April 2009, Asheville, NC

By Dave Long

The Collectors of Wood Art (CWA) began their second decade with their 11th annual forum in Asheville N.C. April 2-5. This CWA gathering — the first not held in a major metropolitan area — had a much different feel that those of the past. The attendance was smaller, the pace slower and the economic downturn (and its effect on collecting or lack thereof) one of the main topics of conversation.

Although the focus was on woodturning, a boarder prospective was gained on the wide range of crafts available and their economic importance within the region. The Eastern Tennessee, Western North Carolina area has one of the largest concentration of craft artists in the country working in wood, glass, ceramics, metal, fiber and other media. The scope of their work was seen not only in the two venues which featured wood art shows — Blue Spiral 1 and the Grovewood Gallery — but in numerous gallery spaces and artists' studios in the ever expanding art scene throughout Asheville.

The structure of the weekend allowed plenty of time for the approximately 40 collectors, artists, educators and curators in attendance to explore not only downtown Asheville, but visit the awesome Biltmore Estate which was celebrating the first weekend of its Festival of Flowers and the Southern High Craft Guild Folk Art Center. It was easy to see why AmericaStyle magazine has annually had the city of 75,000 (400,000 in the region) on its list of "25 top art destinations" in the country.

Atlanta-based gallery owner Martha Connell, a well-known author, curator and lecturer on American craft, started the weekend with the keynote address Thursday, April 2, at the University of North Carolina at Asheville campus.

Her remarks touched on both the historical and emotional nature of collecting whether it is wood art, ceramics or glass. "There are no rules in collecting," she said. "You are in an emotional arena which is purely subjective. You should acquire things which give you pleasure as you live with them. If they increase in monetary value, so much the better."

The historical portion of Connell's presentation dealt with woodturning icons Bob Stocksdale, Ed Moulthrop and Rude Osolnik. The Connell Gallery was one of the first in the country to deal in lathe-turned wood art. She curated an exhibition for the Mobile Museum of Art which brought together the works of all three turning masters. Her background stories of the life of each man, how they influenced the wood art field, how the exhibition came together, and its impact throughout the art world were fascinating for both those who knew the individuals personally as well as those who knew them only by reputation. She closed by showing images of exhibitions of wood art she had curated which are on display at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. 

Friday, April 3, was the only day of panel discussions and formal artists presentations.

An educators panel started off the day giving more insight into the importance of arts to the region. The trio on the panel included Dana Moore, director of programs at Penland School of Crafts in Penland N.C., (an hour north of Asheville); Bill Griffith, assistant director of the Arrowmont Craft School in Gatlinburg, Tenn., (two hours to the west) and Brian Wurst, a wood instructor in the professional craft division of Haywood Community College in nearby Clyde N.C. Brent Skidmore, director of the University of North Carolina-Asheville craft campus, was also scheduled to be part of the panel but was drawn away by the ever-present faculty meeting.

Penland and Arrowmont are often discussed in woodturning circles, Arrowmont in particular because many turners have either taught or attended classes there. But many times you don't get the full scope of their missions. Moore and Griffith filled in the blanks with a quick history of the schools, gave an overview of many of the programs (woodturning in particular), and talked about future plans for the schools and their importance to the region. Wurst explained the expanding wood program at Hayward and how it is drawing students from throughout the country.

Six artists gave compressed presentations on their work including Norm Sartorius, Mark Gardner, Stoney Lamar, Steve Sinner, Robyn Horn and Jacques Vesery filling in for Mary McKinney who was recovering from surgery.

Next up was the presentation which was discussed most of the weekend. Lee Eagle, a Washington D.C. area attorney and qualified appraiser, was the featured speaker. Her lecture was titled "Accession/De-Accession." She said even though many in the group had built some of the world's finest wood art collections, their passion was not always shared by their children or other relatives. So the question becomes what to do with one's art collection. She went into some specifics about long term planning in regard to collections and how those plans can be impacted by IRS rules.

If she didn't have the group's attention, she got it with the subject of selling wood art at auction. Using examples of November 2008 auctions by two well-known East Coast firms, she showed some pieces by Ed Moulthrop which went for between $16,000 and $32,000 at one establishment while at another, pieces by Ron Kent and Bob Stocksdale went for less than $1,000. "The current auction market is very thin for wood art," she said. "So you have to be very careful when choosing who you deal with." 

As stated at past forums, Eagle could not emphasize enough the importance of documentation — not only to enable collectors to keep track of works, but to help relatives establish a fair market price should the collection become part of an estate. Her example of documentation was columns on a page which included the name of the piece, the artist, the date and location of purchase, and provenance (including shows in which the piece had been displayed or part of a traveling exhibitions, advertising for shows in which a piece may have been prominently displayed and stories about the artist in newspapers, magazines or online where the piece may have been shown). There was an active question and answer session both during and after her remarks.

Eagle had numerous conversations with group members in the days following her well-received presentation. Even when she was not present, the subjects she covered were discussed over dinner, in cars enroute to visit studios and in the hotel refreshment stand late into the evening.

Unlike other forums, there were no formal presentations on Friday afternoon or Saturday. Many of the studios and collections which the group was invited to visit were in very rural locations, spread in all directions around Asheville. So the logistics of devising a bus tour proved difficult.  Most of the group had either driven or had rental cars. Those afoot found plenty of rides available. More time was built into the schedule for the volunteer navigators to inform their drivers when and where to turn to find the specific destination. This allowed for a leisurely pace to visit the studios/collections, but also to enjoy the flora of the Blue Ridge Mountains coming alive on the lovely spring weekend.

Friday night's formal visit to the Blue Spiral's "National Wood Invitational" (featuring 17 artists) was part of the monthly art walk in downtown Asheville. A similar formal visit was made Saturday morning to Grovewood Gallery's "Turning for the Future: A Fresh Look at Wood Art." The show, a juried exhibition sponsored by the American Association of Woodturners, featured work from 29 artists.

The visit also gave CWA members a good look at Grovewood Gallery which was named the craft retailer of the year in 2008 by Niche magazine. Again the outstanding work by regional artists was on display with some outstanding furniture drawing special interest. The Grovewood Gallery is also adjacent to the magnificent Grove Park Inn, one of the most famous hotel/spas in the country for almost a century, which many of the CWA members toured.

Dr. Charlotte Brown, former director of North Carolina State's Gregg Museum of Art in Raleigh N.C., was the speaker for the Saturday evening banquet. The subject of her speech was "Professionalism of Craft — especially in relation to wood."

The CWA Lifetime Achievement award was presented to Jane and Arthur Mason who have been among the most high-profile collectors of wood art in the country. Some of their wood art related activities include: donating a major part of their collection to the Mint Museum of Craft + Design in Charlotte, N.C., opening their Washington D.C. home to share their collection with groups and individuals, giving numerous speeches nation-wide advocating wood art, participating with many panels at regional and national forums to discuss the subject, writing articles for several publications on various wood art topics, helping to curate exhibitions and acting as jurors at regional and national wood symposiums.

Dave Long and his wife, Karen, have been wood art collectors for 20 years. He retired in January after 38 years as a sports writer with the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News.