Back in 1951, a group of artists and jewelry makers who essentially
came out of the Arts and Crafts movement sat down and decided to
form a guild, and thus was born The Metal Arts Guild. Some of those
people, and many of the members in later years, were either quite
famous or became quite famous.
Well known, at any rate. Last night was the opening of a week long
celebration of 60 years of existence, with as many of the past
presidents and other folks who’ve helped over the years as could be
gotten together.
Jo-Ann was president for 2 years and on the board for 20+ years. Our
friend merry renk (sic) was there, a little battered from a dancing
accident last weekend - she just turned 90 and still acts like she’s
20. It was good to see Jim Binnion there, and many others.
Today MAG, as it’s called, is a resource for anybody and everybody
interested in working in metal, jewelry or not. It is especially
useful for younger people who want to widen their horizons, meet new
people and learn new things. It has meetings, events, lectures,
shows and sometimes just plain fun. Last night was announced the
launch of it’s new website, which largely led me to write this
posting. There is much there, though there’s more work to be done
too. One thing that struck me was the greatly expanded resources
page, with links to various things, but especially guilds.
There are a good hundred contacts for guilds, schools and other in
the US and Canada. (Anybody involved reading - emails would be good).
I’ll just bet there’s something near you… Check it out:
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/1dq