The Susan Cummins Gallery records measure 6.4 linear feet and date from 1984 to 2002, with the bulk of the records dating from 1990 to 2001. The collection sheds light on the California gallery's artists and operations through administrative records, artists' files, printed materials, photographic materials, audiovisual recordings, correspondence, and more. Also included are two files relating to art panels and lectures given by Susan Cummins.
Scope and Contents:
The Susan Cummins Gallery records measure 6.4 linear feet and date from 1984 to 2002, with the bulk of the records dating from 1990 to 2001. The collection sheds light on the California gallery's artists and operations through administrative records and artists' files. Administrative records include group show exhibition files, gallery exhibition announcements, newspaper and magazine clippings, casette tapes, and papers from panels and lectures given by Cummins. Artists' files mainly consist of correspondence, resumes, exhibition announcements, articles about the artist, show reviews, and photographic materials. Some of the files include exhibition materials such as price lists, correspondence with other galleries and institutions, photos, and some sales records. Artists featured include Joyce Scott, June Schwarcz, Bruce Metcalf, Jamie Bennett, Dominic Di Mare, Thomas Mann, Keith Lewis, Bob Ebendorf, and Sandra Enterline.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as two series.
Series 1: Administrative Records, 1984-2001 (Box 1; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 2: Artists' Files, 1984-2002 (Box 2-7; 5.9 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Susan Cummins Gallery was a contemporary art gallery established in 1984 in Mill Valley, California. The gallery was most well-known for its exhibition of American jewelry and other studio craft objects. In the 1990s, the gallery moved into a larger space and began exhibiting paintings and drawings as well. Most exhibitions held at the gallery were solo shows rotated monthly. Over the years, major artists shown at Cummins Gallery include Joyce Scott, June Schwarcz, Bruce Metcalf, Jamie Bennett, Dominic Di Mare, and Bob Ebendorf. The gallery closed in 2002. Group shows include Faceted Glass (1984)--the gallery's first show, Outcasts: Jewelry from Junk (1992), The Weight of Gold: Invitational Group Show (1993), and Jewelry as an Object of Installation (2001).
Susan Cummins was born December 27, 1946, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Growing up, her family moved around to several states but mostly settled in the west coast. After high school, Cummins went on an American Field Service trip to Europe, and it was during her trip that she decided to study art in college. She attended Scripps College, studied under Arthur Stevens, and wrote her thesis on Rodin's relationship to dance. After college, Cummins moved to Washington, D.C. and struggled to find work in her field. She briefly volunteered at the National Museum of American Art and had worked for the Black Man's Development Center and a government lab before moving back to the west coast. She moved to Mill Valley and began running The Fireworks, a ceramics shop owned by a former college friend, Beth Changstrom. In 1983, Cummins and Changstrom took over the Horizon Gallery's space in Mill Valley and founded Beth Changstrom Ceramics and Susan Cummins Gallery. Throughout her tenure running the gallery, Cummins was close friends with some of her artists, especially Bruce Metcalf, Dominic Di Mare, and Bob Ebendorf. Cummins helped found Art Jewelry Forum in 1997 to promote and educate the collecting public about jewelry. She has served on the boards of the American Craft Council (2018 Honorary Fellow) and the Headlands Center for the Arts; she is the current director of the Rotasa Foundation.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Susan Cummins conducted by Jo Lauria, October 22, 2009
Provenance:
The collection was donated in 2003 by Susan Cummins, gallery founder and owner, as part of the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Susan Cummins Gallery records, 1984-2002. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.
The Frank Lloyd Gallery records measure 0.8 linear feet and date from 1960 to 2003, with the bulk of records dating from 1988 to 2003. The records include correspondence, exhibition announcements and catalogs, magazine and newspaper clippings, mailers, press releases, a file for artist Beatrice Wood, and scant photographic materials.
Scope and Contents:
The Frank Lloyd Gallery records measure 0.8 linear feet and date from 1960 to 2003, with the bulk of records dating from 1988 to 2003. The records include exhibition announcements and catalogs, magazine and newspaper clippings, mailers, press releases, and some photographic materials. Beatrice Wood's artist file consists of photos, correspondence, homemade cards, clippings, exhibition ephemera and more. Correspondence includes holiday cards, thank you notes, and scant museum correspondence.
Arrangement:
Due to the small size of this collection the records are arranged as one series.
Biographical / Historical:
Frank Lloyd Gallery was established in 1996 in Santa Monica, California. The gallery exhibited contemporary ceramics, showing established U.S. artists as well as ceramicists from England, France, Holland, Mexico and Japan. Artists shown at the gallery include Peter Shire, Otto and Vivika Heino, Roseline Delisle, John Mason, Anna Silver, Wouter Dam, and many more. The gallery closed its public exhibition program in 2015, but continues to work with private collectors, museums, and commercial galleries; and represents the estates of Craig Kauffman, Peter Voulkos, and Larry Bell.
Provenance:
The collection was donated in 2004 by Frank Lloyd, gallery owner, as part of the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Frank Lloyd Gallery records, 1960-2003. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Extent:
0.7 Linear feet
3 Items (rolled docs)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Sketchbooks
Date:
1993-1999
Scope and Contents:
Sketchbooks and Computer Aided Design (CAD) drawings.
Biographical / Historical:
Woodworker; Cambridge, Mass. b. 1955.
Provenance:
Donated 2004 by Kim Schmahmann as part of the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Art in America.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Rights:
Authorization to publish, quote or reproduce requires written permission from Kim Schmahmann. Contact Reference Services for more information.
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
An interview of Frank E. Cummings, III conducted 2006 December 28 and 2007 January 5, by Jo Lauria, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, in the artist's home, in Long Beach, California.
Cummings speaks of his childhood in Los Angeles and the challenges he faced in school; receiving a B.A. from California State University, Long Beach; working with troubled youth as a social worker with Neighborhood Youth Association; teaching at California State University, Long Beach while earning his M.F.A. at California State University, Fullerton through the Black Faculty Teaching Program; the invitation by Eudorah Moore to show in "California Design XI"; the importance of having his and his students' work published in Dona Meilach's book, "Creating Modern Furniture: Trends, Techniques, Appreciation"; the role of reflective surfaces in his work to capture the viewer's attention; using a diamond stylus to draw on glass; serving as the first M.F.A. graduate program coordinator at California State University, Long Beach; the development and creation of his famed clock, It's About Time, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; working as a gofer for Sam Maloof during a three day seminar at Yosemite National Park; receiving an invitation from Maloof to teach at Penland School of Crafts in Penland, North Carolina; his experiences at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine.; the consistent drive throughout his career to continue working, exhibiting, and publishing; his love of teaching; the honor of receiving the Outstanding Professor Award at California State University, Fullerton, in 1997; receiving a National Endowment of Arts grant in 1973 to spend two months in Ghana, Africa examining connections between the African American struggle for identity in the ghettoes of the United States and struggles faced in Africa; returning to various regions in Africa in 1981 at the request of the State Department to evaluate and help increase object making productivity in villages while exhibiting his art in museums throughout the continent; his deliberate selection of materials; the role race has played in his career; his reverence of nature; designing furniture for the set of the movie, "How Stella Got Her Groove Back;" the development and creative process of the Carousel series; finding inspiration in his wife, C.C.; and plans for the future. Cummings also recalls Raymond Hein, Thomas Ferreira, James Prestini, Wendell Castle, William Hunter, Edward Cooke, Gerald W.R. Ward, Kelly H. L'Ecuyer, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Frank E. Cummings III (1938- ) is a furniture maker and woodworker of Long Beach, California. Jo Lauria ( 1954- ) is a curator and art writer of Los Angeles, California.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 28 min.
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.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Silberman, Robert B. (Robert Bruce), 1950- Search this
Creator:
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Names:
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Extent:
61 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
2009 July 22
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Joyce J. Scott conducted 2009 July 22, by Robert Silberman, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Scott's home and studio, in Baltimore, Maryland.
Scott talks about her childhood in Baltimore; childhood visits to the Baltimore Museum of Art and Walters Art Gallery; her parents' lives growing up in the segregated South; her artist mother, who was her first bead-teacher; craft traditions in her family, including pottery and quilting; quilting as storytelling, "diaries" for preliterate people; improvisational craft; Three Generation Quilt; Fifty .; undergraduate studies at Maryland Institute College of Art; travels after graduation in Mexico, Central , and South America; graduate studies in craft in Mexico; decision at age 23 to become a studio artist, and partnership with her mother; theater work with Robert Sherman and in New York and in Baltimore; theater work with Kay Lawal in Thunder Thigh Revue; studies at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME, where she learned traditional Navajo weaving, and learned the peyote stitch for beadwork, a seminal technique for her career; her book Fearless Beadwork: Improvisational Peyote Stitch: handwriting & drawings from hell. Rochester, NY: Visual Studies Workshop, 1994; working in different mediums; What You Mean Jungle Music? [1988]; working for recognition of beadwork as a sculptural medium; politics, social commentary, and humor in her work; series Day after Rape; her working processes; Rodney King's Head Was Squashed Like a Watermelon; working in monoprints; working in glass (flameworking, lampworking), including at Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA, Tacoma [WA] Museum of Glass, UrbanGlass, New York, NY, Haystack Mountain; retrospective exhibition, "Joyce Scott Kickin' It With the Old Masters" at the Baltimore Museum of Art, 2000; series Africa in Unexpected Places; installation work, including in "Images Concealed," San Francisco, 1995, and Believe I've Been Sanctified, Charleston, SC, 1991; small-scale work; influence of her upbringing in the Pentecostal church; Buddha Gives Basketball to the Ghetto [1991] and the importance of spirituality in her work; travels in South America, Africa, and Europe; the complementarity of performance/theater work and visual art; performance pieces: Generic Interference, Genetic Engineering, Virtual Reality, and Walk a Mile in My Drawers; Lips mosaic at Reagan National Airport, Washington, D.C.; teaching workshops at Haystack, Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC, the Oregon School of Arts and Craft, Portland; artist-in-residency at Pilchuck; gallery affiliations, and usefulness of the gallery system, which allows her to work as a studio artist; the importance of galleries as a free venue open to ordinary people; luxuriating in beauty. She recalls Betty Woodman, Dr. Leslie King-Hammond, Lowery Sims, Fritz Dreisbach, Anthony Corradetti, Antony Gormley, Ann Hamilton, David Hammons, Mary Jane Jacob, Cesar Pelli, Susan Cummins, and Helen Drutt English.
Biographical / Historical:
Joyce J. Scott (1948- ) is a visual and performance artist and educator who lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 memory cards. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 11 min.
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.
Restrictions:
This transcript is open for research. Access to the entire recording is restricted. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Names:
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Extent:
64 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
2007 August 11
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Willis "Bing" Davis conducted 2007 August 11, by Josephine Shea, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at the artist's studio, in Dayton, Ohio.
Biographical / Historical:
Willis "Bing" Davis (1937- ) is a metal artist and educator from Dayton, Ohio. Josephine Shea is a curator Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan.
General:
Originally recorded 2 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 3 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 17 min.
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.
Restrictions:
This interview is access restricted; written permission is required. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Names:
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Extent:
80 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
2002 June 3 and July 10
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Peggie Hartwell conducted 2002 June 3-July 10, by Patricia Malarcher, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, in the artist's apartment, on Central Park West, New York, N.Y.
Hartwell speaks of growing up on a farm with her extended family in Springfield, S.C.; female quiltmakers and male storytellers in her family; drawing in sand as a child; her mother's move to Brooklyn; joining her mother and father in New York; growing up in Brooklyn; her awareness of the many cultures in New York and being surrounded by art, including her mother's crocheting and her father's a cappella group; taking tap dancing lessons; experimenting with art in public school; working at various factory jobs after high school until "reconnecting" with art; studying with dancer Syvilla Fort at the Katherine Dunham School of Dance in New York; Fort encouraging her to draw on the studio walls and sew costumes; touring internationally with the theater group Harlem Rhythm USA from 1965 to 1972; her return to the U.S. and receiving a theater degree at Queens College; working at an insurance company to support her art; exhibiting her black and white, pen-and-ink drawings; the narratives and "oral histories" in her quilts; the meaning of various fabrics and colors; participating in "quilting communities" such as the Women of Color Quilters Network, Empire Quilters, and the American Quilter's Society; her lectures, workshops, and residencies; working with children;narratives inspired by childhood memories; her move back to South Carolina; themes in her quilts and "quilting styles" (improvisational, traditional, contemporary, and African American); serving on the board of the New York Chapter of the Women of Color Quilters Network; and planning the exhibition "Threads of Faith" for the New York Bible Association. She also comments on John Cage, Cuesta Benberry, Asadata Dafora, Francelise Dawkins, Carolyn Mazloomi, Edjohnetta Miller, Arthur Mitchell, Harriet Powers, Faith Ringgold, Marie Wilson, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Peggie L. Hartwell (1939- ) is an African American quiltmaker of Summerville, S.C. Patricia Malarcher is a fiber artist.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 8 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 50 min.
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.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
An interview of Carolyn Mazloomi conducted 2002 September 17 and 30, by Joanne Cubbs, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, in West Chester, Ohio. Mazloomi speaks of growing up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with a family of self-taught artists; the positive influence of her aunt and teacher Dr. Carter; the generation of African American quilt-makers who followed a gap in quilt-making post-slavery; she describes her previous career as an aeronautical engineer and her transition to quilt-making; how she identifies herself as a craftsperson, not an artist; her experience with Baltimore album and Appalachian quilts; learning to quilt; the Women of Color Quilter's Network and its economic and social development programs; her book, "Spirits of the Cloth"; the positive and negative aspects of travel; the false generalizations of African American quilts in academic circles; the importance of gender, race, and ethnicity in her work; her connection to "praise songs"; she discusses functional vs. nonfunctional quilts; the market for "hand-crafted" quilts; agents and galleries; she describes her working environment; adopting the use of a sewing machine in her work; the importance of community; her technique; her accomplishment of placing African-American quilts in the Renwick Gallery; the influence of magazines, including "Raw Vision;" her aversion to commissions; expanding her use of materials and technology; her exhibitions; her role as an advocate and dealer; finding inspiration in black and white linocuts and her use of color in quilts; and making a connection with her audience. Mazloomi also recalls Marie Wilson, Cuesta Benberry, Edjohnetta Miller, Roland Freeman, Robert Cargo, Martha Connell, Penny Sisto, Minnie Adkins, Nkosi Johnson, and Lauryn Hill.
Biographical / Historical:
Carolyn Mazloomi (1948- ) is a quilt maker from West Chester, Ohio.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 16 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hrs., 33 min.
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.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Names:
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Extent:
138 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
2012 October 25-26
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Michael A. Cummings conducted 2012 October 25 and 26, by Mija Riedel, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Cummings' home and studio, in New York, New York.
Biographical / Historical:
Michael A. Cummings (1945- ) is quilter and artist in New York, New York. Mija Riedel (1958- ) is an independent scholar in San Francisco, California.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 SD memory cards as 8 digital wav files. Duration is 6 hrs., 53 min.
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.
Restrictions:
For more information on how to access this interview contact Reference Services.
Occupation:
Quiltmakers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
