Archives of American Art

Oral history interview with Rosanne Somerson

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.somers06
Creators:
Somerson, Rosanne, 1954-
Michie, Thomas S.
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
Dates:
2006 August 7 and 2007 June 22
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
61 Pages
Transcripts
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
An interview of Rosanne Somerson conducted 2006 August 7-2007 June 22, by Thomas Michie, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, Rhode Island. In part one of this interview, Somerson speaks of growing up outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; attending RISD beginning in 1971; being asked to teach there nine years later; creating a new department of furniture design; tailoring that furniture design program to encompass the development from design to manufacture; introducing materials other than wood into the program; garnering international attention through worldwide exhibits; her first show at the Richard Kagan Gallery in Philadelphia; participating in a group show in New York City for female woodworkers; making connections through the Snyderman Gallery and Pritam and Eames Gallery; working directly with clients on commissioned pieces; the financial stability of teaching; designing a piece for the headquarters of Khon, Peterson Fox, and Conway in New York; the sculptural elements present in many of her works; moving from a small studio in Boston, Massachusetts, to a larger studio in Westport, Connecticut, and finally to a shared studio in Fall River, Massachusetts; the supportive and proud reaction of her children to her work; creating a production company with colleagues and designing furniture for the RISD dormitories; attempting to make these designs both flexible and environmentally-friendly; putting aside teaching for an administrative position in the department; recent travel to Japan, Australia, England, Israel, and France; enrolling in summer programs with art schools like Haystack Mountain School of Craft in Maine and others; and excitement for her upcoming sabbatical.
Scope and Contents
In the second portion of the interview, she discusses living in a house built by her father in Wyncote, Pennsylvania; enjoying the location of the house on a former cherry orchard and consequently being drawn cherry wood as a medium; the feeling of her parents that anything could be accomplished with a certain amount of study; her mother's interest in weaving and spinning later in life; the creative pursuits of her older brothers, including creative writing and photography; verbally communicating the outside world to her blind grandfather and gaining an aptitude for interpreting visual imagery; being more academically than artistically focused in her youth; visiting art museums and having other cultural experiences with her family; being fascinated with photography by seeing her brother's work; deciding to put off college in order to spend a year in Denmark studying photography; enrolling in RISD and feeling overwhelmed at first by her inexperience; taking a winter course in wood-working and preferring it to photography; being advised by her teacher Tage Frid to gain a wood-working education by pursuing sculpture at RISD; transferring into industrial design later; learning a great deal from and being extraordinarily influenced by Tage Frid as a furniture designer and teacher; taking a semester off to attend Peters Valley Craftsmen in New Jersey; spending a few years after graduation assisting Frid with the writing and publication of his articles; working as an assistant editor for Fine Woodworking magazine; being offered a job at RISD in the furniture department; creating the furniture design program; using RISD's collection as inspiration for her work and as a teaching tool; moving towards using more local woods in her designs; her recent lecture and travel in China; and looking forward to focusing on her work in the new studio.
Scope and Contents
Somerson recalls John Dunnigan, Dick Kagan, Ned Cooke, Jonathan Fairbanks, Wendy Maruyama, James Krenov, Dan Jackson, Jere Osgood, Alphonse Mattia, Peter Joseph, Ron Abramson, Charlie Swanson, Eck Follen, Peter Walker, and others. In the second part, Somerson recalls Merlin Szasz, LeRoy White, Hardu Keck, Gracia Melanson, Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, Paul Crot, Paul Capanigro, Tage Frid, Hans Wolfe, Mark Sfirri, and others.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Rosanne Somerson (1954- ) is a professor of furniture design and furniture designer and maker in Westport, Massachusetts. Thomas Michie is a curator of decorative arts, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California.

Administration

Sponsor
Funding for this interview was provided by the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.

Digital Content


More Information

General

General
Originally recorded on 5 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 3 min.


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Fine woodworking Title Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Decorative arts Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Educators -- Rhode Island -- Interviews Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Photography Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women artists Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sound recordings Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Furniture designers -- Rhode Island Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Artists' studios Function Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women designers Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women educators Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Furniture design Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Abramson, Ron Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Callahan, Harry M. Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Capanigro, Paul Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Cooke, Ned Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Dunnigan, John, 1950- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Fairbanks, Jonathan L. Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Follen, Eck Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Frid, Tage Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Jackson, Dan Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Joseph, Peter T. (Peter Thomas), 1950-1998 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Kagan, Richard Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Keck, Hardu Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Kranov, James Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Maruyama, Wendy, 1952- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Mattia, Alphonse Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Melanson, Gracie Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Osgood, Jere, 1936- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sfirri, Mark Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Siskind, Aaron Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Swanson, Charlie Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Szasz, Merlin Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
White, Leroy Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Wolf, Hans Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Peters Valley (Craft center) Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Rhode Island School of Design -- Faculty Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Rhode Island School of Design -- Students Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Richard Kagan Gallery Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Snyderman Gallery Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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