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Catalog Data

Interviewee:
Monroe, Michael W.  Search this
Interviewer:
Herman, Lloyd E., 1936-  Search this
Subject:
Bellevue Art Museum (Wash.)  Search this
Smithsonian American Art Museum. Renwick Gallery  Search this
Type:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Place of publication, production, or execution:
Washington (State)
Physical Description:
8 sound files (3 hr., 59 min.) Audio, digital, wav; 71 Pages, Transcript
Access Note / Rights:
The transcript and recording are open for research. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Summary:
An interview with Michael W. Monroe conducted 2018 January 22-March 1, by Lloyd Herman, for the Archives of American Art, at the home of Michael Monroe and at the home of Lloyd Herman, in Seattle, Washington.
Monroe speaks of his childhood in Racine, Wisconsin; his Danish immigrant community and early exposure to Danish design; early experiences of art-making; his art and teaching education at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee; experiences with Midwestern art museums in adolescence and young adulthood; his graduate art education at the Cranbrook Academy of Art; his work as gallery director at SUNY Oneonta in the early 1970s; his approach to evaluating and curating craftwork; his curatorial tenure and close collaboration with Herman at the Renwick Gallery; securing the Renwick's Albert Paley gates; his lifestyle in the Washington, DC area; the American craft movement's shift towards the marketplace, social media, and quick do-it-yourself methods; organizing the "Craft Multiples" traveling exhibition; the beginning of the Renwick's collections policy; organizing "Celebration: A World of Art and Ritual;" organizing the White House Collection of Crafts and its eventual transfer to the Clinton Presidential Library; his continued involvement with the craft world after retirement from the Renwick; his tenure as executive director of the Bellevue Arts Museum; his mentorship of young craft artists; and his sense of the past and future of American crafts. Monroe also recalls Sylvester Jerry, Cherry Barr Jerry, Robert Verizer, Robert Kidd, George Ortman, Julius Schmidt, Richard DeVore, Steve Frykholm, Jon Eric Riis, Arturo Sandoval, Gretchen Bellinger, Bernadette Monroe, Robert Arneson, David Gilhooly, William Harper, Wendell Castle, Françoise Grossen, Claire Zeisler, Sarah Booth Conroy, Sheila Hicks, Dale Chihuly, Arthur Mason, Jane Mason, Betty Ford, Joan Mondale, Rosalynn Carter, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, Paul Gottlieb, Peter Joseph, Matthew Kangas, Mark Haley, Nora Atkinson, and others. Herman recalls Susan Mellon, Joshua Taylor, Paul Gardner, Charles Eldredge, Elizabeth Broun, Paul Smith, Rose Slivka, Diane Douglas, Janet Kardon, William Morris, and others.
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Michael W. Monroe, 2018 January 22-March 1. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms:
Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
Biography Note:
Michael W. Monroe (1940- ) is director emeritus of the Bellevue Arts Museum in Bellevue, Washington. Lloyd Herman (1936- ) is the founding director (emeritus) of the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. who resides in Seattle, Washington.
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
Topic:
Arts administrators -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews  Search this
Arts administrators -- Washington (D.C.) -- Interviews  Search this
Arts -- Management  Search this
Curators -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews  Search this
Curators -- Washington (D.C.) -- Interviews  Search this
Curators -- Washington (State) -- Interviews  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)17549
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)393144
AAA_collcode_monroe18
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_oh_393144