Join us on Saturday, May 6 from 1:00 - 2:30pm for a symposium celebrating the legacy of Italo Scanga through the voice and perspective of friends, artists and colleagues who worked alongside him.
“I Remember When Italo…” will be moderated by Stefano Catalani, Executive Director of the Museum of Northwest Art and feature guest speakers William Traver, Marjorie Levy, and Joey Kirkpatrick & Flora C. Mace.
Cost: Free for members | $5 suggested donation for non-members
As always, admission to the Museum is free. Want to become a member? Join us today.
Please RSVP using the form below. Questions? Email us at education@museumofnwart.org.
About the Speakers
William Traver was born in Seattle in 1942. He attended Cornish College of Allied Arts from 1963 to 1965 where he studied design and fine arts. In 1977, The doors to Traver Gallery opened in Belltown, initially featuring painting (most notably his professors and colleagues from Cornish such as Paul Heald and Don Scott), but Bill has always been open to installation and different media. While he has maintained major painters and one of the strongest rosters of ceramic artists on the West Coast, he has attained a world-wide reputation by helping to forge the international Studio Glass Movement. Many of the most important contemporary glass artists - Lino Tagliapietra, Sonja Blomdahl, Dante Marioni and many others - had their first exhibitions with Traver Gallery. Traver Gallery is now the largest art dealer in Seattle. In addition to his gallery, Bill studies and teaches yoga and enjoys spending his free time on his sailboat, the Sarah.
Marjorie Levy is an artist, designer, educator, organizational leader, and fundraiser. Marge has held leadership roles at major schools, universities and museums while her work in clay bridged all of it. She studied Art Education at Penn State (1961-1965) and Philadelphia College of Art (1967-1969). Soon, she was Professor of Ceramics and Fine Arts at Purdue University (1969-1985) and the University of Michigan (1986-1991) where she was Dean of the School of Art and Design. She is a fellow of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, President (1982-1984). As co-chair of the NCECA Seattle 2012 Annual Conference, she helped create a workshop and exhibition program at nearly 250 venues across the Pacific Northwest for a visiting international audience of 7000+. She has lived in Seattle since 1991, when she came to the region as Executive Director of Pilchuck Glass School. Since 2000, she has developed a studio practice in ceramics and designs jewelry, became a docent at the Seattle Art Museum, and been involved with inspirational organizations such as Artist Trust, On the Boards, Whim Whim, and most recently Ginny Ruffner’s SOLA project. She has one dog, Toby, one husband Larry, and one hobby, scuba diving in Southeast Asia.
Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace have worked collaboratively for the past 40 years after meeting at the Pilchuck Glass School in 1979. They have created a diverse body of work that includes blown glass vessels with applied imagery, sculpture fabricated with wood, glass and other mixed media, and large scale blown glass fruit and vegetable forms. The artists, respected for their innovative work, have consistently explored seminal themes: principles of drawing as incorporated into glass, the metaphoric content of human relationship to nature and the appropriation of materials to support a visual idea. Kirkpatrick and Mace have translated some of their life size figurative wood and glass sculptures into outdoor bronze installations. They recently had the opportunity to install a large public installation at the Seattle Center in Seattle Washington.
Joey (born in Des Moines, Iowa, 1952) and Flora (born in Exeter, New Hampshire, 1949) have exhibited, lectured and taught extensively throughout the world. They taught for 12 years at Pilchuck Glass School. Their collaborative work is included in collections and museums around the world including the Corning Museum of Glass, NY; The Detroit Institute of Art Detroit, MI; The Boston Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA; Hokkaido Museum, Japan; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY; Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Lausanne, Switzerland; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Toledo Art Museum, Toledo, OH and The National Museum of American Art, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Kirkpatrick and Mace were recognized in 2019 for their outstanding achievement in the field of contemporary glass art by the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass, and have been elected to the American Craft Fellows in 2005, interviewed for the Smithsonian Archives of American Art in 2006 and given the 2001 Chateau Ste. Michelle Libensky Award by Pilchuck Glass School honoring outstanding contemporary artists working in glass. Kirkpatrick served as a trustee on the board of Pilchuck Glass School for 16 years.
Joey and Flora split their time between a home and studio in Seattle, Washington and a farm on the Olympic Peninsula near the Washington Coast.
Please RSVP using the form below.