Originally recorded on 2 sound tape cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 3 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 20 min.
Access Note / Rights:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Summary:
An interview of Cynthia Bringle conducted 1992 January 22, by Liza Kirwin, for the Archives of American Art.
Bringle discusses her childhood and education in Memphis, Tennessee; her admiration for Memphis artist Dorothy Sturm; meeting Francis Merritt, the director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and his assistant William (Bill) Brown; attending Haystack in Liberty, Maine in 1960 as a scholarship student; her graduate studies in ceramics at Alfred University; attending a Shoji Hamada workshop in Seattle in 1963; building the first gas kiln at the Penland School of Crafts in Penland, North Carolina; teaching at Penland; establishing a pottery studio in Tennessee; Brown's management style as the director of Penland from 1962 to 1983, and conflicts with the Board of Trustees that led to his resignation; Verne Stanford's tenure as director of Penland from 1984 to 1989; Hunter Kariher's role as the director of Penland after Stanford's resignation; and Penland in comparison with other craft schools including Haystack, Arrowmont, and Anderson Ranch. She recalls Lucy Morgan (the founder of Penland), Bonnie Ford (Penland administrator), Jane Brown, Joy Stanford, Harvey Littleton, and others.
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Cynthia Bringle, 1992 January 22. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms:
Transcript available on line at http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/bringl92.htm
Funding:
Funding for the transcription of this interview provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Women's Committee.
Biography Note:
Cynthia Bringle (1939- ) is a potter, in Penland, N.C.
Language Note:
English .
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics, and administrators.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
