Elizabeth Essner

From the Ground Up Elizabeth Essner

From the Ground Up: Peters Valley School of Craft charts the remarkable fifty-year history of this New Jersey craft school from its earliest formation as an experimental craft colony, to the building of its renowned Japanese wood-fired or Anagama kiln in 1980, to the prominence of women blacksmiths at Peters Valley in the early 2000s.

Founded in 1970, Peters Valley School of Craft was the result of an experimental idea: a planned craft community set in the natural beauty of a newly-formed national park, the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Resident artists in ceramics, wood, fiber, photography, blacksmithing, and fine metals have shaped the vital spirit of Peters Valley. Craft education has also anchored Peters Valley's mission, making the school's immersive materials-based courses a vibrant meeting ground for exchange.

Presented at the Hunterdon Museum of Art from October 4, 2020 - January 10, 2021, From the Ground Up features fifty years of work made by artists involved with Peters Valley. This exhibition catalog illuminates key moments in Peter Valley's formation and illustrates its crucial impact on art and artists.

Written by exhibition curator Elizabeth Essner, From the Ground Up includes work by: Cynthia Alberto, Joyce Anderson, Bennett Bean, Vivian Beer, Kevin Bond, Doug Bucci, Steven Carty, Louise Todd Cope, Maegan Crowley, Bruce Dehnert, Lauren Eckert, Ken Ferguson, Glen S. Gardner, Kerr Grabowski, Goodwin Harding, Katieanne M. Harrison, James Jansma, Luci Jockel, Kipton Kumler, Janet Lipkin, Wendy MacNeil, Kirk Mangus, John McWilliams, Emil Milan, Kristin Muller, Eunice Fawn Navasie, Fawn Navasie, Tom Neugebauer, Sandy Noyes, Wendy Holmes Noyes, Shiro Otani, Beryl Perron-Feller, John Rais, Karl Seemuller, Ellen Shankin, Carolyn Grew-Sheridan, John Sheridan, Stephen Shore, Brian Skalaski, Malcolm Mobutu Smith, Paul Soldner, Toshiko Takaezu, George Tice, MJ Tyson, Janine Wang, David H. Wells, and Andrew Willner.