fall 2011 N O RT H benne T S TR ee T SC H O O L NEWSLETTER LEARNING BY DOING � eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Preservation carpentry student Jared Lodge examines the plaster cove at the eaves of the Brethren’s Workshop at Mount Lebanon Shaker Village. Story on page 11. Partnerships with other higher-education institutions brought Featured Stories 3 are we artists? graduate-level students to North Bennet Street School this 4 climbing the stairs summer for hands-on training to enrich their master’s degree 5 on the pathway programs. Relationships with other non-profits provided 7 one graduate’s journey 8 new programs internship opportunities for NBSS students to learn from 10 keeping nyc in tune masters in their field. Learning by doing, in varied settings 11 learning by doing by diverse students at all levels contributes to the year-round 12 alumni news NBSS educational experience. 15 calendar new programs reach the keeping nyc in tune graduate level A unique internship with a non-profit in New Partnerships with other higher-education York City that places pianos in public spaces. institutions result in summer courses in NBSS students kept them in tune in June. bookbinding and preservation carpentry. page 10 page 8 BENCHMARKS · Fall 2011 2 First graders in the new Eliot School art room Locksmithing’s new home is a high-ceiling, light-filled, at NBSS. harbor-view space steps away from the working docks and high-end restaurants that define the South Boston waterfront. Eliot School partnership EVA MARTIN, JM ‘o3 North Bennet Street School enjoys a successful partnership with the nearby John Eliot School—a public K-8 school. The schools share a long history of collaboration and first worked together in the early 20th century. The recent collaboration began when the eva martin joins the faculty schools jointly developed a pilot middle-school woodworking program in 2009. After completing the Jewelry Making and Repair To help the city accommodate the growing population of North End, Back Bay and program at NBSS in 2003, Eva Martin spent Beacon Hill children, the partnership was expanded in September to provide the Eliot several years in Queensland, Australia where she School with an office and two classrooms: one on the first floor of NBSS for use as the distinguished herself with her exceptional jewelry John Eliot School art room and a second in the former third floor admissions office to designs and fabrication. Martin fabricates pieces be used as a social studies classroom. on commission for clients all over the world. Her In return, the city is providing space at 12 Channel Street in South Boston as a work combines the time-honored skills of fine temporary location for the locksmithing department. This new location is a light-filled craftsmanship with cutting edge CAD and rapid- space with views of Boston harbor. prototyping technology. Both the temporary classrooms for the Eliot School at 39 North Bennet Street and Eva Martin has won several major awards the temporary location for locksmithing at 12 Channel Street are the first steps in a including the 2006 Saul Bell Design Award Grand cooperative venture to analyze and solve the long-term space needs for the two schools, Prize for her Carouseling Cufflinks and she won a process that is expected to take 3-5 years. z second place for the same award in 2009 and 2011. She was the recipient of the 2008 Lapidary Journal Jewelry Arts Award and her sterling-silver Queensland Sugar Spoon was designated “Best Memento” in the Tourism Queensland memento Graduates benefit from the competition in 2006. In 2010, Eva received the NBSS Distinguished Alumni Award. commission referral process Eva has joined Rosemary Trainor and Lisa Hunt “The best thing about the process is that I meet prospective clients who already think in the jewelry department. z positively about me before they meet me because of the good reputation of the school,” says Cathy MacKenzie, CF ’06. Every year, the North Bennet Street School gets hundreds of calls and emails from all over the country from individuals hoping to commission NBSS students or graduates to do some work for them. The diversity of the requests covers the full range of NBSS’s eight current disciplines—locksmithing, violin, piano, bookbinding, jewelry, carpentry, preservation carpentry and furniture—and even those that are no longer taught. ALUMNI According to the student and alumni services office, at least twice a year the school gets COUNCIL requests from people who need their watch or clock repaired—even though the NBSS meetings are open to all alumni; write to Watch Repair department was discontinued in the 1980s. Jason Gregoricus at Alumni who request commission alerts receive emails from the Office of Student [email protected] and Alumni Services with the subject line says “NBSS Commission.” Alumni who do not for more information. receive commission notices by email and would like to should email Jason Gregoricus at [email protected] with a current email address and your name will be added to the list. z BENCHMARKS · Fall 2011 3 that craft objects can be individual works of art and that the objects made by artists can be skillfully crafted. The relation- ship between art and craft has become ambiguous, with neither having a monopoly on ideas, meaning, material, technique or importance. Nowhere is that ambiguity more apparent than at North Bennet Street School. Our blend of training programs and our focus on professional practice is unique among craft schools. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Combining furniture making and jewelry making with carpen- Penland students taking in the view on a summer afternoon. Photo: Robin Dreyer try and locksmithing is a strong statement in support of both art and craft, practicality and inspiration. Bookbinding and preservation carpentry add a reverence for the history of our material and intellectual culture. Piano technology and violin ARE WE ARTISTS? making add music and resonance to the school—both literally By miguel gómez-ibáñez, cf ’99, president of and metaphorically. North Bennet Street School “Art and craft, or artists and I recently had the opportunity to spend two weeks at the Penland School of Crafts in the North Carolina highlands craftsmen, were once easy to dis- teaching a course in traditional furniture making. It was a real tinguish. Craft was characterized pleasure to be at Penland. It is a community of dedicated, talented students and teachers much like North Bennet by its focus on material, technique Street School. and utility, while art was above In fact, both schools occupy a similar place in the history of utility, occupying the realm of American craft. Both were founded by women with a shared vision of hand-skills training and craft education as a way to ideas and meaning.” provide employment for underserved populations. At Penland, Discussions about the distinctions between art and craft it was Lucy Morgan who, in the 1920s, began teaching weav- are intellectually engaging but perhaps ultimately fruitless. ing to Appalachian women. Similar to NBSS, Penland is now There is no clear line between the two, nor does there need to nationally known, with multiple programs and more than 1,000 be. I prefer a broader definition of the term artist, one that is students each year. suggested in the quote from the painter George Bellows that One difference between the two schools is the use of the was left for me on a letterpress-printed card in my room when I term “artist” to describe students and teachers. Like most craft arrived at Penland: schools today, at Penland “artists” teach in “studios”. ‘Artist’ is “The artist is the person who makes life more interesting or not a word we use often at North Bennet Street School. We beautiful, more understandable or mysterious, or probably, in have instructors, who teach in bench rooms—more practical, the best sense, more wonderful.” z down-to-earth terms. Art and craft, or artists and craftsmen, were once easy to distinguish. Craft was characterized by its focus on material, technique and utility, while art was above utility, occupying the realm of ideas and meaning. One was humble, the other important. Beginning with the Arts and Crafts Movement and continuing over the course of the 20th century, the distinction has become increasingly blurred. We have come to understand BENCHMARKS · Fall 2011 44 students at a glance On Tuesday, September 6, faculty and staff members welcomed 88 new students to CLIMBING THE North Bennet Street School. Quiet anticipa- tion was the mood as students lined up for STAIRS AT NBSS By Rob O’Dwyer, Director of Admissions school ID photos and filled out forms. After whirlwind tours of the school, the students When I first arrived at North Bennet Street School parents and home-schooled students. The beauty met in their departments as a group for the in January, I found the building layout a curious is in the variation and my guess is that each class’s first time. By Wednesday afternoon, joined challenge. During my first few tours, I began lead- collective experience is unique. The incoming class of September 2011 by returning students, the atmosphere was ing people downstairs when I meant to go upstairs. Something about how the stairs wind around the includes a local woman who took her first decidedly more relaxed and new students elevator shaft was making me dyslexic. It felt a bit workshops at NBSS when she was thirteen, the were absorbed in their work. like M.C. Escher meets the Chocolate Factory. head of a school of economics on sabbatical from Generous financial contributions from It took two weeks to explore and understand Korea, a fisherman from the Cape who noticed NBSS alumni and other supporters makes the layout.