Friday, June 5, 2009
6 30 p.m. - Gallery Talk, May 1, 2009

Stop by on First Friday for a gallery talk with Hank Adams, Creative Director, from Wheaton Arts Glass Studio and Don Friel, Wheaton Arts Glass Artist. Both will be talking about the one of a kind vessels produced for the exhibition The Art of Opening: Bottles & Their Toppers on view at the Center until July 18th.

Selections from the Collection: Donations by Bruce Kaiser and Joe Seltzer Events
Friday, March 6, 2009
Opening Reception, 5 – 7:30 p.m.
6 30 p.m. - Gallery talk with collectors and artists

Friday, April 3, 2009
6 30 p.m. - Gallery Talk- “Collecting for Small Museums”

with Executive Director Albert LeCoff


David Ellsworth: Works in Wood December 19 - January 14, 2009

Events include a special exhibit of David's work, a gallery talk and book signing by David, the Center's Annual Members Meeting, and refreshments.

Enjoy the Holiday Sale in the Museum Store including a special selection of Penn State Industries chucks and adaptors.
Please RSVP for this event by December 15, 2008: or 215-923-8000.
Dinner with the artist by reservation.

Admission is free. Donations are appreciated and facilitate the Center's work with the art community.

Wood Turning Center | October 3, 2008 – January 17, 2009
The Wood Turning Center is proud to announce the October 3, 2008, opening of its latest exhibition: Challenge VII: dysFUNctional, which will run in the Center through January 17, 2009. The exhibition creates visual dialogue between objects and videos that never were intended to be together. The 33 works by 30 artists are persuasive in content, form, surface and movement, and evoke humor, curiosity and suspicion.

Challenge VII: dysFUNctional Events

Friday, October 3
Opening Reception, 5 – 7:30 p.m.
6 p.m. - Gallery talk with artists, jurors, catalog designer, and essayist
7 p.m. - Book signing - Challenge VII: dysFUNctional

Saturday October 4
Challenge VII Conference
10 a.m. – 2 p.m. - guest speakers and lunch, by reservation only, $50
(RSVP by September 22 to or 215.923.8000)

Additional Events
2 p.m. - Gallery talk with the artists and guest commentators
4 p.m. - Book signing - Challenge VII: dysFUNctional

More dysFUNctional activities, 2 -- 4 p.m.
Gallery talks & family activities
Saturday, October 11
Sunday, October 12
Saturday, November 8
Saturday, December 13


February 1 - March 22, 2008
Rose-Engines and Kings: Contemporary Ornamental Turning 2008

Rose Engines and Kings features delicate, intricately textured objects created by specialty artists using century-old machines, cams and cutters. Ornamental turning (OT) stems from the 1600s when European kings appointed highly skilled artists with specialty lathes to execute the finest treasures in ivory and exotic materials for their personal collections. Viewers will be dazzled by the precious materials, the intimate scale and the decorative complex patterns these artists create by engineering their materials and machines.


December 15, 2007 - January 19, 2008
“Cocktails with Skip Johnson”

Cocktails with Skip Johnson marks the return of the witty wood sculptures of C.R. “Skip” Johnson. This exhibit features his latest creations: versions of familiar cocktails from the Manhattan to Scotch on the Rocks. Johnson’s witty reinterpretations of these drinks mingle with some of his popular “Carnival” sculptures. The artist will be present on December 21st to meet the public, share stories of his art, and demonstrate some of his splendiferous musical instruments, so come have “Cocktails with Skip Johnson”!


Transforming Vision: The Wood Sculpture of William Hunter 1970-2005
October 5 - December 8, 2007

Opening Reception: Friday, October 5, 5:30-7:30pm
Meet the Artist:        Friday, November 9, 5-8pm  ($25  RSVP by October 15th - 215.923.8000)

Transforming Vision, the first retrospective of the work of seminal American artist William Hunter, documents his emergence as a sculptor of groundbreaking significance. This exhibition displays Hunter's artistic development from utilitarian objects to exquisite decorative forms in rare exotic wood and ivory.

Complete information is included in the Press Release PDF attachment.

August 3 - September 22, 2007
allTURNatives: Form + Spirit 2007

This exhibition is the twelfth that features the wood artists in the Wood Turning Center’s 2007 International Turning Exchange (ITE), an annual residency program where the artists live and work together for eight weeks. Artwork created before the ITE program is juxtaposed against the work during the residency. The residents hold public demonstrations and at the end, tell the public about their personal and collective experiences during their time together.

See the allTURNatives exhibit page to view the exhibit online.
See the ITE page for more information about the program.
Watch dance interpretations of three 2007 ITE objects:
           Video 1 Video 2 Video 3

Roll Call: Wood Art from Current Teachers and Students
June 1 – July 14, 2007

Opening Reception: Friday, June 1, 5:30-7:30pm
Gallery Talks: Friday, June 1, 6:30pm & Friday, July 6, 6:30pm

2007 marks the Center’s 21st year promoting and serving the wood art community. As part of the celebration honoring the Center’s ‘coming of age’ the Center is highlighting the coming of age of a diverse group of established and emerging artists.

Roll Call is an exhibition bringing together work by students and faculty from eight college wood art programs. This is the first time for this theme and the first time these eight schools have shown their work together. Come in to view these fledgling artists before they launch their careers and see the work of their practicing artist/teachers who serve as their role models.

Connections: International Turning Exchange 1995 - 2005 is a celebration of the tenth anniversary of the ITE residency program. The exhibit and catalogue document the transformation of established artists, furniture makers, writers and photographers before, during, and after their residency. The result is an exhibition that brings together a decade of artists’ work as well as showing the impact the program has had on the international community of wood turning and wood art. Traveling 2005-2007

Coming of Age: Emerging and Established Wood Artists
February 16 – May 19, 2007

2007 marks the Center’s 21st year promoting and serving the wood art community. As part of the celebration honoring the Center’s ‘coming of age’ the Center is highlighting the coming of age of a diverse group of established and emerging artists.

Coming of Age: Emerging and Established Wood Artists showcases artists who have practiced as part of the wood art field for at least 21 years as well as individuals representing the upcoming generation of artists.

“FABULOUS FUNCTION”
November 3, 2006 – January 14, 2007
Never say that functional has to be boring. The latest exhibit at the Wood Turning Center shows that creativity, imagination and perfect execution are typical of functional objects designed for touch and everyday use. The opening reception takes place during First Friday, November 3 from 5:30pm to 7:30pm.




November 11 & 12, 2006: SHOP, DINE, LEARN & HAVE FUN at the Old City Fall Festival! Explore the neighborhood's unique and diverse shopping, dinning and cultural attractions in a family-friendly weekend filled with fun activities, special promotions, workshops and entertainment

AllTURNatives: International Turning Exchange 2006
Aug. 4 - Oct. 21, 2006, The Wood Turning Center is proud to announce the exhibit for the work created by the 2006 International Turning Exchange (ITE) Resident Fellows before and during their residency. This is the twelfth consecutive year that the Center has offered this unique and exceptional summer residency program. The ITE Resident Fellows will spend eight weeks working and living together at the University of the Arts (UArts) located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Four lathe artists, a furniture maker, a photojournalist and a scholar will investigate new techniques and artistic themes while working together on new individual pieces and collaborations.

WOOD NOW - June 2 - July 15 2006, was organized cooperatively by the Wood Turning Center and the Craft Alliance of St. Louis, Missouri with a full-color catalog. Mark Leach, Chief Curator of the Mint Museum of Craft + Design in Charlotte, North Carolina, selected the artists and work to explore the intersections of ideas, formation and haunting statements. Leach states, “Landscape, geologic time and process as well as humanity’s relationship to nature are visible subjects in the works of all of the artists represented here.” The artists represented include: Christian Burchard, Robyn Horn, Stoney Lamar, George Peterson, Michael Peterson, and Grant Vaughan.

Cabinets of Curiosities - As old as human history itself, the making and collecting of art not only defines our civilizations collectively, but also signifies our individuality. Expanding on the traditional division of labor between the artist who builds the cabinet and the collector who fills it, Cabinets of Curiosities creates productive dialogues between artists of diverse backgrounds who, through the collaborative effort, become both the creators and collectors. A perpetual work-in-progress, the collaborative nature of these cabinets continues to pursue, collect, and hopefully inspire the ultimate act of curiosity- the participation of the viewer.
Co-organized by the Furniture Society and the Wood Turning Center, Cabinets of Curiosities is a juried exhibition that received 57 entries submitted by more than two hundred artists from around the world. The final presentation, selected by a panel of five distinguished jurors/curators, showcases 14 cabinets of extraordinary diversity and intrigue created by 50 interdisciplinary artists.
Cabinets of Curiosities will next be on exhibit from:
April 7 - July 15 2006: The Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Come see the show on tour, or view it online! To see where the tour heads next, Click here. Also, download the Adobe Acrobat C of C poster Art & Map side and Description & Regional Presentation Checklist side.

CONNECTIONS PLUS, A DECADE OF TRANSFORMATION
September 2 - December 31, 2005
Connections Plus invited past International Turning Exchange (ITE) fellows from the past ten years to submit a piece that reflects the impact of this residency program on his/her artwork. By 2005, over 50 artists from 17 U.S. states and 10 countries will have participated including the U.K., France, Germany, Israel, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

ANOTHER VIEW
September 2- December 31, 2005
Another View gives Garry Knox Bennett and Gord Peteran a chance to construct and deconstruct conventional notions of wood art and turned forms. They question materials, process and product - urging the viewer to consider the hidden meanings of each piece.

CARNIVAL, A WHIMSICAL, WITTY, ABSURD, HUMOROUS, FUN, FUNCTIONAL” EXHIBITION
September 2 – October 15, 2005
Marvelous whimsical figures created by C.R. “Skip” Johnson are drawn from the sensibility of carnival sideshows and state fairs.

INNOVATIONS: PERSPECTIVES IN TURNING
INTRIGUING CONTEMPORARY WOOD ART EXHIBITION - July 1 - August 13, 2005. Innovations: Perspectives in Turning is a unique exhibition of fascinating contemporary wood art by over twenty internationally emerging and established artists. Each piece illustrates the maker’s strong personal vision inspiring their distinctive materials and forms, from traditional vessels to purely sculptural objects.

Challenge VI: The Challenge VI- Roots: Insights & Inspirations in Contemporary Turned Objects exhibition represents the Wood Turning Center's continued commitment to furthering lathe artists growth and public awareness of the lathe turning field. The Challenge series evolved from encouraging artists to seek new personal areas of exploration and presenting it in gallery settings to putting the call out for entries and inviting curators, critics, and scholars to select the work and write essays on lathe art. The Challenge series includes works from both established and emerging international artists who seek to redefine function, decoration and sculptural forms.

Challenge VI is back in town! From February 6, 2004 to April 23, 2004. Click here to see the schedule and locations.

A price list is available to go with the objects of Challenge VI. The list is in the order of the objects in the Acrobat file below.Download photos of the art in the Challenge VI exhibit and artist's commentary in Adobe Acrobat format:.(some excerpts from the Challenge VI book available in our store - item #123). The most interesting bits have been removed from the download - see them in the book! The size of the download is 2.1 MB, and it will take approx. 6 min @ 56k to download. Click here for the old tour dates.

Wood Turning in North America Since 1930

Wood turning is the cutting of wood as it spins on a lathe. Seventy years ago, the craft of wood turning was rarely practiced in this country outside of high school shop classes, factories, and the workshops of hobbyists. Today, turning is a sophisticated art form that has attracted the attention of museums and collectors. This exhibition traces this transformation and explains the emergence of the studio turner. It includes many of the crucial objects that have led turners to breakthrough to new technical and aesthetic directions. It also presents an historical analysis of the field based on chronology and varying approaches. This history shows that some wood turners have seen the use of the lathe not as a limitation, but as a challenge that elicits creativity, experiment, and aesthetic accomplishment. The tour last visited the Yale University Art Gallery from September 10 - December 1, 2002. Read about the events and programs taking place around the Yale Exhibit. Exhibit Information: Download (in Adobe Acrobat format) the Brochure from the show, the Poster, and the Events list of talks, music, featured turners and more.