Art on display

Aug 29, 2023

Garrett Neese/DMGWorks from Finnish American Folk School instructor Kenyon Hansen are on display at “The Folk School at Midsummer,”

HANCOCK –Works by Finnish American Folk School artists and instructors are on display at the Finlandia Gallery.

The gallery will host a free reception for the artists in “The Folk School in Midsummer” from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday. The reception is open to the public, and refreshments will be served.

Gallery director Carrie Flaspohler said the exhibit is the product of a growing collaboration between the gallery and folk school she sees increasing as the years go on. It will be on display at the gallery through Sept. 13.

“This exhibit represents the products of the folk school over the last year,” she said. “Every summer will have a different sort of feel with what instructors there are, what projects they do … it’s just really gratifying to see artists come together, share their talents, and then produce this incredibly beautiful, really varied exhibit with so much tradition, but also contemporary ideas.” #gallery-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Co-directors Phyllis Fredendall and Claire had made it “this very active, very rich programming of all these different traditions,” she said.

Garrett Neese/DMGLindsey Heiden’s clay sculpture “Rabbit/Crow Hatchling.”

“It really fits right in naturally with the mission of the gallery, which is to promote Finnish and Finnish American contemporary art,” she said. “So having living practicing artists in my space is what I find most satisfying, because we can learn from each other, we can see different techniques. And then the community knows all the talented people that we have around us, having it be such a local exhibit with a lot of local artists.”

The show contains a mix of disciplines from ceramics to knitting to paper sculpture. Flaspohler said there’s a high level of professionalism in both the professor and student work.

In one project, five weavers set up looms, each with a different warp; they rotated through each one to make a series of dishtowels. While each one from a particular loom has the same lengthwise foundation, they bear little resemblance to each other.

“I think Phyllis put together a little game for the reception where we’re going to try to guess which ones were made on the same loom, because they are so different,” Flaspohler said.

Weaving student John Gale was able to point out some signs: the same stripes running through multiple works, for instance. But he enjoyed seeing the colors and other choices that mae each one different.

Garrett Neese/DMGA selection of works from the Finnish American Folk School spanning several disciplines are on display.

While they were literally building off the foundations from other students, they were also able to take inspiration from them, Gale said.

He picked up on the effect of using three shuttles after seeing a fellow student try it.

“I did it all the way through, but it’s a different effect than what she had,” he said. “But I wouldn’t have thought of doing that if we weren’t working in the same room, working on the same project. So this was a lot of fun.”

Gale also did weavings with traditional “Over the Waves” Finnish pattern, which professional Finnish weaver Wynne Mattila taught in a workshop last fall.

Gale has been a weaver for about 10 years, and also took weaving classes at Finlandia. He said the school allows him to weave as part of a community of artists. Classes such as Mattila’s rug-weaving class have also helped him grow as an artist.

Garrett Neese/DMGFive Finnish American Folk School weavers set up looms with different warps, then each made their own style of dish towel off that foundation. The varied styles can be seen at “The Folk School at Midsummer,” an exhibit at the Finlandia Gallery. A reception will take place 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

“It makes you a better producer of your art to take these classes, and where are we going to get those aside from the folk school up here?” he said. “In an afternoon, even if I’m not taking a class, I can pay for studio time and just weave with people coming and going.”

It’s been a rollercoaster year for the gallery, Flaspohler said, going back to its temporary closure last fall before a donor stepped in. With the closure of Finlandia University in June, gallery staff are now employees of the Pasadena, California-based Finlandia Foundation. Through its “Saving Finland in America” project, the foundation stepped in to assume responsibility for the Finnish American Heritage Center and its cultural assets, including the gallery.

“We have a lot of faith in the foundation and the people behind the effort,” Flaspohler said. “They’re really talented, thoughtful people with vision. As a team, I think we feel very comforted that they’ve stepped in and are taking us forward … I feel so gratified and so happy that I can continue this journey of bringing art to our community from all around the world.”

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