Soup Tureen

Fair Market Value: $500

Dimensions: 8" x 12"

Glazed ceramic

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Val Cushing

This piece was commissioned for Soup Tureens '76 at Campbell Museum of Art, Camden, NJ.

Born in Rochester, New York, in 1931, Val Cushing received his BFA in 1952 from the School of Art & Design at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. After serving two years in the Army during the Korean War, he returned to Alfred and received his MFA in 1956. His full-time teaching career began that year at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. After one year, he returned to Alfred where he stayed until he retired in 1997, when he was designated professor emeritus.

During his career, Cushing's meditative, yet functional, pots were included in more than 200 exhibitions, including numerous one-person shows. His work can be found in the collections of many public and private museums and galleries, including the Smithsonian, the Brooklyn Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt, and the Everson Museum of Art.

Helen Drutt

Helen W. Drutt English (Helen Drutt) was Founder/Director of her eponymous gallery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1973-2002), which was among the first galleries in the United States to make a commitment to the modern and contemporary craft movement. In 1973, she developed the first syllabus for a college-level course in the history of the field. Drutt has published numerous essays; organized exhibitions, i.e. Poetics of Clay, Brooching It Diplomatically: A Tribute to Madelaine K. Albright, and Challenging the Chatelaine!; and curated American studio jewelry for the Museo del Gioiello, Vicenza, Italy (2016-18). She has built a permanent collection of contemporary crafts for The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, and she is currently building a collection for the National Museum of Sweden. The Helen Williams Drutt Collection of international studio jewelry has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and internationally, and in 2002, 800 works entered the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Drutt has received numerous awards and three honorary degrees, from the University of the Arts, Moore College of Art, and Alfred University.