The Board of CWA, determined that it would always have a presence at both SOFA New York and SOFA Chicago, held a mini-conference in New York on May 30 to June 2, 2002. Marty Bloomfield was in charge of the CWA meeting, which was intensely interesting and successful. CWA sponsored a panel discussion that was considered by many observers to be the one of the best and most thoughtful discussions of craft issues ever held at SOFA or other venues.
The CWA panel, "The Visual Power of Wood, By Chance or By Design," was moderated and organized by Michael Monroe, former Curator-in Charge of the Renwick Gallery and now an independent voice and curator in the field. In the first half of the panel, Michael introduced concepts of design and application of those principles to the work we see being done in the field. Then, with that as a background, he brought on his panel of experts – and expert they were! The panelists included Jonathan Fairbanks, Curator Emeritus of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; David McFadden, Chief Curator of the American Craft Museum, New York City; and Charlotte Brown, Director, Gallery of Art and Design, North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

The format: Michael displayed slides of a series of objects on the screen and asked the panelists for their frank comments and critique. Panelists had no warning as to what slides or artists’ work would be shown. The result was fascinating. The panelists gave real criticism in which some of the work was rather unkindly received, and panelists had frequent major differences of opinion. This phase lasted for over an hour and a half and the standing-room-only audience was ready for more when the time was up. Michael only got through half his slides and is preparing a rerun and expansion for the Chicago Forum in October. Our thanks to Jane Mason and Ann Meszko of SOFA for the arrangements.

A second feature of the weekend was the Saturday trip to LongHouse Reserve in Southampton to visit the world famous Jack Larsen home and museum. Jack has assembled a collection of objects and furnishings encompassing all media which is unparalleled in the world. Jack very kindly made himself and his home available to a group of 25 CWAers. It was an unforgettable occasion.

SOFA itself was very enjoyable and included many galleries displaying the latest work in wood art. The participating galleries included del Mano Gallery, Gallery Materia, Barry Friedman Ltd., Heller Gallery, Leo Kaplan Modern and William Zimmer Gallery. We also noted the beginning of a trend to the development of a secondary market; older work was for sale by many of the exhibitors. Many artists were present, including Binh Pho, Jason Russell, Arthur Jones, David Ebner, Michael Brolly and David Ellsworth. A welcome sight after all these years was Hap Sakwa’s appearance. We strongly suggested that he return to woodturning.

Finally, attendees enjoyed a lovely banquet at Rockefeller Center.
The CWA NY Meeting was organized and run without a glitch by Marty Bloomfield. Accolades to Marty for a wonderful weekend.

Arthur Mason