Email
PrintFresh Forms
About 40 percent of Western Design Conference artists are new to the show each year
Liz Kelly models clothing from Montana Dreamwear during the 2009 Western Design Conference. The 2010 jewelry and fashion show will be Thursday, Sept. 9 at 6 p.m. at the Center for the Arts.
As the Western Design Conference marks its 18th birthday and fourth year in Jackson this fall, it keeps young with a constant influx of new blood.
Just like last year, 40 percent of the 100-some artists accepted to conference’s Exhibition and Sale will be fresh faces.
“Each year I’m contacted by new artists that have never before shown at the conference,” says Allison Merritt, Western Design Conference event manager. “Some of these artists and designers are well known and others are up and coming; nonetheless I’m always impressed with the fresh ideas and design concepts presented.”
If last year is any indication, the new artists won’t just be bringing innovative ideas, but also taking several awards home. In 2009, the best artist in the fashion category as well as the honorable mention winners in four of the other five categories went to first timers.
“It’s been exciting to watch the quality of the pieces at this conference just get better and better,” said Danial S. MacPhail, who has been coming to the conference from his home and studio in Kentucky since 1995. “Every year as I’m driving out, I’m telling myself, ‘I’ve got it. I’m going to win.’ And then I get to the conference, see all of the fantastic work, both from the people who have been coming for years and artists who I’ve never seen before, and think that maybe the next year will be my year.”
Founded in Cody, the Western Design Conference moved to Jackson in 2007 after local publishing company Powder Mountain Press, LLC bought it. Long recognized by galleries, collectors, designers, and artists as the world’s pre-eminent show of functional Western design and art, the 2009 conference drew more than 3,000 attendees—the most ever—to its three days of events. One hundred nineteen artists were juried into the three-day main event, the Exhibition and Sale, in six categories: leather, metal, home accents, woodworking, jewelry, and fashion. The opening night’s Jewelry and Fashion Show Gala sold out.
Although “Western” is the first word in the conference’s name, works that appear go well beyond the traditional. Yes, there are cowboy boots, spurs, burled wood, and leather, but the leather is often in colors you’d never find in nature, the spurs might feature contemporary scrollwork, and the burled wood could be part of an Asian-inspired table. Influences range from Western to Adirondack, rustic, lodge, Asian, Southwestern, Hispanic, native American and modern.
“We take a very broad definition of what ‘Western’ means,” Merritt said. “For every piece you’d judge as traditionally Western, there is another that completely challenges your idea of the genre.”
More than 200 artists from across the country apply for the roughly 100 available spots. Last year’s winner in the fashion category (who also happened to be a first-time attendee), Machteld Schrameyer, was born in The Netherlands, started her label, IOTA, in New York City, and now lives in Kentucky. She works with lambskin and deerskin, but because she uses draping techniques developed for woven materials, her pieces are more cutting-edge than cowboy. Mori Furniture Design might be based in Colorado, but is inspired by the work of Japanese-American furniture designer George Nakashima.
One thing all of the pieces do have in common? They’re functional. “We don’t showcase pieces that are art purely for the sake of art,” Merritt says. “We look for artists creating pieces that are beautiful and artistic and also useful in your everyday life.”
Or at least for special occasions. We can’t imagine anyone using silversmith Susan Adams’ hammered silver pitcher, for which she won Best of Show at the 2008 conference, to pour water at the family dinner table.
“I was so incredibly impressed by the talent and creativity at the conference,” says saddle bronc rider and leather artist Ryder Gauteraux, who came to the conference for the first time last year. “Usually at a show there are one or two artists I think are good and whose work I admire,” he says, “But here everyone was good. What they did with pretty much everyday objects was incredible.”
This year’s Exhibition and Sale is set for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. September 10-12 at the Pavilion at Snow King Resort. Tickets cost $15. The Conference’s kick-off event, and one that is likely to sell out again this year, the Gala Fashion Show, starts at 6 p.m., September 9 at the Center for the Arts with a live model jewelry show and champagne reception. The fashion show itself starts at 7:15 and the gala reception at 8:30. Tickets start at $75. Earlier that same day, and free if you purchase a day pass for the Exhibition and Sale, is a
lecture series. It too is at the Center for the Arts. The three one-hour lectures, each accredited by the American Institute of Architects and the American Society of Interior Designers for continuing education credits, begin at noon.
For information, log onto www.westerndesignconference.com. Tickets for the gala fashion show can be purchased through the Center’s box office, 307-733-4900. Tickets for the Exhibition and Sale are available at the door.
