Striking sparks for creativity: Icelanders at Haystack

Scandinavian Review, Spring 1998 by Kyle, Roberta Olsen

It was a very exciting moment for the Icelandic crafts community," observed the art historian Adalsteinn Ingolfsson, one of Iceland's foremost writers and lecturers on the visual arts and crafts. The moment in question was the 1985 exposition of American crafts in Reykjavik, which provided the impetus-as well as the funding-for two Icelandic craftspeople to participate annually in the acclaimed Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine.

Adalsteinn spoke between sips of strong coffee as we sat at a table in the Sigurjon Olafsson Museum, where he is currently at work on a monograph on this little-known but exceptional sculptor. A low slung Icelandic sky and magnificent view intruded pleasantly on our conversation, through king-sized picture windows. Adalsteinn recalled:

We wanted to facilitate a meeting of Scandinavian and American craft traditions, perhaps even to strike sparks in the process. I hoped such an interchange would channel back new ideas to the Icelandic crafts community, because we are always in need of new stimuli from abroad.

The 1985 exhibition was the brainstorm of Pamela Sanders Brement, wife of the then American ambassador to Iceland, Marshall Brement. Impressed by the originality, vitality and lengthy tradition of crafts in Iceland, she looked for a way to bring together American and Icelandic practitioners. The 1985 exhibition was her solution. Working with people like Adalsteinn on the Icelandic side, and with The American-Scandinavian Foundation in the United States, Pamela invited the best American craftspeople to send works for display. When these were later sold, the proceeds were donated to form the nucleus of a scholarship fund to send two Icelanders to Maine's Haystack Mountain School for Crafts every summer. Since that time 24 talented people have been able to spend a few intensive weeks in this remarkable American crafts community.

Then as now, the participants were selected in Iceland by a committee of three, including the Head of the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts, an Icelandic artist, and the art historian, Adalsteinn Ingolfsson, who has served on the selection committee ever since. On the American side, the ASF's Icelandic Crafts Fund was (and still is) administered through the Foundation's Fellowships & Grants Program.

After twelve years, it can safely be said that the Haystack experience has been an unqualified success both for Icelanders and Americans. For starters, Haystack is a unique place: a cross between a school, a resort, and an artistic retreat. The physical plant is an award winning architectural complex, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes and set on 40 wooded acres on a scenic island in Maine. Founded in 1950 as a research and studio program, Haystack currently defines its mission as providing a place " to investigate craft and art in an aesthetic climate that honors tradition while it acknowledges the rich potential of contemporary visual art."

Invaluable Encounters

People come to Haystack for the summer months for a variety of reasons: to develop skills, nurture the creative spirit, reassess work, or simply to explore their own inner worlds of aestheticism in a supportive atmosphere. Their skill and experience levels range from talented amateur to skilled professional. From June through August Haystack runs five sessions of two week courses and one session of three week courses. Each session offers a range of crafts simultaneously: blacksmithing, basketry, printmaking, glassblowing, metalworking, woodworking, fiber, and ceramics. Most courses are limited to ten participants but the clay facility admits 18-20. Courses are taught by an international faculty and meet daily for several demanding hours. Studios remain open day and night. The atmosphere of intense concentration is relieved only by pleasant mealtimes in the spare, handsome dining room. Studio parties, clambakes and occasional outings lend an air of festivity.

What has the active involvement of Icelandic craftspeople contributed to Haystack? The craft school's director, Stuart Kestenbaum, told me: "We've always been impressed by the high quality of the Icelanders' work. Their scholarship program is so well organized that we have used it as a model for other such programs we've developed both here and abroad." From Kestenbaum's vantage point, the Icelanders add an invaluable element to both the cultural and artistic mix, something very important to Haystack's mission of creative cross-fertilization. He added:

Not only do we want potters to exchange ideas and techniques with iron-workers and weavers, but we also feel that the exchange of cultural perspectives is a key to the creative process here. The Icelanders, who have such a strong cultural identity and who speak English so well, seem particularly adept at bringing their perspective to us both in life and in work.

Strong Endorsements

As for the craftspeople themselves, a recent trip to Iceland gave me a chance to find out how three early recipients of the scholarship felt about Haystack in retrospect. Although their disciplines were different, their impressions were remarkably similar. Besides enjoying the experience, they all felt it had some definite benefit to their creative work.