Oral history interview with Dorothy Gill Barnes
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded 4 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 14 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 38 min.
name: label: Creator
content: Barnes, Dorothy Gill, 1927-
label: Interviewer
content: Cubbs, Joanne
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
label: Names
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
topic: label: Occupation
content: Basket makers -- Ohio
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Decorative arts
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: Creator
content: Barnes, Dorothy Gill, 1927-
label: Interviewer
content: Cubbs, Joanne
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Dorothy Gill Barnes (1927- ) is a basket maker of Worthington, Ohio. Joanne Cubbs (1955- ) is a writer and curator.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 67 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2003 May 2-7
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.barnes03
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript available on line.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Dorothy Gill Barnes conducted 2003 May 2-7, by Joanne Cubbs, for the Archives of American Art, at the artist's home, in Worthington, Ohio, as part of the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Barnes speaks of her childhood in Iowa; studying art at Coe College, Minneapolis School of Art, University of Iowa, and Cranbrook Academy of Art; her experiences teaching art in a junior high school, college, and at workshops; the role of her family in her artistic career; she describes shows in the 1970s that inspired her interest in basketry, including the Lausanne Biennale, the Miniature Textile Exhibition in London and "In Praise of Hands" at the Ontario Science Centre, Toronto, 1974; the benefits of craft schools in arts education; her travels in Australia, New Zealand, Spain, France, China, and Honduras; collaborations and apprenticeships; her involvement in "Weave a Real Peace," a community aspiring to "improve the world through textiles"; women and ethnicity as inspiration; her reverence for nature and her knowledge and respect for trees; her working environment in her studio and in the woods; the elements of play and experimentation in her work; her use of dendroglyphs; the role of universities in the craft movement; critiques from various audiences and in periodicals; the value of a photo archive; she explains how the material and traditions in basketry influence her art; the difficulty and beauty of working with organic materials; the evolution of her work; her exhibition history; her political and social activities; her involvement in national and local organizations; the importance of timing as part of her artistic process; her use of power tools and collaborators; and she concludes with a statement about the National Basketry Organization. She recalls John Schulze, Audrey Flack, Osma Gallinger Tod, Jane Sauer, Ed Rossbach, Pat Hickman, Lillian Elliot, David and Judy Drew, Jack Lenor Larsen, Jiro Yonezawa, Elsabe Dixon, and others.