ExhibitsUSA Announces National Tour of Goldsmithing Exhibition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JANUARY 10, 2003

ExhibitsUSA Announces National Tour of Goldsmithing Exhibition

Kansas City, MO--ExhibitsUSA, the national museum service division of Mid-America Arts Alliance, has announced that it will begin a national tour in January of The Art of Gold, an exhibition of both jewelry and non-jewelry items made of gold. The tour, which is organized and partially funded by the Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG), opens at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California, on January 24.

The Art of Gold is an exhibition of objects and jewelry by studio goldsmiths that displays some of today's finest work. It is the first major exhibition of its kind in 25 years.

In addition to the national tour, ExhibitsUSA has also produced a full-color catalogue to accompany the exhibition with funding from SNAG. This catalogue will feature photographs of the pieces within the exhibition as well as essays from curator, Michael Monroe, an independent curator who most recently held the position of Lead Curator at the Renwick Gallery in New York, and Bruce Metcalf, the exhibitions chair of SNAG.

"Gold is an alluring material: its reflections, color, and preciousness have captured the imagination for centuries," says Dr. Jennifer Cahn, ExhibitsUSA Curator. "In The Art of Gold, exquisite workmanship joins up with postmodernism; these artists push the envelope of their trade, from Jana Brevick's ring, annually reworked for the wearer, to the baroque sculpture of Kent Raible's Pregnant Chalice. There is much here that will surprise, humor, and even startle the viewer."

Several notable exhibitions in recent decades have featured gold-primarily ancient gold. Yet for all the exposure, contemporary American goldsmithing has been largely overlooked. This exhibition is composed of 79 objects, 12 of which are hollowware, vessels, small sculptures, and other non-jewelry items. Although some pieces include stones and precious gems in their designs, gold is the focus.

Studio goldsmithing in North America-designing and fabricating objects by hand in a small studio setting-is a recent phenomenon. At the end of World War II, there were only a handful of educational programs in goldsmithing; they now number more than 500. Goldsmithing has developed into a richly diverse artistic field, showing influences from Pop Art, Minimalism, Neo-Expressionism, and even Conceptual Art. Even so, contemporary goldsmithing maintains its own sense of craft and unique historical lineage.

Following its opening in California, The Art of Gold will travel to the University of Richmond, in Richmond, Virginia, The Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, the Mint Museum of Craft and Design in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the Anchorage Museum of History and Art in Anchorage, Alaska.

ExhibitsUSA was founded in 1988 to create access to an array of arts and humanities exhibitions, nurture the development and understanding of diverse art forms and cultures, and encourage the expanding depth and breadth of cultural life in local communities. Over the past 14 years, more than 14 million visitors in 800 communities in all 50 states and abroad have viewed an ExhibitsUSA exhibition.

ExhibitsUSA is generously supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Houston Endowment Inc., the Meadows Foundation, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Louis and Elizabeth Flarsheim Charitable Foundation, Douglas County Bank/Ross and Marianna Beach, Phillips Petroleum Company, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, the Don and Sybil Harrington Foundation, the H&R Block Foundation, Hortense Oldfather, the William T. Kemper Foundation, Commerce Bank, trustee, the Society of North-American Goldsmiths (SNAG), the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, DST Systems, Inc., the Cooper Foundation, Maureen and Robert Decherd, the Helen Jones Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the state arts agencies of Arkansas, Kansas, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.

Mid-America Arts Alliance, founded in 1972, is a non-profit regional arts organization based in Kansas City, Missouri. It is governed by a board of directors drawn from its partner states of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. For further information, visit the Mid-America Arts Alliance Web site at www.maaa.org or contact Daniel Billingsley at (816) 421-1388.