View Larger Image Dinner set, slip-cast red stoneware, $149 per five-piece set, by 2007 DinnerWorks artist Paul Eshelman, Elizabeth, Illinois.

April 6, 2007

DinnerWorks: A Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration

by Ceramic Arts Daily | Read Comments (1)

“DinnerWorks,” the Louisville Visual Art Association’s annual exhibition of original, handmade dinnerware and designer-decorated tables, is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year. The exhibition was founded with the goal of attracting a broad audience to functional ceramics and to encourage people to think creatively about the things they use in their daily lives.

“Most people, at sometime in their lives, invest in a set of dishes,” said Kay Grubola, artistic director of the Louisville Visual Arts Association, DinnerWorks founder and curator of DinnerWorks 2007.

“They are a most practical household object and, because they are an item of daily use, some thought should be spent on their selection. The preparation of food for others is so basic, so instinctual, that using something artist-made enhances the experience. I love handmade dishes. I love their tactile qualities. I love that when I hold a hand-thrown mug or bowl I feel the artists’ hand lingering in the form. They fi t my grasp better than any manufactured mold, and the humanness I feel as I prepare food is both comforting and physically more comfortable.”

The concept of DinnerWorks was to create an exhibition that would present some of the best functional ceramics being made in a format that would attract an audience of, not only the existing ceramics enthusiasts, but also a broad spectrum of the public. By presenting the work in designed table “vignettes,” inspired by the place settings, many people would come to see the table designs to get ideas for entertaining, and in the process would develop a better appreciation of handmade dinnerware.

Each year in November, the fifteen designated DinnerWorks designers meet to choose the individual sets of dinnerware around which they will design their tables. Designers pull a number out of a hat to determine the order in which they get to choose. Once the dinnerware is chosen, the designers get to work pulling together all the elements that will make up their table designs for the exhibition. The format has been a success and, over the years, a number of

related events have developed. First and foremost though, DinnerWorks is an exhibition. Artists from all over the world have shown at DinnerWorks and it continues to be a showcase for the best functional pottery. It is an enormous asset to the Louisville Visual Art Association, clay artists and designers, as well as the Louisville cultural community.

The first DinnerWorks was a one week exhibition. The gala was Saturday night; Sunday through the following Friday the exhibition was open to the public and then it came down. This year, the exhibition will run for seven weeks and thousands of visitors will attend four events and open visitation times. Each event is aimed at a different audience. The black-tie gala is attended by many serious collectors and the Louisville art elite. “[The artists/designers] create

vignettes that do so much more than simply showcase the dishes, said Grubola. The gala is fifteen separate dinner parties going on at the same time, each influenced by the ambience of the table at which the party is seated.”

The After-DinnerWorks cocktail party is a young and hip group. The tea has become a wonderful introduction to proper etiquette for many little girls and is also a fun outing for girlfriends and couples. Finally, the luncheon is, for many, a break in a busy day or a way to entertain business associates.

Over the years, many celebrated chefs have cooked for the DinnerWorks Gala. Eddie Garber, owner/chef of the famous 610 Magnolia, was the first to cook for the gala, creating a buffet dinner of Paella. Each guest took their beautiful, handmade plate and went to an elaborate buffet table. Knowing the importance of the presentation of the food at this first event, the buffet table was lavishly decorated with whole lobsters, crabs, shells, fruits and vegetables by Garber,

who was a wonderful supporter of the arts and a great friend to the Louisville Visual Arts Association. He actually flew in from Paris to cook for the party that first night and then flew back to Paris the next day. By the next year, dinner had become a formal sit-down affair, and the event has continued to attract the best artists, designers and chefs throughout the years.

The perfect creative collaboration of art, design and fine dining, to quote Diane Heilenman, Visual Arts writer for the Courier-Journal, DinnerWorks “has set the bar for craft as form and function.… Each year we wonder aloud if this DinnerWorks should be our last, for surely the artists and designers could never top this year…and then, come next year, they do.”