Pilchuck’s outgoing artistic director Ruth King printing with native elderberry ink in 2011.
Ruth King has announced her plans to step down as the artistic director of the Pilchuck Glass School, a position she has held since January 2007. (From 2004 – 2007, King was co-artistic director, working with her immediate predecessor in the position, Pike Powers.) King says that she made an initial 5-year commitment to then-executive director Patricia Watkinson, after which she planned to return to her full-time studio practice. In an email exchange with the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet, King cited Watkinson’s resignation from Pilchuck in 2008, as well as her own desire to provide some continuity during the search for a new executive director, for her decision to postpone her move back to her studio practice. With her resignation effective in early February 2013, King will step aside as Tina Auferio comes on as interim artistic director while Pilchuck undertakes a search for a permanent replacement.
Though King didn’t plan on staying on at Pilchuck as long as she has, she feels it was the best for Pilchuck that she did. “It would have been difficult to do a search for both positions [executive and artistic directors] at one time,” says King. “I also was really enjoying the challenge of creating the summer programming and could see the potential for some ideas I had even before starting to work at Pilchuck.” The hiring of James Baker as executive director in 2010 took Pilchuck two years from Watkinson’s departure to complete. Now, with the new head of Pilchuck firmly established, King decided the time was right to move on. “ ... now that there is an ED in place, and I’ve been artistic director for 9 years, it is time for me to step down and get back to my studio,” she says.
Ruth King with Pilchuck artist-in-residence and designer Bruce Mao.
In a telephone interview with the Hot Sheet, Baker was effusive in his praise for the outgoing King, who he calls “a remarkably strong artistic director, particularly in terms of her vision of the program.”
“I’ve been there three years, and some of the things that stand out for me with Ruth’s programming is that she maintained a very high quality for Pilchuck,” says Baker. “She has both a deep respect for the history and the traditions of the medium at the same time as she is always looking ahead through her programing at what the trends and opportunities are for glass in the future.”
Asked what accomplishments made her the most proud of her tenure at Pilchuck, King cited innovative courses that pursued an interdisciplinary approach, such as “Glassimations,” a course with Lienors Torre combining glass and animation that was offered in 2011. Other highlights include the computer visualization for glassblowing course with Ken Rinaldo and Joe Cariati; public art and glass with Cork Marcheschi, Narcissus Quagliata and the upcoming course in Summer 2013 with Warren Langley, which King hopes will become a regular part of the summer program as more and more artists look for ways to earn a living being creative. King is also proud of Pilchuck’s pursuit of creative and energy-conscious practices with Eddie Bernard, which she calls “a direction Pilchuck has been consistently moving in for the past 5 years or so.”
After all of the focus on the history of Studio Glass during the 50th anniversary year, King is looking forward to this year’s courses which she designed to shift the gaze forward. “It will be on envisioning the future, or, to steal a phrase from a Stanford advert, ‘artists will use their imaginations to discover what’s next by being the ones to create it!.’” King’s 2013 schedule includes glassblowing, making art with recycled glass in the hot shop and the kiln shop and bringing those together, flameworking, and engraving.
Ruth King’s work entitled L-A-M-P was designed and created in 1988 using the blown glass alphabet she invented the first version of Mac Super 3D software. The piece won an honorable mention in ID Magazine’s awards issue.
Asked about the job search, Baker said that Pilchuck will launch a fully open international search for a replacement. The title of the position will change to “artistic and campus director” because Baker believes that the educational program “leads every aspect of the institution.” He would like the new permanent hire to help define and steer Pilchuck into the 21st century. “Pilchuck is a living organism, and not a monument,” says Baker.
In her final weeks as artistic director, King is already putting her time at Pilchuck into perspective. “Channeling my own creativity into programs at Pilchuck has been extremely rewarding,” she says. “How many artists get the opportunity to make things happen on such a broad scale, involving so many people and processes? This will feed my studio practice for a long time when I think about the artists with whom I’ve had the opportunity to work, and the ideas to which I’ve been exposed.” She credits members of Pilchuck’s Artistic Program Advisory Council (APAC) such as Michael Fox, Charlie Parriott and Preston Singletary for helping to identify up-and-coming artists such as Rashaad Newsome, Tavares Strachan, and established designers and artists such as Isabel and Ruben Toledo, Eric Fischl (this coming summer) and especially Bruce Mau. Mau’s 2011 residency led to Pilchuck working with the designer on the launch of an evolving concept of “24 Hours to Massive Change,” which sought to build on the story of the start up of Pilchuck in 1971 as a model for how to manifest his program and ideas for the future. That program was eventually cancelled.
“I still regret that it did not work out in the end,” says King. “But it is an example of how I was always looking for ways to engage the artists in residence in Pilchuck after working with them as artists in residence.” King takes particular satisfaction in Pilchuck being rewarded with its largest National Endowment of the Arts grant to date in 2012, which she sees as a stamp of approval for the artists she helped bring to the school.
King’s immediate plans are to shift her focus to her own studio on Whidbey Island, where she plans to set up a drawing studio, some metalworking and some warm and cold glass equipment. “I have several options for using the hot glass studios of friends out here so I don’t want to build a blowing studio,” she says. Building on her work moving Pilchuck into the digital age, King is looking into computer imaging, as well as drawing, printing, and 2D modes of working with light.
“I’ll just see where that goes,” says King. “I’ll be doing some traveling, first to visit family in Illinois, then to Mexico to visit Paul Marioni in Guanajuato in February, and then I’m going to work on planning a lecture tour around the U.S., a tour of Europe including a residency at S12 in Bergen, Norway. “I’m hoping to do some lecturing and possible demonstrating and working with students to help fund the trip,” she adds. “I’d like to get back to Japan and Australia as well. I’ve had some amazing experiences in those countries and there are some special people with whom I want to reconnect.
King’s longterm goal is to develop a a consulting practice that builds on her experience with program and curriculum development, education, and artist practices. “I won’t rush headlong into this idea at first, as I said, the studio practice is the most important focus for me now,” says King. “But if there is anyone out there who needs my expertise, I’m available!”