Grant Wood, New Road, 1939
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
In the Nation's Capital
HUMAN AFFAIRS
Dialogues on events
that shape our world
MEMORY AND
IDENTITYExploring our
heritage
Testing our tradition
BEAUTY WILL SAVE
THE WORLD
Discovering the world
of arts: performances
and presentations
MEETINGS AT
THE CROSSROADS
Face to face with...
A place where roads meet. A time of change.
"If thou among the
eternal
Ideas art numbered,
which the eternal
mind
Deigns not should
e'er be clothed in
fleshly form,
And in frail human
frames
Learn with what ills
our mortal life doth
swarm;
Or if some other
earth be mine of
those
Innumerable worlds
wherewith heav'n
flames,
And, brighter than
the Sun, the nearest
star
Through kinder
atmosphere above
thee glows:
From here, where
days are brief and
skies soon darken,
To this, an unknown
lover's hymn, oh
hearken"

Giacomo Leopardi
"To my lady"
BEAUTY WILL SAVE THE WORLD
Discovering the world of arts:
performances and presentations
From the Ground Up
The 2007 Renwick Craft Invitational

A Special Tour with curator
JANE MILOSCH
Saturday, June 23, 2007 - 3:00PM
The Renwick Gallery
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th Street
Washington, DC

PHOTO GALLERY
FROM THE OPENING SPEECH:

Like all good art, this exhibit opens us
up to a deeper inquiry into the
relationships we have with the “stuff” of
our lives—looking at this exhibit you’ll
understand what “stuff” I mean: not
only the physical matter of glass and
paper and clay, but all of the natural
world we inhabit, the plans we make,
the things we use and abuse, the
people we are and know… The exhibit
does not stop short even of the
suffering we endure and inflict, as you’
ll see with the some of the sculptures.
The Renwick is a special place in that,
as a “craft” museum, it puts us in front
of physical presences—imposing or
discrete as they may be, they are
things whose physicality provokes us
(example of Andrew touching).
It’s clear that these artists are spurred
on by the materials they work with,
these materials that serve their
exploration of life—hues and textures
and elements in nature, moving into
the tension (the individual and his
destiny?) introduced by beauty and
desire and pain…
A friend of ours, Fr. Luigi Giussani,
wrote that “the more a person looks at
and becomes aware of reality, the
more it calls him to something else.
You move toward things because there
is a spur (goad?) in them. This spur
cannot be held back, it is unstoppable.
The more you follow it, the more it
moves.” I think this describes very well
the artist and viewer alike. One of  
Barbara’s former students saw this
exhibit and told us, “You can
understand more about yourself, about
life and things, through someone else’
s understanding.” Let’s ask ourselves,
“What motivates these artists? What
are they after?” And you, what moves
you here? What questions are raised
in you?
I think the museum curator, Jane
Milosch, can take us deeper into not
only the understanding of the work, but
the mystery it points to—“the more you
follow it, the more it moves!”