effect on my work. When I returned to California in the in the 80's I really started splashing that paint around. Well, you know, I was free from the indoctrination of the east coast woodworking scene.Robb Helmkamp Ha ha ha haErik WolkenLet's keep on moving on. And let's talk about Mickey Mackintosh. I think that's the first piece that I saw. Was that the first piece you saw Robb?Robb Helmkamp I think it was. When I started at Haywood Community College. My teacher Wayne Rabb talked about and presented some of your work in his slideshows. I remember seeing Mickey Macintosh and just being blown away. You know, not initially, not knowing what to think, but then reading into it and finding out the story behind it. And, you know, I think I tried to make up my own story about it when I first saw it, Erik WolkenSo what is the story behind Mickey Mackintosh?17:37 Wendy MaruyamaThat was made in 1980 or 1981 and I had just graduated from RIT, Rochester Institute of Technology. And I was free, gleefully, free from school and from assignments and the watchfull eyes of Bill Keyser and Doug Sigler. I felt like I could do anything I really wanted. So I decided that I have always loved Charles Rennie Mackintosh chairs. I love the tall back chairs, and I loved Disneyland as a kid. Any opportunity I could get to and get Mom and Dad to take me to Disneyland was just heaven and one of my favorite memories was having one of those Mickey Mouse hats where you would have the big black mouse ears. I think I have an old picture of me wearing that. I thought to myself that would interesting to mash up the two things into one piece. So I said why not and I wanted to take two iconic images and put it into one piece. And that's how Mickey Mackintosh was born. I know a lot of people didn't love it, think of it back in the 80's. I showed that piece at Pritam and Eames in '82 or '83 and it never sold and then it went to another gallery. 30 years later now there has been a lot of interest in the chairs and I have sold so many of them just in the last 10 years. And so I had established there would be an edition of 25 starting in 1981 and so slowly have been pumping out the chairs over the last 40 years, and I just finished the last 10 of the edition which is now in New York City at R and Company Gallery.Robb HelmkampWhen you first came up with the idea were you trying to achieve a mash up?20:20 Wendy MaruyamaI hate making chairs okay. I really hate them. Even now I've tried to make chairs and I keep coming up with the same shtick for years. You know it just is hard to break out of that ubiquitous chair form, with 4 legs and slats and a seat and I kept drawing it over and over and over again and I just couldn't make any progress. And then I was drinking coffee and I put the coffee cup down and it made like a ring on top of my drawing and I thought oh my God that is perfect. So I am going to put those ears and that is how that happened you know. Robb HelmkampThat's perfect!Wendy MaruyamaIt just worked out, it just looked so good, it was the first time I can say oh I loved that piece. I usually don't brag a lot about my work and say oh this is a piece I made I love it's an amazing piece it's the Mickey Mackintosh Chair. That doesn't happen very often you know. Erik Wolken Do you have the original drawing with a coffee cup stain? Erik Wolken One more question about the Mickey Mackintosh chair. You use that industrial Zolotone finish? Was that inspired by the coffee stain as well?21:45 Wendy MaruyamaYou Know, there's not a lot of resources in Smithville Tennessee, there was an auto body supply store on the main drag there, that's the first time I saw a can of um I guess it's called Zolotone. I think it was called splatter paint or truck paint. I think it was made by Napa and it was black with little red and blue speckles. And thought it was the perfect color combination for Mickey Mackintosh. You stepped back and you saw that basically a black chair but if you walked up very close to it you not only saw the red and the blue but you felt the texture. It was smooth. That is how I came up with that surface. It was just serendipity that I came across that paint. Interestingly around the same time one of my colleagues at that time who was Ed Zucca had also discovered that same paint but he was using it in a very different way.Erik Wolken Actually, one more thing about the I lied, I'm gonna ask one more question about the Mickey Mackintosh chair. Why do you think the chair wasn't accepted in the 80s but was much was accepted much later?23:25 Wendy MaruyamaI don't really know. I mean, I wish I knew because it was the coolest thing I thought, but it wasn't the price I remember how cheap it was, I sold the first few ones for 500 bucks that's basically almost the cost of materials. But you know, nowadays, but I guess maybe because it sort of had a vintage reference to it, it just became iconic over the years. I think it took a couple of museums to highlight it. I think um it really helps when a museum supports your work and that more people would notice it. I think one of the first museums to acquire this piece was the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and Glenn Adamson was the curator back then and he was creating a show about post modernism which of course this took place in the 80's. And so it was just sheer luck that Glenn wanted to utilize that chair for the collection and pushed it. Actually he pushed it from somebody else who bought it for hardly anything, and then like sold it for like a butt load of money. But I finally got my due after a bunch of... I was able to sell those chairs at a fair price, shortly after that. I hate talking about money, anyway.Robb Helmkamp It's kind of neat to see that they have a life that is now on to almost 42 plus years. Wendy MaruyamaYeah. Robb Helmkamp So you said you just made 10 More of them for the fall? What's it like making a piece after 42 years and I know you have made them, you know, on the way but 42 years after the first one. That's great.25:50 Wendy MaruyamaYeah. It's interesting because I've been invited to participate in a chair show here in San Diego. I was, oh God... I don't even know why I said yes. But I said yes. And I was back at the same place drawing the same stick chair over and over and over again. So finally just out of necessity I had to stop and I started ripping from three quarter inch square cherry stock and started making what looks like a ladder making a ladder but it's actually a ladder with the a little chair stuck on the bottom and the foot rail I made what looks like little mouse ears sitting at the top just because I needed to get it done you know, but it came out kind of cute. I mean it's cute. So I call it Matador because it looks like a little matador hat you know those little hats that bullfighters wear. That's kind of like a offshoot of Mickey Mackintosh in a way. Maybe I am doomed to that kind of chair design?Robb HelmkampI wouldn't call it doom. I mean, it's almost iconic now that you... you know, you know that you can incorporate that shape to your chairs.Wendy MaruyamaIt's doom, It's doom, I'm doomed. Robb HelmkampAh it's not Doom!Wendy MaruyamaI love that word "DOOMEDRobb HelmkampIt's a good word. Erik WolkenI think your next piece ought to be called "Mickey Macintosh Doomed" And you can riff off of that ideWendy MaruyamaYeah. Erik WolkenMaybe Mickey's ears fall off? So moving along past Mickey and through time. There is a wonderful episode of you on the Craft in America Series on PBS. And it is the Identity episode. And I think you do a wonderful job in that episode of explaining all of your different identities. And I was just sort of hoping that you would go back and sort of rehash that little piece for us?28:03 Wendy MaruyamaWell you know... I was born with a hearing deficiency, I am about 80% deaf and I also have cerebral palsy, which has not really limited me too much, but it does affect my motor control. So you know, as much as I didn't like that identity over the years, in the last 10 years maybe, I started to learn to embrace that identity. In the past I tried to ignore it. And not think about it so much. Then I realized maybe it was not a good idea because people may find it noticeable and I should be up front about it so that people maybe would feel less uncomfortable with hearing me or seeing me for the first time. And if I can embrace that I think it makes it easier for other people to embrace it as well. That is my theory anyway. And then there's the Asian identity. I probably didn't even know I was Asian until grade school. When people were asking me if I was Chinese or Japanese. I would go home and ask Mom, "Are we Chinese or Japanese?" or they would ask me if Dad knew how to do Judo. And you know that kind of thing and that's when I realized they were kind of, being Asian was, was a thing. And then of course I identify as being a maker that's a huge one for me. I am very proud to be a maker, I am very proud to be a crafts person and I am fortunate that I have that too. I guess it's kind of a form of therapy, maybe? I don't know what I would do without that skill. You know? Anyway, so those are my identities that you know some are less obvious than others, and oh being a woman, that's another oneRobb Helmkamp And so on being a woman, you were one of the very first women to graduate with a master's in furniture and design from RIT.30:54 Wendy MaruyamaKind of hard to believe! I can't even believe that's the big deal now, you know, but yeah I guess. There are plenty of other students female students in the program, but they were undergrads. And when they said, you know, you and Gail Smith (Gail Fredell) are going to be the first MFA students to graduate from RIT. I was like wow, you know, ok.Robb Helmkamp So what does this mean? Wendy MaruyamaI don't know. Who cares anyway? Robb HelmkampYeah, that's… a that's a great attitude to have about it. Yeah, it's like you are being an iconoclast without knowing it.31:48 Wendy MaruyamaMaybe that's a good way to put it. No, I was not really aware of that. And it was really funny because after I graduated there was kind of a slew of exhibitions that were called "woman woodworkers" and "women in wood". I guess that was a good thing? I know that a lot of other woman woodworkers feel kind of ambivalent about that, and I could understand that. I mean you want to be accepted as a woodworker regardless of whether your male or female. On the other hand you want to sort of prove something. I'm happy to be able to represent to put it that way. But I don't want it to be the only thing that kind of identifies my work I want to be acknowledged for what I can do and what I like to do. I suppose that would be a hard discussion in itself?Erik WolkenThis is the end of part 1 of our discussion with Wendy Maruyama. Please make sure to listen to part 2 as well

The Bat is back in London! We're thrilled to be joined by returning guests Glenn Adamson (Strat) and Kellie Gnauck (Raven) to chat about their recent journey with the show's Arena tour in Australia and New Zealand, exciting new information about the upcoming London run, overcoming anxiety, what they think Strat and Raven would gift each other for Valentine's Day and more! Bat Out of Hell The Musical is a Rocky-Horror, Romeo-and-Juliet celebration of star-crossed lovers from opposite sides of the tracks caught in a city teetering on the brink of disaster. When Raven falls in love with the rebellious Strat, all bets are off in this love-at-all-costs, rock-and-rollercoaster story based on uncompromising youth. Bat Out of Hell plays a limited season at the Peacock Theatre beginning Feb 17 - April 1, 2023!

Thank you for being a subscriber! How did early Americans create all of the the things they needed and wanted in life? We re-visit with Glenn Adamson to answer more of your questions about trade and crafts work in Early America. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/292

Hello! and Welcome to the next episode of Backstage Bants with Glenn Adamson! [EPISODE 52: GLENN ADAMSON] If you enjoy this episode leave a like, and Subscribe to see the next one! Donate to Acting for Others: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/backstagebants SOCIAL MEDIAS https://www.instagram.com/robbiesbackstagebants https://twitter.com/BackstageBants https://www.facebook.com/robbiesbackstagebants https://robbiesbackstageba.wixsite.com/backstagebants PODCAST: https://anchor.fm/backstage-bants A Huge Thank You to Glenn for coming in for this episode, I had a great time!

Glenn Adamson speaks about the new publication project, Material Intelligence. He reflects on how this project evolved from his return to the Chipstone Foundation in Milwaukee. Adamson describes the need in craft writing to keep in mind the publication as an object, in this case, a PDF which will become a book. In terms of readership, he aims to engage with a scientific community who are practically working with materials. We discuss the nature of "material intelligence": how thinking might have a craft-base and its relationship to the modernist principle of "truth in material". Finally, Adamson offers a book recommendation by technology writer, John Markoff: Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots.

James Watt chats to Glenn Adamson  who is on tour with Bat out of Hell the Musical.  This is one show you don't want to miss

What you'll learn in this episode: How we can examine almost any political topic through the lens of jewelry  Why it's important that jewelry be embraced by academia, and how every jewelry enthusiast can help make that happen (even if they're not in academia themselves) Why a piece of jewelry isn't finished when it leaves the hands of its maker How Matt works with collaborators for their column, “Settings and Findings,” in Lost in Jewelry Magazine How jewelry has tied people together throughout time and space About Matt Lambert Matt Lambert is a non-binary, trans, multidisciplinary collaborator and co-conspirator working towards equity, inclusion, and reparation. They are a founder and facilitator of The Fulcrum Project and currently are a PhD student between Konstfack and University of Gothenburg in Sweden. They hold a MA in Critical Craft Studies from Warren Wilson College and an MFA in Metalsmithing from Cranbrook Academy of Art.  Lambert currently is based in Stockholm Sweden and was born in Detroit MI, US where they still maintain a studio. They have exhibited work nationally and internationally including at: Turner Contemporary, Margate, Uk, ArkDes, and Sven-Harrys Konstmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden, Museo de la Ciudad, Valencia , Spain and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, US. Lambert represented the U.S in Triple Parade at HOW Museum, Shanghai, China, represented the best of craft in Norway during Salon del Mobile, Milan, Italy and was the invited feature at the Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece during Athens Jewelry Week. Lambert has actively contributed writing to Art Jewelry Forum, Garland, Metalsmith Magazine, Klimt02, Norwegian Craft and the Athens Jewelry Week catalogues and maintains a running column titled “Settings and Findings” in Lost in Jewelry Magazine. Additional Resources: Matt's Website Matt's Instagram Transcript:  Matt Lambert doesn't just want us to wear jewelry—they want us to question it. As a maker, writer, and Ph.D. student, Matt spends much of their time thinking about why we wear jewelry, who makes it, and what happens to jewelry as it's passed from person to person. They joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about the inspirations behind their work, why jewelry carries layers of meaning, and why wearing jewelry (or not wearing it) is always a political act. Read the episode transcript here.    Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is a two-part Jewelry Journey Podcast. Please make sure you subscribe so you can hear part two as soon as it comes out later this week. Today, my guest is Matt Lambert, who is joining us from Stockholm. Matt is a maker, writer and performer currently pursuing a Ph.D.    Matt's jewelry journey has taken them from country to country. What sticks in my mind is one of my first encounters with them on an Art Jewelry Forum trip. I saw them in a hotel lobby in Sweden wearing one of their iconic creations, a laser-cut leather neckpiece I flipped over. We'll hear all about their amazing jewelry journey today. Matt, thanks so much for being here.   Matt: Thanks so much for having me, Sharon. It's a pleasure.   Sharon: Your jewelry journey has taken you all over the world. I'm always amazed when I hear how you hop from country to country. So, tell us about it. How did you get into it?   Matt: Originally I was trained as a psychologist.   Sharon: Wow!   Matt: It's kind of strange, but it makes perfect sense for what I do now in human sexuality and gender. I was researching body politics and what it means to be a person and be represented through media or in other cultures. I started off in that community, and I took a metalsmithing course on a whim. There was a woman in one of my classes who was taking it as her art elective. I thought we were going to be making something completely different by forging silver. I was like, “Wait, what? You can do that?” I really fell into it.   I was a researcher for the APA doing government research—   Sharon: APA being the American Psychological—   Matt: The American Psychological Association. After community college, I went on to Wayne State and studied under F.M. Larson for metalsmithing. At the very end, Lauren Kalman joined. She is tenured and was well-known at Wayne State University in Detroit.    The work I was doing was very rigorous. I worked in a rape and trauma research lab with no windows in a basement, and I wasn't finding a way to talk about people and bodies and those things in the ways I had hoped. It was fulfilling me, but not in every aspect of my life.  So, I kept pouring myself into this strange thing of contemporary jewelry.    I never thought I would go to grad school. I wound up going to Cranbrook Academy of Art, which is just 40 minutes down the road from Wayne State. Even then, I thought I was going to go across the country for art school. I fell in love with the program at Cranbrook. Iris Eichenberg, who teaches there, told me, “You have to fail really bad in order to learn what's good and what's good for your practice.” It was so liberating that I could apply all the research I learned and used and still use it today, but to put it and manifest it in jewelry. That opened Pandora's box.    Sharon: How did you decide to go from studying psychology and being at Wayne State to go to such a renowned art school that you don't know? It's for art jewelers, basically.   Matt: Yeah, it's renowned. I think it shares the number one space for metalsmithing and jewelry, and it's renowned also for hollowware and gate making. It has a long history of Americana metalsmithing. With Iris being there for contemporary jewelry, it sounds a little bit pretentious.    The relationship I was in wanted me to stay local. It was like, “You should apply.” I really thought through everything weird and wonderful that I wanted to be doing, and I was like, “If I'm going to stay, then you have to take this all on.” Iris was like, “O.K., let's do it.” Even if didn't work out, it was like, “I can just go back to psychology if this doesn't work.”   Cranbrook has an international reputation which also meant traveling a lot. In between semesters, I was the assistant for Christoph Zellweger, who's based out of Zurich, Switzerland. I don't know if they're still there now, but at the time, I was their assistant in Switzerland during my years there. My partner was Monica Gaspar, so I got a theorist who I also got to work with. Then I kind of traveled everywhere. Before I started at Cranbrook, the first time I was in Europe, we had to go to KORU7, which is the jewelry triennial in Finland. They also do seminars. So, for me, it became a very global, European to North American perspective.   Sharon: I'm always amazed at your country hopping. Was this something you were considered a natural at? Were you finger painting at age five and your parents were saying, “Oh, they're going to be an artist”?   Matt: I do have a background in wildlife illustration. I was homeschooled until sixth grade, but I was put in a lot of enrichment programs, so I did have ceramics; I had languages; I had all sorts of courses and electives. Growing up I trained in something called monart, which is not taught in public school; it's only for private training. It's a way of drawing where you draw from negative space, which I think contributes to my work, as I think through negative space. I was doing a lot of wildlife illustrations. I have quite a few childhood publications, like realistic waterfowl and birds of prey. I dabbled a little bit with Sidney Shelby. The Shelby has an art program for auto illustration, too.   So, there is some of that. I thought I was going to go into drawing and painting before I went into psychology, but I had an evaluation at community college when I started and they kind of broke my dreams. They said I was terrible and said, “You shouldn't be an artist.” I would always say, “If you're told you shouldn't be an artist, you probably should be.” So, I went into psychology as a shelter to do that.    I'm a big advocate for trade schools and community colleges as places to find yourself. I fell in love with metalsmithing there, and I knew I would never leave it. My mother's cousin was actually a former a Tiffany's jeweler, so there is a little bit in the family. She was a cheerleader for me. She was like, “You're doing what? Oh, have you found a hammer and silver? Great.” She trained under Phil Fike, who was at Wayne State University when she was there. It's always interesting what she thinks I do because I'm not a very technical, proper silversmith like she was. When I finally went to school and said I was going to do this officially, she gave me her studio.   Sharon: Wow! You have two master's degrees and now you're working on a Ph.D. Can you tell us about that? One is critical art, or critical—   Matt: Yeah, critical craft theory. I graduated Cranbrook in 2014 from metalsmithing and jewelry, and I had electives in sculpture and textile. At the same time, I should say, I had also apprenticed as a leatherworker doing car interiors, like 1920s period Rolls-Royces, so I had a leather background I was able to bring to Cranbrook. A lot of my work was varied, but there was a lot of leather involved. After that, I had a partial apprenticeship in semi-antique rug restoration. There's a lot of training in leather-working material.   So, I graduated, and I met Sophia. We had met a few times, and then she ended up being the evaluator/respondent for our graduation show. So, she saw my work as I wished it to be, and she offered me a solo show. She said, “An agent is coming to see the gallery. Come help out. Come see this world,” which is how we met.   Sharon: And her gallery is in Sweden, right?   Matt: Her gallery is in Stockholm, yes, in Sweden. I had a show, and that was amazing. There's a government program called IASPIS, which is an invite-only program that the Swedish government runs. It's the international arts organization. I was invited there because they were looking for—they added applied arts, and I was the first jeweler and metalsmith to be there. That's a three-month program where you're invited to live and work, and that gives you great networking opportunities not only with Sweden, but also with Scandinavia at large for museums and shows. I was the first foreigner at Tobias Alm, who was a Swedish jeweler and the first Swedish artist in jewelry to be there. That just upped and changed my life. I got into museum shows and met people and had a career for about four or five years and loved it; it was amazing and I wanted more.    I love theory. I am a theory addict, so I was like, “A Ph.D. is the next logical thing.” I was applying and making finals, but jewelry is a hard sell, if you will, in academia. Warren Wilson College is in North Carolina in the States. There is a think tank out of the Center for Craft, which is located in Asheville, North Carolina, and they deal with all kinds of craft. They're a great epicenter and source of knowledge for American craft discourses. Out of this came this development of this program. They partnered with Warren Wilson College to create a master's, which is a two-year program at Warren Wilson College, which is just 20 minutes away from Ashville.    It's low residency, so there's two weeks per term you'd be in person and the rest you could live anywhere, which was perfect for me because I was traveling so much. So, you do two weeks on campus in the summer and live in the dorm, and then you do two weeks—when I did it, at least, it was with the Center for Craft. We had a classroom there. Namita Wiggers is the founding director, and we got to work with amazing theorists: Linda Sandino, Ben Lignel, who's a former editor for Art Jewelry Forum, Glenn Adamson, the craft theorist, Jenni Sorkin, who lives in California teaching, Judith Lieman—this is an amazing powerhouse. There's Kevin Murray from Australia, who runs the World Crafts Organization. I was a bit part in it. He also edits Garland, which is an Australia-based publication for craft. It was an amazing pulling together of craft theory. At this time, I also thought I was dyslexic, so I was trying to find a new way to write being neurodivergent. Writing has now become—   Sharon: You do a lot of it. When I was looking last night, I could see you've done a lot of writing. My question is, why did you not stop and say, “O.K., I'm going to make things I like”? What was it that attracted you to theory? Maybe it's too deep for me.    Matt: I think we've positioned the Ph.D. to be the next step always, but I don't think academia is for everybody. A master's even, I always questioned, do we as makers always need to be in academia? For me, though, my drive is that I think jewelry is in one of the best theoretical positions to talk about a lot of very difficult contemporary issues. Craft in general, but I think jewelry because it's so tied to the body. It's so blurry because it's design; it's fashion; it's craft; it's art; it's a consumable good; it can be worn. It challenges how we exhibit it. If you need to wear it to experience it, how does a museum show it?    For me, it's this little terror or antagonizer that I think theoretically, from my background, is a great place to stay with, and I think that it's been neglected in certain spaces. It's the only field to not be in the Whitney Biennial. It ties perfectly with certain forms of feminism and queerness, which is the theoretical basis I come to it from, to talk about these things. It can't be always defined, and that's what I love about jewelry. People find it surprising when I'm like, “I love talking about commercial jewelry or production jewelry,” because if that's what turns your gears, what you love to wear or buy or make, I want to know why. I want to see jewelry expand and envelope all of this, so that we can be at the Whitney Biennial. We also could be everywhere else.   Sharon: Can't you do that without the Ph.D.? I'm not trying to knock it. I'm just playing devil's advocate.   Matt: Yeah, I think someone else can do that as well. For me, though, I truly love theory. I love the academics. For me, that is an actual passion. It's what drives me. It's not necessarily the physical making; it's the theory behind why. I'm actually questioning my practice. Should I be making physical objects now, or should I just be celebrating people that make physical objects? My making practice is almost entirely collaborative now, working with other jewelers or performers or choreographers or educators and using jewelry as a way of introducing or as producing an output.    How does jewelry fit into research? I think research output is an interesting thing for me. I can go on about this all day. So, for me, I want to make an academic foothold for jewelry. I want to do that work. I see that as my facet. I don't think everybody needs to go and do that. I want to see everybody find the thing they love as much as I love academia and theory. I want to push on so we can expand the field together.   Sharon: I think that's great. It's great to hear, because it's a strong voice giving credibility to the field, as opposed to, “Oh, you must be interested in big diamonds if you're talking about jewelry.” You're talking about it on a much deeper level. It's hard to explain to people why you like jewelry or jewelry history, so it's good to hear.    Last night—I say last night because I was refreshing my memory—I was looking at one of your articles about the “we” in jewelry. Can you tell us about that?   Matt: Absolutely. I write for multiple publications: Metalsmith Magazine, which is in the U.S. and is part of SNAG, the Society for North American Goldsmiths; Norwegian Craft; Art Jewelry Forum. I run a column called Settings and Findings out of Lost in Jewelry Magazine, which is based in Rome. I also write for Athens Jewelry Week catalogues, which has gotten me into writing a series for Klimt, which is a platform for makers, collectors, wearers, and appreciators based out of Barcelona. They invited me to write a five-part series after they had republished an essay I wrote for Athens Jewelry Week. Those people gave me an amazing platform to write, and then Klimt was like, “What do you want to do?” and I was like, “Five essays about what we do with jewelry.”    One of them is the “we” article. That came from being in lockdown and the theorist Jean-Luc Nancy, who wrote about something called “singular plural.” It's just saying that we don't ever do anything alone, and I think jewelry is a beautiful illustration of that. I moved during the pandemic to do the Ph.D., and I found myself wearing jewelry to do my laundry because I got to do it with a friend. It's so sappy in way, but it's true. It's a way to carry someone else with you, and jewelry is not an act done alone. I mean, we're trained as jewelers. We're trained by someone, so we carry that knowledge with us. We are transmitters as makers, but then we have collectors and wearers and museums and other things, and they need to be worn. It needs to be seen in some fashion or valued or held.    My personal stance is that jewelry, once it leaves my hands as a maker, isn't done. I'm interested as a researcher, as a Ph.D., in how we talk about that space in between. If you wear one of my pieces, and someone listening wears one of my pieces, and that same piece is in a museum, how we understand that is completely different. Jewelry creates this amazing space to complexify, and that's when you talk about bodies and equity and race, sex, gender, size, age. All the important things that are in the political ethos can be discussed through jewelry, and that's the “we” of jewelry.    We have this controversy about the death of the author and authorship doesn't matter, but speaking through craft, we are never alone. To me, it's like I make through the people I've learned through. I am a transmitter to the people that I teach and to me, that's what craft is. Also, craft is a way of looking at the world, at systems, and who we learn from and how we learn. I think jewelry is one of the most obvious “we's.”   Sharon: This is a question that maybe there's no answer to, but is jewelry separate from craft? There's always the question of what craft is. Is craft art? Is it jewelry?    Matt: That depends on whom you ask. I personally do not believe in the art versus craft debate. I am not in that pool. I believe craft is a way of looking at anything in the world. I think craft is learned through material specificity. I usually enjoy metalsmithing. It's through copper or silver, but it's really spending time with something singular to explore its possibility. It's a way of learning how things start, how things are produced, how labor works, where there are bodies and processes, so you can pick up anything in the world and look at anything and see people and humanity. Even through digital technology, someone has to write a program. It gives you a skillset to look at the world, and that's how I approach craft.    You're going to find so many different definitions, but coming from that perspective, that is what I believe, and that's why I think craft is so valuable. To answer if jewelry is craft, yes and no. You can talk about jewelry through craft, but you could talk about jewelry through fashion. You can talk about jewelry through product design. Again, I think that's why jewelry is beautiful and problematic, because it can be so many things at the same time.    Sharon: I'm intrigued by the fact that you're interested in all kinds of jewelry, whether it's art jewelry or contemporary jewelry. When you're in the mall and you see Zales and look in the window, would you say it all falls under that, with everything you're talking about? Does it transmit the same thing?   Matt: Through a craft lens, you can look at any of that. You can go to Zales and the labor is wiped out. You're no longer going to your local jewelry shop. The person is making your custom ring, but when you look at that ring, you have an ability to go, “Someone had to facet the stone and cut it, a lapidary. Someone had to make the bands. Someone had to mine the stone. Someone had to find this material.” It allows you to unpack where objects are coming from and potentially where they're going.    You can understand studio practices because you're relating more directly to a maker, who has more knowledge of where their materials come from, rather than the sales associate at the Zales counter. It's a simpler model, but it is the same thing to me. The way I look at it, that is craft's value to my practice. I'm very careful to say it's my practice because there are so many definitions, but that's what I think is sustainable in this training. You can be trained as a jeweler and not make jewelry, but it's still valuable in your life because you can apply it to anything.   Sharon: I was also intrigued by the title of an article you wrote, “Who Needs Jewelry, Anyway?” So, who does need jewelry?   Matt: Yeah, that's one that kicked it up to the next level. There are moments in my career where I can feel the level upward, like I enter a space that's different. That was an essay that was written for Athens Jewelry Week. That was the first essay I wrote before I had the feature at the Benaki Museum. At Athens Jewelry Week, those women worked their tails off to make that event happen.    I wrote that when I was at the tail end of my second master's, and I was frustrated. I think we see that students are frustrated and people are questioning, especially during Covid, especially during Black Lives Matter, especially during the fight for indigenous rights, do we need jewelry? What does this mean? It's a commodity. It can be frivolous. It's a bauble. It can be decorative. Like, what are we doing? I think that is something we should always question, and the answer for that can be expressed in many ways. It can be expressed from what you make, but also what you do with what you make. How do you live the rest of your life?    There isn't a one-lane answer for that, but that's what that essay was about. We don't need jewelry, but we really do. The first half of the essay is saying what the problem is, but the problem is also where the solutions sit. It's all about how you want to approach it. That is what that essay was saying. You can consume this and wear it; it is what it is, and that's fine. You can participate in systems and learn and discover and know who you are wearing and support them. Wearing jewelry is a political act no matter what jewelry you're wearing. Where you consume is a political act. Political neutrality is still a political statement. That article specifically was for art jewelry, and it was saying, hey, when you participate, when you buy, when you wear, when you make, it means something. You're bringing people with you; what people are you choosing to bring? It was stirring the pot, and it was very intentional to do that.   Sharon: I couldn't answer the question about who needs jewelry. You're asking me, but certainly I can think of people who say, “I don't need it,” who have no interest or wouldn't see the continuum behind a ring or a piece of jewelry.    This is a two-part Jewelry Journey Podcast. Please make sure you subscribe so you can hear part two as soon as it comes out later this week. 

How do we decide if a work is a magnum opus (the best single work of an artist)? Different cultures have varied language on mastery such as living treasures. Glenn Adamson and Steve Lee talk about their views on material mastery and how history has developed a system to designate an artist's “best” piece.    Skutt is a proud sponsor of Trade Secret. Skutt Ceramic Products has been manufacturing equipment for Potters since 1953. Skutt's reputation as a pioneer in innovative kiln design continues with the 4th generation of this family-owned Business. Their KilnMaster Touchscreen controller offers a sleek, smartphone like interface, that is intuitive and packed with powerful tools that allow potters to easily program, diagnose and remotely monitor their kilns. With 5 dedicated kiln technicians on staff and the most comprehensive network of distributors across the globe, you can be assured that Skutt will be there for you before and after the sale. For more information on their line of kilns visit www.skutt.com.

We're back with a very exciting third episode in our Bat Out of Hell The Musical Interview Mini Series! This time we're joined by the leads of the show, Glenn Adamson and Martha Kirby to chat all about their journey as Strat and Raven in the UK & Ireland touring production!

For curator and scholar Glenn Adamson, craft isn't a quirky hobby that sits on the outskirts of contemporary culture. Rather, it's a vital, timeless tool for teaching us about one another, and about humanity as a whole. This belief fuels his writing, teaching, and curatorial projects, which seek to unpack the many ways in which the age-old activity shapes our lives. Adamson's work shows that craft is bigger than any single skillfully handmade object—each of which itself can serve as an important symbol of the human capacity for honing expertise over time—and influences countless aspects of society, from the Japanese tea ceremony to farming robots devised by Google's parent company, Alphabet X. In this way, craft acts as a lens for understanding people and places across time.Adamson, 49, has explored the virtues of craft throughout his two-decade-long career, which has included roles at Milwaukee's Chipstone Foundation, London's Victoria and Albert Museum, and New York's Museum of Arts and Design. In his 2018 book Fewer, Better Things, he positions craft as a means of connecting with fundamental issues and ideas (as opposed to those that hold only momentary or superficial relevance), and explains why taking the time to appreciate handmade objects from a maker's or a user's perspective holds particular spiritual and psychological value. Adamson's account of the discipline in the United States, neatly laid out in his latest book, Craft: An American History (Bloomsbury), reveals how artisans—whose trade often includes people who are disempowered by their ethnicity, gender, or both—have been consistently suppressed throughout the nation's history, but, paradoxically, are integral to many of its greatest achievements. His latest endeavor takes a more forward-looking approach. “Futures,” an exhibition Adamson co-curated that opens in November at the Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Building in Washington, D.C. (on view through summer 2022), considers how craft can signal where we might be headed, and why we should be optimistic about the time to come. Over and over again, Adamson demonstrates how skilled making is about more than just beautiful objects. “Craft stands in for the whole idea of what it means to be human,” he says, “and why that matters.”On this episode, Adamson discusses the various facets of skilled making, talking with Spencer about the value of hand-formed objects, the relationship between time and craft, and the discipline's essential, often complicated role in the history of human progress.Show notes:Full transcript on timesensitive.fm@glenn_adamsonglennadamson.com(16:20): Fewer, Better Things (Bloomsbury, 2018)(52:57): Chipstone Foundation (53:33): Milwaukee Art Museum(54:16): “Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970–1990” (Victoria and Albert Museum, 2011)(55:56): The Journal of Modern Craft(56:04): Museum of Arts and Design(59:50): Craft: An American History (Bloomsbury, 2021)(01:17:23): “Futures” (Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building, Nov. 2021–Summer 2022)

Glenn Adamson is a curator and writer who works at the intersection of craft, design history, and contemporary art. He's the author, most recently, of Craft: An American History. He previously was the director of the Museum of Arts and Design, head of research at the V&A, and curator at the Chipstone Foundation. In this conversation, Jarrett and Glenn talk about the understanding craft and its role in society, how he put together his new book, and how craft and design are different. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/191-glenn-adamson. — If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting us on Patreon and get bonus content, transcripts, and our monthly newsletter! www.patreon.com/surfacepodcast

What can a portrait reveal about the history of colonial British America? Portraits were both deeply personal and yet collaborative artifacts left behind by people of the past. When historians look at multiple portraits created around the same time and place, their similarities can reveal important social connections, trade relationships, or cultural beliefs about race and gender in early American history.  Janine Yorimoto Boldt, Associate Curator of American Art at the Chazen Museum of Art and the researcher behind the digital project Colonial Virginia Portraits, leads us on an exploration of portraiture and what it can reveal about the early American past.  Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/299 Join Ben Franklin's World! Subscribe and help us bring history right to your ears! Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute The Ben Franklin's World Shop Complementary Episodes Episode 024: Kimberly Alexander, 18th-Century Fashion & Material Culture Episode 084: Zara Anishanslin, How Historians Read Historical Sources Episode 106: Jane Kamensky, The World of John Singleton Copley Episode 136: Jennifer Van Horn, Material Culture and the Making of America Episode 292: Glenn Adamson, Craft in Early America    Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

This week, we focus on two books: Aimee Dawson talks to Alice Procter about the debate over contested heritage in the UK and her book The Whole Picture, a strident call for colonial histories to be told in museums. Jori Finkel speaks to Glenn Adamson about Craft: An American History, a radical reappraisal of craft's role in forging American identity. And in this episode’s Work of the Week, Ben Luke talks to the critic Michael Peppiatt—curator of an exhibition uniting Frank Auerbach and Tony Bevan at Ben Brown Fine Arts in London—about Auerbach's EOW Sleeping IV (1967), in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Glenn Adamson makes his second appearance on Curious Objects to discuss his new book, Craft: An American History. As his research shows, artisans from Paul Revere and Betsy Ross to Patrocino Barela and George Barris played a crucial and under-examined role in the formation of the United States’ national character. And what’s more, he tells us, the communal-slash-individual nature of craftwork could represent an antidote to the country’s current polarization.

What was everyday life like for those who lived in early America? To understand the everyday lives of early Americans we need to look at the goods they made and how they produced those goods. In essence, nothing explains the everyday as much as the goods in people’s lives. Glenn Adamson, author of Craft: An American History, joins us to investigate craft and craftspeople in Early America. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/282 Join Ben Franklin's World! Subscribe and help us bring history right to your ears! Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute The Ben Franklin's World Shop Complementary Episodes Episode 050: Marla Miller, Betsy Ross and the Making of America Episode 130: Paul Revere’s Ride Through History Episode 160: The Politics of Tea Episode 207: Nick Bunker, Young Benjamin Franklin Episode 234: Richard Bushman, Farms & Farm Families in Early America Episode 243: Joseph Adelman: Revolutionary Print Networks  Episode 288: Tyson Reeder, Smugglers & Patriots in the 18th-Century Atlantic World Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

New York–based jewelry and object designer Monique Péan sees fossils and extraterrestrial materials as portals to another time, space, and place. Pyritized dinosaur bones, woolly mammoth tooth roots, meteorites, and lunaites are among her work’s mediums. She sources these from remote locations—including the Arctic Circle, where she located fossils with Native Alaskan Inupiat and Yupik tribes, and on Easter Island, where that site’s aboriginal Polynesian inhabitants helped her hand-carve cosmic obsidian, found on local terrain—and then transforms them into striking, sculptural works of art. Recently, Péan began working on a larger scale, expanding her practice to sculpture and furniture. One of her first pieces in this vein, a bronze vessel incorporating part of a rare meteorite, is included in “Objects: USA 2020,” a forthcoming exhibition at New York’s R & Company gallery (now opening on February 16, 2021, due to the Covid-19 pandemic), curated by Glenn Adamson, Abby Bangser, Evan Snyderman, and James Zemaitis. Péan wants viewers to experience the wonder she feels when holding a piece of the universe in her hands: a transportive, calming energy that signals the vastness of deep time—and illuminates her role in harnessing it. Péan traces her draw toward these specimens to her younger sister, Vanessa, who died in a car accident at age 16. The loss prompted her, then in her mid-20s (she is now 39), to approach life with urgency and intention. She quit her job as an analyst at Goldman Sachs and, a year later, in 2006, launched her eponymous jewelry line. Each piece is, in a way, a memorial to her only sibling. They’re also a means for the designer to explore the origins of life, and to express not only herself but also gratitude toward the planet: Péan donates a portion of the proceeds from every accessory sold to Charity: Water, a nonprofit that provides clean drinking water to communities in need, and avoids using materials that require mining, opting for antique diamonds and recycled gold or platinum instead. The ancient materials she uses are found lying on the Earth’s surface, collected by simply picking them up off of the ground, and in Péan’s hands, they’re turned into wearable reminders of natural phenomena.On this episode, Péan details how she came to understand time through geology, talking with Spencer about her fascination with fossils, rocks, and meteorites; her profound experiences working with indigenous peoples to locate age-old materials; how her Haitian-Jewish background has shaped her worldview; and the ways in which her jewelry pays tribute to her late sister.

We discuss Gero von Boehm’s documentary ‘Helmut Newton: The Bad & the Beautiful’ (2020) and our own reactions to Newton’s controversial photographs. See links below. Gero von Boehm (director), Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful (2020): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10370644/ Mila Ganeva, ‘Fashion Photography and Women’s Modernity in Weimar Germany: The Case of Yva’, NWSA Journal, Vol. 15, No. 3, Gender and Modernism between the Wars, 1918-1939 (Autumn 2003): https://www.jstor.org/stable/4317007?seq=1 Hannah Höch, Weltrevolution (1920), Metropolitan Museum of Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/265169 Hans Bellmer at MoMA: https://www.moma.org/artists/452 Rebecca Arnold, ‘Fashion, Desire and Anxiety: Image and Morality in the Twentieth Century’, I.B. Tauris (2001): https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/fashion-desire-and-anxiety-9780857718396/ Rebecca Arnold, ‘Fashion, Violence and Hyperreality’, in Glenn Adamson and Jane Pavitt (editors), Postmodernism: Style and Subversion, 1970-1990, V&A (2012): https://www.vam.ac.uk/shop/postmodernism-style-and-subversion-1970-90-hardback-110121.html ‘Helmut Newton: High Gloss’, Hamiltons, London (21 October 2020 - 8 January 2021): https://www.hamiltonsgallery.com/exhibitions/helmut-newton-high-gloss/overview/ Fashion Interpretations, A symposium: https://sites.courtauld.ac.uk/fashioninterpretations/events/

As a Maker, I am sure you can appreciate Glenn Adamson’s notion of “Fewer, Better Things”. Wu Hanyen, furniture maker, mover, and creator of Work in Use, agrees and offers just that. Listen in to learn more about Wu and her high-end movement tools that will not only look beautiful in your home but redefine your relationship to movement! Follow Work in Use: https://workinuse.com or Instagram: @workinuse Learn More: https://www.wellnessformakers.com or Instagram: @wellnessformakers Music By: https://www.instagram.com/vacationlandmusic/

Scholar and curator Glenn Adamson reminds us how important it is to pay attention to the objects in our immediate proximity in this episode keyed to Art Carpenter’s Wishbone chair

In this bonus episode of Material Matters with Grant Gibson, the New York-based writer, curator and critic Glenn Adamson talks about his latest book, Fewer, Better Things and discusses the importance of ‘material intelligence’ to a culture in thrall to all things digital. En route, he touches upon his family background, his love of the Irish pipes and the importance of museums.

Glenn Adamson is an art curator, historian, and writer. We discuss what makes up material intelligence - the appreciation of and relation to the tangible objects that surround us - as covered in his newest book "Fewer, Better Things: The Hidden Wisdom of Objects." Next we talk about creativity and craftsmanship with Michael Sheetz, a woodworker, blacksmith, and owner of American Handcrafted Caskets and Coffins.

Peter's twin brother Glenn Adamson discusses the philosophical implications of craft.

Crafts editor talks to curator and writer, Glenn Adamson about his new book, Art in the Making: Artists and their Materials from the Studio to Crowdsourcing co-authored with Julia Bryan-Wilson and recently published by Thames & Hudson.

What is cultural diplomacy? In the final episode of season one of the V&A podcast, Glenn Adamson discusses this important topic with Martin Roth, Director of the V&A, and Kirsten Bound, Head of International Innovation at NESTA. They consider the global spread and impact of cultural diplomacy as a form of soft power which can communicate knowledge, and build trust and confidence through a variety of platforms. The V&A is an archive of cultural diplomacy with collections from around the world. These objects often have the ability to connect with people in ways that politics cannot.

At the end of 2014, the Europe 1600 to 1800 gallery will open at the V&A. In this episode, the importance of gallery interpretation is considered: How do we give meaning and context to the objects on display for gallery visitors? Glenn Adamson is joined by Lucy Trench and Evelyn Welch. Lucy is Head of Interpretation for the European Galleries and Evelyn is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Kings College London and a V&A Trustee.Together they discuss some intriguing objects, technology in exhibition spaces and how it's possible to display two centuries of European history in a gallery setting.

Exhibition Design is a specific discipline requiring a balance between message and content, skills in spatial design, and clear communication of a narrative. Designing for temporary and permanent exhibitions requires different approaches, from something that is of the moment and perhaps can take some design risks, to an exhibition with lasting design quality that will still look good in 25 years time. Gary Shelly, from the Exhibition Design firm Casson Mann, discusses the process of designing the hugely successful V&A exhibition, Hollywood Costume, as well as the V&A’s permanent galleries, with Glenn Adamson and Moira Gemmill from the V&A.

Vernon Rapley, Head of Security and Visitor Services at the V&A, discusses the importance of balancing the need for security with the quality of visitor experience at museums and galleries. He is joined by Adrian Jackson, who holds the same role at the National Portrait Gallery. Together with Glenn Adamson, they consider how the role of the gallery warder or assistant has changed over time and the crucial impact of their interaction with the public.

Dr Katie Tyreman, a fellow in research and cultural engagement at the V&A and University of York, and Professor Deborah Cherry, the Associate Dean of Research at London College of Communication, talk about women artists in the nineteenth century. Joining them to offer a contemporary perspective is artist Rebecca Salter. Together with host Glenn Adamson they consider the important role that women played in Victorian art, and how the context for women artists has developed over time.

Glenn Adamson speaks to Vernon Rapley, Head of Security and Visitor Services at the V&A, and Andy Bliss, the top-ranking police officer in London (Chief Constable of the Hertfordshire Constabulary). Art theft can seriously impact on our cultural heritage. How do we stop it? Find out in this discussion, which reveals how museums work with the police to share information on current art theft trends, work towards reducing risk, and in the rare case of a successful theft, recover stolen artefacts for the public.

Glenn Adamson discusses the V&A brand with Damien Whitmore, Director of Programming at the Museum, and Wally Olins, one of the world's leading innovators in brand management. A brand is more than simply a logo. It is the personality, the DNA, of an organisation. How does the V&A use its brand to coordinate its activities, from visitor experience to exhibition design, from scholarly research to the offer in the cafe? Our guests argue that the V&A brand, and the core values it represents, are the uniting purpose behind everything that the museum does.

Postmodernism defined itself against the stifling clarity and seriousness Modernism. It put style before drab functionality. It embraced pop culture and garish colour. But it got a bad rep. “PoMo” was called vacuous and kitsch, and in the 1980s it became associated with corporate culture and consumerism. Now this controversial cultural movement is the subject of a major exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert museum, "Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970–1990". Neville Hawcock talks to Glenn Adamson, co-curator of the show, and to FT columnists Edwin Heathcote and Peter Aspden. Produced by Griselda Murray Brown See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.