Among Friends

NG NDS

Eröffnung Danner-Rotunde, München 2010, kuratiert von Karl Fritsch.

Detail von S. 54.

Opening of the Danner Rotunde, Munich 2010, curated by Karl Fritsch.

Detail from p. 54.

Jamie Bennett

Peter Bauhuis

David Bielander

Melanie Bilenker

Manfred Bischoff

Helen Britton

Doug Bucci

Claus Bury

Jessica Calderwood

Sharon Church

Ken Cory

Aaron Decker

Benjamin Dory

Georg Dobler

Sandra Enterline

Claire Falkenstein

Christiane Förster

Karl Fritsch

Elizabeth Garrison

Thomas Gentille

Toni Goessler-Snyder

Adam Grinovich

Tamara Grüner

Laurie Hall

William Harper

Therese Hilbert

Mirjam Hiller

Ron Ho

Daniel Jocz

Jessica Jane Julius

Hermann Jünger

Jiro Kamata

Betsy King

Sam Kramer & Peggy Ackerly

Robin Kranitzky &

Kim Overstreet

Mary Kretsinger

Daniel Kruger

Otto Künzli

Stanley Lechtzin

Keith Lewis

Miye Matsukata

Falko Marx

Zach Mellman-Carsey

Bruce Metcalf

Frederick Miller

John Paul Miller

Eleanor Moty

Louis Mueller

Louise Nevelson

Judy Onofrio

Albert Paley

Joe Pillari

John / Jack Prip

Dorothea Prühl

Debra Rapoport

Gerd Rothmann

Mary Ann Scherr

Marjorie Schick

Joyce J. Scott

Sondra Sherman

Helen Shirk

Olaf Skoogfors

Kiff Slemmons

Bettina Speckner

Vaughn Stubbs

Linda Threadgill

Donald Paul Tompkins

Merrily Tompkins

MJ Tyson

William Underhill

Stacey Lee Webber & Mark Wagner

J. Fred Woell

Wolli the Kid (alias Wolfgang Lieglein)

Nancy Worden

Renée Zettle-Sterling

Helen Williams Drutt im Gespräch mit Darrel Sewell und Jane Milosch

Ein Interview über ihre Kontakte zu Künstlern und ihre transatlantische Arbeit als Galeristin –gekürzt und ausgewählt von Petra Hölscher

An Interview about her contacts with artists and her transatlantic work as a gallery owner—abridged and selected by Petra Hölscher

Claus Bury, Skizzenbuch für H elen Williams Drutt, undatiert.

Claus Bury, sketchbook for H elen Williams Drutt, undated.

During the Middle Ages German goldsmiths had access to professional training under the guild system, when masters taught their apprentices. Although a revised version still exists, dedicated education for goldsmiths did not become available until 1768 when a jewelry and watchmaking school was created in a Pforzheim orphanage to help raise the social and economic standing of disadvantaged youth, and provide the local manufacturers with well-trained personnel. Since then, university courses and other educational opportunities in jewelry-making have flourished in Germany. American jewelers, however, were not afforded such opportunities until the 1940s, when the techniques used in metalsmithing were adopted to provide occupational therapy for World War II veterans.

Prior to World War II, jewelry-making education in the United States was only available through high school industrial arts classes or teacher-training programs; consequently, people wishing to study metalsmithing had to enroll in general craft courses for adults, offered in the evening at select high schools and colleges. Most budding jewelers followed step-by-step manuals, teaching themselves the necessary skills by trial and error, while some devised imaginative methods, such as learning how to forge by watching dock workers hammer steel, and how to cast by observing dentists make molds. Nevertheless, the United States was uniquely positioned to begin jewelry training programs during World War II, due to a belief that the motor skills and eye/ hand coordination needed to fabricate metal would provide excellent physical therapy, as well as vocational training, for returning servicemen, much as the jewelry and watchmaking workshop founded almost two centuries earlier in Pforzheim had helped to sustain the orphans.

To that end, The War Veteran’s Art Center—spearheaded by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller—opened in October 1944 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, closing in June 1948. Charles J. Martin, a professor of Fine Arts at Teachers College, Columbia University, was Instructor of Jewelry.

Like The War Veteran’s Art Center, Handy & Harman1 Workshop Conferences were established to aid veterans’ rehabilitation through metalsmithing. Due to a general need for such classes, both programs also welcomed students who hadn’t served in the armed forces. Boston silversmith Margret Craver persuaded Handy & Harman Precious Metal Refiners in New York City to sponsor workshops offering metalsmithing skills, which were held each summer from 1947 to 1951, at a variety of locations

including Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Providence, Rhode Island, and Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Rochester, New York. Craver recruited notable silversmiths Baron Erik Flemming from Stockholm, Reginald H. Hill from London, and William Bennett from Sheffield to run the workshops. Richard H. Reinhardt, a Philadelphia metalsmith included in the Helen Williams Drutt Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFA), attended the Handy & Harman Workshop Conference of 1948. Earl Pardon, also represented in Houston’s Drutt Collection, was a painter, enamellist, and jeweler from Memphis, Tennessee, who would later mentor another Philadelphia-based jeweler, Sharon Church p. 9 4 – 95. Pardon attended the workshop in 1950. And John Paul Miller, a Cleveland, Ohio, goldsmith and enamellist known for his extraordinary granulation which he used to embellish pins and pendants that often depict abstracted insects and crustaceans p. 153, took part in 1951.

A major development that expanded wartime metalsmithing education was the G.I. Bill of Rights. Signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 22, 1944, it provided funds for college, university, and vocational training for those who served in the American Armed Forces. Many returning veterans studied crafts, with some choosing to specialize in jewelry-making. In “A View from America,” an essay for Danner Prize 2023 – Artistic Crafts of Distinction, Helen Williams Drutt acknowledges the impact of the G.I. Bill on her entrance into the craft field: “The G.I. Bill … granting … free education to anyone who served in World War II empowered the resurgence of the craft movement. As a result, it was in 1955 that I became committed to the craft field –visiting studios, organizing exhibitions, opening my eponymous [Philadelphia] gallery (1973 – 2002) and developing the first college curriculum in the history of the field.” 2 Although Drutt’s reach is now global, she was particularly influential in the United States during the mid-20th century, when she began to raise awareness of the emerging American Craft Movement. During the 1950s, with Philadelphia as her home base, she began visiting the studios of craftspeople in nearby Bucks County and beyond, many of whom were benefiting from education facilitated by the G.I. Bill.

The School for American Craftsmen (SAC), which welcomed jewelers under the G.I. Bill, was established by philanthropist and crafts afficionado Aileen Osborne Webb on January 14, 1945 at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, relocating to Alfred University, Alfred, New York, in July 1946. The school moved to its permanent home at RIT in 1950, where it has since been renamed School for American Crafts / College of Art and Design. Several jewelers, who had been either teachers or students at RIT are represented in the Drutt Collection at

David Bielander

Wellpappe-Ring / Cardboard Ring

2015 / 2019

Gelbgold, Weißgold

Yellow gold, white gold

3,4 × 1,4 cm

Halsschmuck / Necklace

Schlan ge / Snake

2006

Silber (geschwärzt)

Silver (blackened)

80 × 2,5 cm

Georg Dobler

Brosche / Brooch 2002

Stern-Rubin, Silber (geschwärzt, Samenkapseln abgegossen)

Star ruby, silver (blackened, seed capsules cast) 12,3 × 7,5 × 2,4 cm

Halsschmuck / Necklace

2007

Zitronencitrine, Silber (geschwärzt, Abguss der Natur)

Lemon citrines, silver (blackened, cast from nature)

23 × 24,5 × 2,7 cm

Brosche / Brooch Chi Brooch 2020

Sterlingsilber, Achat, Papiermicarta, Quarz (Steinschliff Tom Munsteiner, Deutschland)

Sterling silver, agate, black paper Micarta, quartz (stone cutting by Tom Munsteiner, Germany)

6 × 4,7 × 0,7 cm

Brosche / Brooch Vanishin g Point 2009

Sterlingsilber, 22 Kt Gold, Phantomquarz, Rutilquarz (Steinschliff Tom Munsteiner, Deutschland)

Sterling silver, 22 K gold, phantom quartz, rutile quartz (stone cutting by Tom Munsteiner, Germany)

6,5 × 5,5 × 0,7 cm

Joyce J. Scott

Brosche / Brooch Libert y 1998

Glasperlen, Peyote-Stich Glass pearls, peyote stitch 15,2 × 8,9 cm

Ein Geschenk an Die Neue Sammlung von der Helen Williams Drutt Family Collection, Philadelphia, PA, USA, zu Ehren der Künstlerin und in Erinnerung an Arnd Hoch. Given as a gift to Die Neue Sammlung from the Helen Williams Drutt Family Collection, Philadelphia, PA, USA, in honor of the artist and in memory of Arnd Hoch.

Halsschmuck / Necklace

1980er / 1980s (?) Glasperlen, Glasscheiben (verformt), Amethyst, Foto (Vintage)

Glass beads, glass discs (deformed), amethyst, photo (vintage)

33 × 19,5 × 2,5 cm

AM FRIE