December 2007 AAW Board Letter

From Bill Haskell...

Dear AAW Members,

Your AAW continues to work at bringing more and better exhibitions of woodturning to you and the public.  This past year, in addition to our annual theme exhibition, “Turning Green,” we had three other exhibits at the Portland symposium. 

One, a first, “Japanese Bowls – A Western Perspective” was a big success.  In addition, the demonstrators from Japan brought a great number of pieces for display reflecting woodturning designs from their country.  A third exhibit featured the work of the three POP Merit Award recipients: Giles Gilson, Stephen Hogbin, and Mark Lindquist. 

For those who did not see the 2005 “reTURN to the Land of Oz” exhibit in Overland Park, Kansas, it was recreated in the summer of 2007 at the World Forestry Center in Portland. 

To top all this off, another first, the AAW “Woodturning in Basic Black” exhibit was brought to the Chicago SOFA (Sculptural Objects and Functional Art) show in November.  Indeed, 2007 was a year rich with AAW woodturning exhibits.

The year 2008 will feature “Turned for Use II,” a juried exhibit in Richmond, Virginia, during the symposium.  If you are interested in participating in this exhibit, there is still time to fashion a piece and submit your application.  The application deadline is February 10, 2008.  For more information, click on this link to access the Application Form.  In addition, there will be a POP-sponsored exhibit at the 2008 symposium in Richmond similar to the Japanese bowls format, only this time showcasing “Spheres.”

Most of these exhibits could have been seen, or can be seen currently, at the AAW Gallery in St. Paul, where three or more exhibits are featured each year.  Unfortunately, many members are unable to view these shows at the symposium or St. Paul.  The good news is that a large portion of their content can be seen online at the AAW website after the exhibit closes. Note that all of the underlined blue typed text in this letter point to pages on the AAW website; just click on any of these links to access the page we’re discussing.