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Ronald
W. Smith, sculptor & woodworker, Bethlehem
Ron Smith
is a self-employed woodworker, exhibiting craftsman, visiting
artist, timber framer, architectural rehabilitator and restorer,
boat builder, and teacher. Since he created fabric constructions
for the U. S. Navy's Parachute Rigger School in 1968, he has
searched out opportunities near and far, studying and working
with some of the best craftsmen in the country (glass craftsman,
Dale Chihuly in Seattle, and Dan Dailey at the Massachusetts
College of Art in Boston), and Italo Scanga (at U.C. San Diego,
Lajolla, California). He studied furniture design at the Rhode
Island School of Design, and Metal Casting at Boston University's
Program in Artisanry. His educational journey even included
a year at Franconia College where he studied Blacksmithing
and Toolmaking. Since 1994, his goal is writing a Master of
Fine Arts thesis for an MFA in Artisanry from the University
of Massachusetts that will prepare him to teach at the college
level as a sculptor or an artisan.
He
has created a prolific body of work that has been exhibited
in more than 36 group and solo exhibitions since 1982 to the
present--from the Society of Arts and Crafts (Boston), San
Diego Home/Garden Magazine competition where he won "Third
Place," to the Rhode Island School of Design's Museum
of Art, from the Smithsonian's Renwick Museum in Washington,
DC, to Vermont's Northeast Kingdom at Lyndon State College
in Lyndonville, Vermont.
One of
his specialties is making "whirligigs," that have
become a trademark course when he teaches at the prestigious
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine, or
the Peter's Valley Craft Education Center in Layton, New Jersey.
The State
Arts Council's Fellowship will allow him to take the time
to complete his thesis--his final degree requirement. The
Fellowship will provide the resources that will help him upgrade
his studio, equipment and increase his technical and organizational
capabilities. He is honored to receive the award.
back
to 2001 fellows page
Last
updated:
January 4, 2005
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