Oral history interview with Kurt Weiser
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 3 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 17 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Weiser, Kurt D., 1950-
label: Interviewer
content: Held, Peter, 1951-
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
label: Names
content: Archie Bray Foundation
label: Names
content: Interlochen Arts Academy (Interlochen, Mich.) -- Students
label: Names
content: Kansas City Art Institute
label: Names
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
label: Names
content: Babu, Victor, 1936-
label: Names
content: Coleman, Thomas, 1945-
label: Names
content: Hensley, Rick
label: Names
content: Labow, Ed
label: Names
content: Rice, Jackie
label: Names
content: Stevenson, John
topic: label: Topic
content: Decorative arts
label: Topic
content: Ceramics
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: Weiser, Kurt D., 1950-
label: Interviewer
content: Held, Peter, 1951-
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Kurt Weiser (1950- ) is an artist and educator from Tempe, Arizona. Peter Held (1951- ) is a curator from Chandler, Arizona.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 47 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2006 May 22
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.weiser06
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Kurt Weiser conducted 2006 May 22, by Peter Held, 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 Tempe, Arizona.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Weiser speaks of growing up in East Lansing, Michigan, near the Kresge Art Center at Michigan State University; his mother's encouragement of his interest in the arts; dropping out of high school in the ninth grade and working odd jobs until enrolling at Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan; teaching himself firing techniques with Hal Reigger's book, "Primitive Pottery"; his relationship with his first ceramics teacher, Jean Parsons; and going to Kansas City Art Institute and meeting Ken Ferguson.
label: Scope and Contents
content: He discusses teaching in Portland after undergraduate school, first in the city at Portland Museum Art School, then in Marlyhurst; his studio at Hillside Center; selling pottery at the Ann Arbor Street Fair; attending graduate school at the University of Michigan and earning his M.F.A.; meeting Akio Takamori on a visit back to Kansas City Art Institute; his first experience at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Mont.; and inviting international residents such as Suwanee Natewong to teach at the Bray.
label: Scope and Contents
content: He also covers his travels to Japan and Thailand; the drawings and sketches he did while abroad, and how these drawings inspired his black and white graffito-style pottery; his interests of natural and psychological subject matter; his use of color and inspirational artists such as Maxfield Parrish and Henri Rousseau; his methods for creating imagery; his teaching position at Arizona State University in Tempe; his opinions about the roles of the universities in art education, and of craft periodicals such as American Craft; his time at Guldagergard in Skaelskor, Denmark; and his involvement with National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Weiser also recalls Victor Babu, Rick Hensley, Tom Coleman, Jackie Rice, John Stevenson, Ed Labow, and others.