For North Bennet Street:
A Benefit Exhibition of Studio Furniture
in Honor of the 125th Anniversary of the North Bennet Street School

March 5 – 27 at Gallery NAGA

In March Gallery NAGA presents a most ambitious benefit exhibition, For North Bennet Street.  The occasion is the 125th anniversary of the North Bennet Street School, founded in 1885 in Boston’s North End to teach crafts – bookbinding, locksmithing, cabinetry, the making of musical instruments.  The school is now directed by a respected furniture maker, Miguel Gomez-Ibanez.  Twenty-seven of his peers from New England and throughout the country, including many of the most storied names in the field of studio furniture, are joining him in offering works on grandly generous terms – 50% of their selling prices will be donated to the school.

Among the most prominent makers exhibiting are Garry Knox Bennett, Judy Kensley McKie, Jere Osgood, and Rosanne Somerson, who heads the furniture program at the Rhode Island School of Design and who has made for the show Small Table with Leaves.  Its sweet design plays against each other two joined leaf-shaped top surfaces, one a warm oak, the other a cool limestone.  Like many works in the show, the table is petite and, by the standards of the field of studio furniture, modestly priced at $2200.

Also presented are younger makers who will be new even to close followers of the field.  Ben Fleis of Ithaca, New York offers Scotch and a Cigar – Drinks Cabinet, whose pear and sycamore interior houses fine cigars and an excellent single malt.  Bart Niswonger of Worthington, Massachusetts presents his Green Cabinet, whose top and side panels are pale green cast urethane sculpted with deep, wave-shaped contours.

We asked North Bennet Street’s director a few questions about the school, the show, and his piece.

Gallery NAGA:  Many Boston organizations reach the age of 125.  Why is the North Bennet Street School’s 125th anniversary important?

Miguel-Gomez-Ibanez:  I think in the craft world it’s relatively unique.  In Boston in the late 19th century there was a very vibrant arts and crafts movement that spawned North Bennet Street and then the Society of Arts and Crafts.  While we may not have as long a history as other Boston groups, in the craft world it’s very long.

Q:  In addition to much of your furniture making time, what else did you have to redirect when you became North Bennet Street’s executive director?

A:  Nothing.  The job fit all of the accumulated experience I had from four different careers perfectly.

Q:  And those four were?

A:  In the Navy I was a carpenter in the Seabees.  After that I was a journalist, and then I was an architect, and then I was a furniture maker and also president of the Furniture Society. [A national organization of furniture makers]  I think all of these gave me what I’ve needed at North Bennet Street.

Q:  You’ve made a very handsome chest with walnut burl and purpleheart veneers.  What is the source of its design?

A:  The source is geometric Islamic pattern, most often found in ceramic tile work and dating to the 14th century.

Q:  Why?

A:  Because I spent a lot of time as a child in Spain, and I’ve been aware of the Moorish influence in art and loved it.  As a boy I was mesmerized by Moorish art.  And I use the word “mesmerized” because in Islamic art the human figure is not permitted, so one relies on intricacy and pattern to induce a state of trance-like reflection.

Q:  Why is the fraternity of studio furniture makers so closely knit?

A:  People enter the field without the expectation of terrific financial reward.  They enter the field because they love it.  So you’re in the company of people who love what they do.

Q:  How do you expect the North Bennet Street community to respond to this exhibition?

A:  I expect them to love the furniture and to be moved by the regard evidenced for the school.