Oral history interview with Flora Mace
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 3 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hrs., 25 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Mace, Flora, 1949-
label: Interviewer
content: Herman, Lloyd E.
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
label: Names
content: 4-H Youth Development Program (U.S.)
label: Names
content: Contemporary Glass Gallery
label: Names
content: International Farm Youth Exchange
label: Names
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
label: Names
content: Pilchuck Glass Center (Stanwood, Wash.)
label: Names
content: Plymouth State College -- Students
label: Names
content: University of Illinois. -- Student
label: Names
content: University of Utah
label: Names
content: Wheaton Glass Village
label: Names
content: Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976
label: Names
content: Chihuly, Dale, 1941-
label: Names
content: Handler, Audrey
label: Names
content: Kirkpatrick, Joey
label: Names
content: Moore, Ben
label: Names
content: Morris, William, 1957-
label: Names
content: Stankard, Paul, 1943-
label: Names
content: Wheaton, Frank
label: Names
content: Wheaton, Mary
place: label: Place
content: Norway -- description and travel
topic: label: Topic
content: Decorative arts
label: Topic
content: Depression in women
label: Topic
content: Glass artists -- Washington (State) -- Seattle -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Women artists
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Mace, Flora, 1949-
label: Interviewer
content: Herman, Lloyd E.
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Flora Mace (1949- ) is a glass artist from Seattle, Washington. Lloyd E. Herman (1936- ) is a curator and former director of the Smithsonian's American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery and currently lives in Seattle, Washington.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 3 Items (sound discs (3 hrs., 25 min.) Audio, digital)
label: Extent
content: 58 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2005 August 17-18
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.mace05a
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Flora Mace conducted 2005 August 17-18, by Lloyd E. Herman, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at the artist's home and studio, which she shares with Joey Kirkpatrick, in Seattle, Washington.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Ms. Mace discusses growing up in New Hampshire, in a house that her family had lived in for generations; various family businesses, including clam-shucking; how her mother suffered from depression throughout her childhood; her grandparents, who played a large role in her upbringing; joining the 4-H and becoming a skilled shepherd; her family's hunting, fishing, and gathering, on which they survived during her childhood; the various art projects she did with her mother and grandmother, including making wreaths for friends and relatives; building tree houses out of scrap wood; trapping animals and making their pelts into clothes for her dolls; saving up her money from after school jobs and the 4-H competitions to buy tools; getting a scholarship from her grandmother's old employer to go to college; attending Plymouth State; her involvement in college athletics, including field hockey, skiing, and softball; early artistic influences, especially Alexander Calder; traveling to Norway on the International Farm Youth Exchange; attending the University of Illinois for graduate school and being their sculpture technician; attending a summer workshop at the University of Utah with Dale Chihuly; being invited by Chihuly to go to Pilchuck Glass School to continue her work; becoming an artist-in-residence at Wheaton Glass Village; having her first show at the Contemporary Glass Gallery (later the Heller Gallery) in New York; the growth of the studio glass movement in the late 1970s; and finally going to Pilchuck Glass School for the first time in 1979, where she met Joey Kirkpatrick. The continuation of Mace's story, and her lifelong collaboration with Kirkpatrick, is discussed in a joint interview of Kirkpatrick and Mace. Mace also recalls Bill Morris, Ben Moore, Audrey Handler, Paul Stankard, Mary and Frank Wheaton, and others.