Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8LTa2ax85M&list=PLOQvdw7d0cd9RZZkd2lZy2hmrnJv-cfLI&index=37
Evan Snow: And we are here on the Choose954 podcast, episode 59, at the beautiful Wiener Museum of Decorative Art, with the whole team, including Director Louise Irvine. We've got some people behind the scenes doing some interesting things, which I'll tell you about in a minute. If you didn't know about Choose954, we started a social movement to cultivate culture and community in Broward County, to keep people in the know with all the great things happening within the arts and culture and make this a better place to live, not just a better place to vacation. The point of the podcast is to connect you with incredible people like Louise, who do very important things in the community, like running the largest collection of decorative arts, which I found out about today here in Broward County. This podcast is sponsored by the Thousand Mermaids Artificial Reef Project and the Ocean Rescue Alliance, saving the reef, saving the oceans one reef at a time, using art as a problem solver. To find out more, you can log on to www.thousandmermaids.com. We’ll have opportunities for you to find out more about the projects here at the Wiener Museum, but without much further ado, Louise, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Louise Irvine: Well, thank you, Evan, and thank you very much for coming here today. We’re excited to be working with you, particularly on the Thousand Mermaids Project, which has become a subject very dear to our hearts here at WMODA. But my background is something completely different. I'm from Scotland, which sooner or later, I think the audience will gather from the accent. I came here about ten years ago to Florida and started to work in the ceramic art world. My background was in fine arts—I went to art school in Edinburgh, studied fine art, and then went down to London, where I had the great privilege of working at the Victoria & Albert Museum and doing some major exhibition work there, particularly on Royal Doulton, which is one of the great British ceramic brands and one that became my particular interest for many years. That’s really how I came to be here because Arthur Wiener, who is the founder of this museum, began his collection by being fascinated by Royal Doulton. From there, we met, and when he decided that his houses were overflowing with his treasures, he had too many pieces to accommodate in his homes, so he decided that he wanted to open a museum and asked if I would come and help him curate the experience here at WMODA. That’s really been part of my journey.
Evan Snow: Amazing, and it really is an experience, and we’ll show you a little bit in a moment. But for those who maybe aren’t familiar with decorative arts, why don’t you tell the audience what is all in this beautiful museum?
Louise Irvine: Well, the decorative arts tend to be distinguished from the so-called fine arts. I regard it very much as a historical distinction because I believe there’s as much artistry that goes into the so-called decorative arts as the fine arts, but there has always been that distinction between the arts world and the crafts world. What we represent here is everything made of clay and glass, and we like to think of ourselves as a fired arts experience. So, most of the pieces here have been through a kiln—they're either pottery, porcelain, different types of clay art, and also glass art, which may be blown, fused, or flameworked to create the works of art here. Mr. Wiener became passionate first by the ceramic art, passionate first about the brand Royal Doulton, but then he soon expanded into other areas, names like Wedgwood and Moorcroft, and the great British brands. Now his interests encompass everything to do with ceramic art and also glass. He came later to glass, but he became passionate about the work of Dale Chihuly. Of course, we’re surrounded by Dale Chihuly in this gallery—that’s been his great passion of recent years. But if you were to put everything together and talk about the decorative arts that particularly fascinate Mr. Wiener, it’s about color. He also loves figurative styles, but color is the one thing that explodes when you come here, and you see it more than anything else. That’s why he gravitated to the work of Dale Chihuly, because of the wonderful manipulation of color that Dale Chihuly brings.
Evan Snow: Phenomenal, absolutely. There’s an overwhelming amount of color here—it’s absolutely phenomenal. I’m really glad that you mentioned how Mr. Wiener became passionate about collecting. Could you take a moment for those who maybe aren’t familiar with private collections, art collections, or collecting art to even know how someone could be passionate enough about it to have a museum and have the largest collection of this type of art form? Could you explain the importance of collecting, especially a niche art form like this, and how and why someone like Mr. Wiener would become passionate about it?
Louise Irvine: Well, his particular passion began in the 1960s. He was a young man, had just graduated in law, and was visiting London. He had that indispensable guide, "Europe on Five Dollars a Day," when that was possible—obviously, that was a long time ago. But he was looking around London, and a piece caught his eye in a shop window. It was actually a Royal Doulton character jug of Merlin the Magician from the King Arthur stories. He fell in love with this character of Merlin, and what we always like to say is that Merlin certainly cast a spell on Arthur because he went on, first of all, to be passionate about Royal Doulton character jugs, then World War II figures. Then he went back in time and started to explore Royal Doulton art pottery. As I mentioned, his interests expanded to other brands and then to other media within the so-called fired arts. Obviously, his houses got full to overflowing—his kids even today say they grew up surrounded by all this crowded inventory in various homes. He decided at a certain point in his life that he wanted other people to experience what he was so interested in. So, the idea evolved to create this museum. It started in a very small way, by being an exhibition of different themes of the collections that he put together, and it’s grown into the experience that you can see today. He was very fortunate that right from the outset, he was able to set up a 501(c)(3) charitable institution in which to accommodate his collection and his mission. It’s under that umbrella that we can bring the decorative arts to a wider audience. What I like to think of is that we’re not just introducing people to beautiful works of art, but we’re also explaining how people used to live surrounded by these pieces, looking at different lifestyles, looking at society. Within all of that are the different stories that either fascinated Arthur for the first time as a collector, but that are also fascinating to other people when they can share those stories.
Evan Snow: And then when they hear the story, which you’re going to tell us some of shortly, behind some of the artworks, it provides a greater appreciation of the works, the art form, the art's history. Thankfully, you guys are very considerate of even the current contemporary artists. There’s a video playing across the room from Hollywood Hot Glass—you’re bringing in local artists. We’ll talk about Chelsea Rousso, a designer. You guys, it’s not just about the greats like Chihuly, but you actually also give a lot of consideration to local artists as well and local projects like the Thousand Mermaids and Ocean Rescue Alliance, which we appreciate. I’d like to take the camera and show them some of the rest of the collection and have you tell us about it.
Louise Irvine: Absolutely, because that’s a very important part of what’s become interesting to Arthur here. It hasn’t just been about the historical collections from a century or even two centuries ago. He gets animated by working with the artists and falls in love with the work that they’re doing. There are many favorites that have now become a major part of this exhibition because he’s had the opportunity to visit their studios, see them at work, and then a personal bond develops—he becomes a patron of their particular work. So, he’s moved from being a private collector who has kept all his pieces around him in his home to being a real patron of the arts and working with contemporary artists.
Evan Snow: We need more patrons like Mr. Wiener. If you’re listening and looking for a new hobby, a new way to pass the time, maybe spend some of your disposable income—if you’re of a certain wealth and income level—creating a collection, potentially creating a museum, supporting arts, artistry, art forms, especially some of the more niche ones that maybe aren’t so commonly found like visual arts and painting, can really make strong impacts in communities like Dania Beach and in artists’ lives, which we’re going to find out about shortly here. So where are we right now?
Louise Irvine: So, we’re here in our Hot Glass Gallery, and what you see behind me is the work of Dale Chihuly. Dale Chihuly is really considered the father of the American Studio Glass Movement, and he has influenced and inspired many other artists following in his footsteps. He studied in this country but also in Venice with the Murano maestros, and he brought many of the techniques of glassblowing here to the United States. He mentored, taught, and created these amazing works of art, making us look at glass in a completely different way. We don’t think of a glass of water now when we think of Chihuly—we think of his work as an art form, and he’s probably done more than any other artist to make us think this way about glass. We have this exhibition entitled The Chihuly Connection because we’re creating all the associations that he’s had—the people that he’s taught, like Josiah McElheny, people that he’s worked with, like Pino Signoretto, and others who work in the same field, like Paul Stankard, who’s working in flame-worked glass. They’ve made glass into what we might describe as a fine art form and not just a craft form, and that’s what’s really significant about this amazing collection. Of course, everybody knows Chihuly from his installations in gardens all over the world—he creates these fabulous experiences where you can walk in and among the glass art. This is like a garden of his Macchia designs, supposedly inspired by his mother’s flower gardens. These bowl-type forms are called Macchia from the Italian for a smear or a spot. What he has created are these monumental forms of glass, technically very, very challenging to mingle all these glass colors together and also to blow glass in such large proportions. But he’s always had the advantage of working with very talented teams and gaffers—artists have all come together. What he really enjoys about the medium is the community of the artists who come together to create these pieces. So, these are not one-man shows, even though his name is associated with them—a whole team of artists gets together to create these phenomenal pieces. And we have, as you can see, a phenomenal collection of these designs. We also have in the corner his Ikebana, named after the Japanese art of flower arranging. These monumental forms, standing sometimes six feet tall, are like flower arrangements that nobody ever has really experienced—almost like an alien has landed from The Day of the Triffids or something of that sort. His imagination seems to have known no bounds in taking art into this whole new form of wonderful glass. These days, he paints more than he actually blows the glass—he was injured in a car accident and so he has been very much reliant on this wonderful team and succession of artists. But he still creates his amazing paintings, very spontaneous, where he can communicate his vision to his gaffers, his chief blowers, so that they know his visions, his colors, what they have in mind for the pieces.
Evan Snow: So thankfully, you guys do, aside from honoring all the greats, feature local artists and creatives as well. Can you tell us a little bit about what we’re looking at here?
Louise Irvine: We do indeed. I mean, it’s very important to us to work with artists in our community, and we’re very fortunate to have such talent here in the Greater Fort Lauderdale area. This is the work of Chelsea Rousso. Chelsea was a New York fashion designer who came down to Florida, and she discovered a new medium, which was glass. Her particular approach to glass is called fused or kiln-formed glass, so she’s working with patches and ribbons and threads of glass to make these sculptural forms. She loves working with the beautiful female forms that she’s creating, obviously from her background in fashion design. But what’s become really interesting in the direction that she’s gone is that she is now making wearable glass. So, the very idea that you could wear a costume made of glass—people find this quite extraordinary. But from all accounts, the models find them to be very comfortable, and we’ve had some wonderful fashion shows here with Chelsea and her young models. In fact, at the end of the month, we’re having a wonderful event where we have a mermaid becoming a real live mermaid, who’s going to be wearing a new design that Chelsea is creating especially for her, inspired by the ocean. Chelsea does classes here at WMODA—when of course we’re not working under any kind of restrictions—we have classes so that people can learn how to make their own works of art. Chelsea used to teach at the Fort Lauderdale Art Institute, and so now she’s teaching and helping other people discover themselves through art, to get uplifted by the experience of making art, but also the opportunity to enjoy it as a visitor.
Evan Snow: Phenomenal. And there’s more. Can you tell us a little bit about Ardmore?
Louise Irvine: So, now we’re in the Ardmore Ceramic Art Gallery. Ardmore is a South African studio in the heart of KwaZulu-Natal, and it was founded by a woman called Fée Halsted 35 years ago. She began to teach local people how to sculpt and paint ceramic art—she trained them in these skills and mentored them to communicate what they were inspired by through clay. Gradually, the studio became recognized, and they won many awards and accolades. She was able to then give employment to many artists who would come and have a guaranteed living through creating these works of ceramic art. Each piece is one of a kind—it’s a unique piece. One person throws the piece, another person adds the sculptural detail, and a third person might paint it. They work all together in this community, collaborative spirit. They call it the spirit of Ubuntu, meaning "we are because of others." Over the years, the studio has grown and prospered and has become widely known throughout the world, with many collectors acquiring pieces of Ardmore art. About ten years ago now, Arthur Wiener discovered Ardmore and fell in love with it, and he was as passionate about Ardmore as he was formerly about Royal Doulton. But what he also loved about Ardmore was how he could help this community of artists to thrive in this remote, impoverished region. What’s happened over the years is that the whole community has been uplifted through this art. People who would otherwise have been unemployed or have no real jobs to do now earn a living, and a very good living, by creating these works of art. So, we’re very excited to have this amazing collection of Ardmore. In fact, we will be hosting another exhibition, an add-on exhibition, where we are offering Ardmore for sale. We’re working with the distributor of Ardmore in this country, the Pascoe Gallery, and we’re creating this experience called A Safari for the Soul, giving people the opportunity to purchase pieces of Ardmore. Each purchase will benefit the museum, as well as, of course, benefiting the original artists of Ardmore. We’re going to open this exhibition on November 18th, and we’re very excited as we prepare for that. So, in addition to this amazing gallery with hundreds of pieces of Ardmore, we’ll have at least 100 more that we’ll be offering for sale as a benefit to WMODA and the Ardmore artists. Everybody, as you know, is suffering through this pandemic and through the lockdowns. But what’s been so exciting about the Ardmore artists, even in these sad conditions of the lockdown in these remote regions, is that they’ve persevered with their art, and they’re still able to communicate through their art and bring joy and happiness to people’s lives by the whimsical works that they produce.
Evan Snow: Amen, well said. So, tell us how this thing all got started here.
Louise Irvine: So, this is the one that started it all that I mentioned previously. This is Merlin the Magician, and Mr. Wiener saw this in a shop window in London back in the 60s. He was intrigued by why Merlin had the Star of David on the handle—or at least what looked like the Star of David—and so he went in to inquire. The shop owner told him that Merlin was Jewish, which he didn’t believe, but it got them talking, and he acquired this character jug. From this character jug came all of the character jugs that Royal Doulton made. He also started to collect Royal Doulton figurines and put together a huge collection of the figurines. Then he started to go back in time, starting to look at pieces from the early Victorian period when Royal Doulton created art pottery. And so that was how he kept going through the whole Doulton story. Royal Doulton, one of the oldest factories still operational in England, went back to 1815. As well as the beautiful figurines that you see here, they made their reputation by creating art pottery vases made of salt-glazed stoneware, beautiful porcelain pieces. They used to exhibit their work at these great international world fairs like the World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago and the Paris Exposition in 1900. This amazing piece in the center is called the Diana Vase, and it was made for the Paris Exposition in 1900, embellished with 22-karat gold—the bigger, the better, the more opulent was the style of the times in that era. It’s illuminated by a beautiful chandelier—these actually were originally in the SLS Hotel in Miami Beach, and when that was refurbished, they came here. We have six amazing chandeliers, Czechoslovakian from the 1930s.
Evan Snow: Interesting, I never would have known that. And this piece is absolutely amazing, and this is not the oldest or the largest vase that you have?
Louise Irvine: No, we have an even bigger piece, also Royal Doulton, made a little earlier in 1893 for an Indian prince, the Maharaja of Baroda, who was the eighth richest man in the world in 1893. He came shopping for Doulton in London, just as Mr. Wiener did all these years later, and he bought the biggest vase in the world, which is now here at WMODA.
Evan Snow: Amazing! There are a lot of interesting nuggets and hidden gems here at WMODA. Let’s tell them a little bit more. So, tell us some opportunities that the community can have coming up here to experience the Wiener Museum of Decorative Art for themselves.
Louise Irvine: We’re thrilled to be reopened again. We’ve been back in business since the end of May. We’re open from Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and everybody’s welcome to come and browse the collections. Starting from October 31st, when we have our magical mermaid here, Ranoo the Mermaid, we are launching our new trivia trail or scavenger hunt around the museum. People have a lot of fun doing this—our visitors are entertained but also informed by tracking down all the different stories around the museum. To tie in with Ranoo the Mermaid, we have a magical mermaids quest going on in the museum. We’re looking at fantasy, but we’re also looking at the more important connection between art, science, and conservation, and what’s going on in the reefs of Florida. What we hope to do by focusing on the beautiful art is to have people think deeply about our environment and how important it is to work with it. So, the mermaids tie in—people love the idea of them. Having met Ranoo, whose real name is Alexandra Clark, a young marine biologist who also works with shark conservation, she has a more serious side to her story as well. She will be talking about some of the ways that people can create better awareness of what’s going on. I know we don’t have to tell you, Evan, about Thousand Mermaids and the project that you’re doing and how important it is to work with the reefs and to improve them for future generations. We’re trying to bring all these strands together and also to be a major part of our community because that’s really what it’s all about. Even more so now that people can’t travel very far from home, it’s important to know that they have this hidden gem in their neighborhood. And of course, our ambition is not to be so hidden anymore—to be the diamond of Dania and for people to come and enjoy us. If they can’t be here in person, we send out a newsletter every month to keep people in touch with what’s going on at the museum. We announce all of our events and exhibitions. The next exhibition after the mermaids will be our Ardmore Ceramic Art selling exhibition, where we hope to help raise funds for the museum. Like many museums around the world, we’ve been very badly hit with COVID-19. Museums rely on their revenue from admissions and gift shop sales, so the idea of coming together and having works of art that people have been willing to present to us for sale, with a percentage of the profits going to the museum, will be very, very helpful to us. We’re also working with artists who are creating unique works of art, which we have for sale in our Studio Collection shop, where we’re focusing on all the talent that’s here in South Florida. We’re working with artists in ceramics, glass, and also jewelers who are working with the materials they can find here to interpret the beautiful landscape of Florida.
Evan Snow: The collaboration between Chelsea, Hollywood Hot Glass, and the Thousand Mermaids Project really is phenomenal. I’m very intrigued about wearable glass art, so maybe Chelsea will make you an outfit.
Louise Irvine: Right over the card! Maybe she will mention your mouth. I can become a mermaid. I haven’t seen a mermaid figure that she’s made, but there’s always a first.
Evan Snow: A first here at the Wiener Museum of Decorative Arts in Dania Beach, Florida. We plan to do more and try to help support our cultural institutions. We really encourage you to come out here, not just on the 31st while it is open to the public. We’re hoping to do some things during Fort Lauderdale Art & Design Week. We’d like to try to support all of the cultural institutions in Greater Fort Lauderdale and Broward County, not just in Fort Lauderdale proper. Thankfully, there will be opportunities to get people to engage with the collection virtually. We can do talks and tours, but also maybe we can find some creative hacker events. We have a couple of months to plan that, so stay tuned for more on Fort Lauderdale Art & Design Week and the Wiener Museum. If they want to find you on social media and the web, where can they find you?
Louise Irvine: They can look us up on our website, wmoda.com. That’s WMODA, very straightforward. You’ll find lots of information on the website. We’re also on Facebook and Instagram, but our main focus is our stories on our website. You can also sign up for our newsletter, which keeps people informed of what’s happening here. We have our next event up on Eventbrite, so people can book tickets. We’re having timed tickets for our mermaid event to make sure that we’re in compliance with all the COVID restrictions. People can have a very nice experience here despite what’s going on in the world. We’re a big space—we’re 20,000 square feet—so people are able to spread out and, of course, be masked. Unlike me today, but then we’re socially distant, so we do require people to wear a mask when they visit in person. Everybody has a fun time despite what’s going on in the world.
Evan Snow: It’s an experience—it really is an experience. You really, like you said, probably will never see the same thing twice. I’ve been turning my head, and I see something different. Every one of these pieces has a story, and there’s an artist behind these pieces. I’m really excited to see you share some more of these stories on your social media, which we’re glad to share. If you found this of interest at all, please come check out the Wiener Museum of Decorative Arts in Dania Beach, Florida, on Federal Highway. They are a 501(c)(3). If you’re passionate about glass art, decorative arts, fired arts, and you’re looking for a noteworthy local cause and a way to support the arts, I would encourage you to consider them. If you have any questions about Choose954, what’s going on, feel free to reach out to Evan at Choose954. Love to hear why you Choose954. We’ll see you on the 31st and in January for Fort Lauderdale Art & Design Week. I’m Evan Snow.
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