Part 4 | Pursuing Self & Finding the Other: The Gestures, Incarnations, and Secrets of Artist Charlotte Potter
With Ideas on Craft and the Craft School Experience from James Baker, Executive Director, Pilchuck Glass School

When I asked James Baker, Executive Director of Pilchuck Glass School, recently, how would he answer the question: What is craft? – I found his answer, in a way, accurately sums up my in-depth investigation into the topic of Craft at this junction of the series (part 4) quite perfectly.  He said, “I deeply believe in the role of craft in art making. I’ve been immersed in this discussion so often over the past thirty years that I’m caught between having way too much to say and nothing to say at all (that could be easily summarized) and is deserving of vastly more time than my current circumstance allows me to invest in answering properly.”  It is indeed an all or nothing conversation; and the further I go, I find it is a field that is complex and deep, regarded and dismissed, emotional and academic.  And if I am to follow Baker’s lead into a lifelong investigation (which I hope to do); I, too, will find there will always be more to discuss than I can adequately find the time to do so.  What I have found, though, whenever the dialogue turns to glass, it is impossible to deny the important role of Craft-specific education and experimentation; and it seems that no school does this better than Pilchuck.  

I’ve known Jim Baker for nearly eight years and I’ve had the distinct pleasure of hearing him speak specifically about the field of glass and of the Studio Glass Movement on several occasions: the rich history, the complex present, and the exciting future.  At the heart of every exchange, lies Pilchuck: a renowned, international school focused solely on the field of glass nestled in the Pacific Northwest. I asked Baker recently to speak about what makes this place so special, so magical, and he began: “one of the core values of craft education is to provide ways for people to fulfill their natural urge to express themselves, and Pilchuck is dedicated to the attitude that this form of education [craft] can be effective either as an adjunct to other forms of art education, or as a sole means of developing into an independent artist.  More importantly, part of our mission is the advancement of glass as a material for expression.”  This audacious focus on conceptual development beyond the mastery of technique is unique to Pilchuck and critical to its artistic development and success.  It is precisely this type of progressive thinking, and the artists who embrace it, that allows Pilchuck to reach beyond the ‘enclave’ traditionally attached to the material to entice and excite a much broader audience.