Oral history interview with Howard Ben Tré
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded 3 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 3 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Ben Tré, Howard, 1949-2020
label: Interviewer
content: Shea, Josephine, 1958-
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
label: Names
content: Appalachian Center for Craft
label: Names
content: Brooklyn College -- Students
label: Names
content: Brooklyn Technical High School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: Cristallerie Daum
label: Names
content: Hadler/Rodriguez Gallery
label: Names
content: Haystack Mountain School of Crafts -- Faculty
label: Names
content: Missouri Valley College -- Students
label: Names
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
label: Names
content: Pilchuck School
label: Names
content: Portland State University -- Students
label: Names
content: Rhode Island School of Design -- Students
label: Names
content: Venceremos Brigade
label: Names
content: Aycock, Alice
label: Names
content: Brychtová, Jaroslava, 1924-
label: Names
content: Chihuly, Dale, 1941-
label: Names
content: Dailey, Dan, 1947-
label: Names
content: Hampson, Ferdinand
label: Names
content: LaMonte, Karen, 1967-
label: Names
content: Labino, Dominick
label: Names
content: Libenský, Stanislav, 1921-2002
label: Names
content: Littleton, Harvey K.
label: Names
content: Onorato, Ronald J.
label: Names
content: Parker, Anthony
label: Names
content: Polander, Steve
label: Names
content: Scanga, Italo, 1932-2001
place: label: Place
content: Cuba -- Description and Travel
label: Place
content: Europe -- description and travel
topic: label: Occupation
content: Glass artists
label: Topic
content: Art commissions
label: Topic
content: Civil rights -- United States
label: Topic
content: Decorative arts
label: Topic
content: Peace movements
label: Topic
content: Glass art
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: Ben Tré, Howard, 1949-2020
label: Interviewer
content: Shea, Josephine, 1958-
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Howard Ben Tré (1949- 2020) was a glass artist from Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Josephine Shea is a curator from Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 63 Pages (Transcript)
label: Extent
content: 3 Sound discs (Sound recording (4 hr., 3 min.), digital, 2 5/8 in.)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2007 July 7
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.bentre07
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound discs
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Howard Ben Tré conducted 2007 July 7, by Josephine Shea, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at the artist's studio, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Ben Tré speaks of his childhood in Rockaway Park, New York; his Polish immigrant father who was a woodworker and artist; inheriting a particular aesthetic and sense of hard work from his father; attending Brooklyn Technical High School to play football but not graduating; moving to Marshall, Missouri to attend Missouri Valley College for one year; attending Brooklyn College; becoming involved in Students for a Democratic Society, the antiwar movement and civil rights movement of the 1960s; traveling to Cuba as part of the first Venceremos Brigade to cut sugarcane in 1969; meeting his first wife, Gay, in Cuba and returning to New York with her; organizing a food co-op and community events in Brooklyn; moving to Portland, Oregon; working in construction for the city before going back to school to study veterinarian medicine at Portland State University; discovering the glass studio in a garage at Portland State; meeting Dale Chihuly and working at Pilchuck Glass School; utilizing the foundry skills learned from Brooklyn Technical High to work with glass in casting and cope and drag methods; his series Burial Boxes and the influence of ancient architecture and ceremonial Chinese bronzes; the rise of the studio glass movement as symptomatic of socio-political-economic times, not just the pioneering efforts of Harvey Littleton and Dominic Labino; traveling throughout Europe with Gay; visiting Stanislav Libenský and Jaraslava Brychtová in Czechoslovakia; visiting Dan Dailey at Cristallerie Daum in France; attending Rhode Island School of Design [RISD]; his first show at Hadler/Rodriguez Gallery in 1980; teaching experiences at Haystack Mountain School of Craft and Appalachian Center for Craft; building and installing an oven at Blenko Glass in Milton, West Virginia and at Super Glass in Brooklyn; working with Mold Melted Glass Studio in Pelechov, Czech Republic; the history of glass and early glass-working techniques; his many commissions, including sited public projects such as Post Office Square in Boston; the adoption of his name, Ben Tré; return visits to Cuba; working with RISD to create a winter study session in Havana; and his view of artists as artists, not defined by medium. Ben Tré also recalls Anthony Parker, Italo Scanga, Ron Onorato, Alice Aycock, Ferdinand Hampson, Steven Polander, Karen LaMonte, among others.