Rebecca Hutchinson

Rebecca Hutchinson, an assistant professor in UMass Dartmouth’s ceramics program, recently received the Society for Arts and Crafts (SAC) 2004 Artist Award, for excellence in crafts. The award recognizes artists’ mastery of their media and their creation of original and innovative work.

SAC is the oldest non-profit arts and crafts organization in the country, so I’m very much honored by this award, which is financial and also offers the opportunity to participate in an exhibition at the SAC’s Newbury Street gallery. 

Hutchinson’s exhibition, which she will create specifically for the SAC gallery, will run from July 31 to October 30.

Hutchinson joined the College of Visual and Performing Arts faculty just as the Star Store, the college’s downtown New Bedford campus (renovated from a well-known department store), was opening in 2001.

It was a wonderful time to join the faculty, and I wanted to be part of it. The Star Store is phenomenal in terms of its facilities and unique downtown setting. I like to boast that they’re among the best in country. We have beautiful studios for students.

My own teaching philosophy is to bring my enthusiasm about my materials and techniques, and the history of the medium, to the classroom. I’m interested in helping students find their own voices, find their own conceptual footing and develop maturity. I want to nurture those voices and mentor the students’ use of the materials, to help them become strong visual artists.

At the undergraduate level, our program is unique because the curriculum is so vast. Our ceramics majors are getting a background that includes both introductory and advanced courses in hand building and throwing on the wheel,  as well as the history of ceramics and the technical support classes that they will need: clay formulation, glaze formulation, kiln building, mold making.

One of the classes I teach is the history of ceramics, in which students learn about objects made throughout the world, from pre-historic to contemporary times, as well as about the processes and the materials that were used to create these objects. This is an opportunity for the students to see what they respond to, and to create some reference points that they can go back to, as they gain confidence in their own work.

It’s very interesting to see that some of the post-baccalaureate special students who come to us from other undergraduate ceramics programs have never taken a course in ceramics history or have never learned how to formulate their own clay. So we know that our undergraduate students are very well-prepared. They are leaving the program incredibly equipped with knowledge, and go on to graduate programs, to teach at the secondary or elementary school levels, or to do their own studio work.

Hutchinson explained that the special students program “is a year of post-baccalaureate study before students apply to a graduate program that will launch them in a professional direction.”

The special students program is nationally known, and is very competitive. In the time I’ve been here, it’s grown from two or three students each year to four or five. We’ve had a 100 per cent placement rate to graduate school with these students.

We also have a very strong graduate program, in which we accept an average of three to four students each year for a total of ten students. Although our undergraduates tend to come primarily from the New England area, our graduate students come from all over the world.

Graduate students in ceramics may apply for graduate assistantships in three areas: as a teacher to entry-level students, as a technical assistant in the kiln room, or as a community outreach assistant. Hutchinson initiated the community outreach assistantship to encourage students “to use and develop their skills to get art out into the community by planning programs of mutual benefit to students and the community.”

Projects have included the mounting of student exhibitions in vacant buildings in New Bedford, scheduling concerts and exhibits in public spaces, and setting up a retail gallery for student work. A forthcoming project will utilize the top deck of a downtown parking garage for an open air exhibit.

Hutchinson describes herself as “an installation artist, who uses the whole dynamic of a space (such as a gallery or a museum) to create an environment that the viewer moves into and passes through.”

 I don’t quite fit into the traditional mold of the ceramic artist, but this is my personal voice, what I care about. (Visit Hutchinson's web site here.)

Using natural materials dipped in clay, I make installations of multiple parts that are attached to the ceiling, floor and walls, to create an environment for a specific place. I’m always aware of how I’m creating a space for the viewer to walk into, building beautifully and powerfully to have the viewer reflect on the dynamics of that space, to stop, rest, and reconsider.

My installation work is influenced by developmental theory and ecosystem research, with specific reference to the nesting and colonization habits of insects and birds. My great love is to look at the environment at different levels, to look at various species, including our own, to see how they use space. How does a spider use space? How does a hummingbird? Or an osprey? How does the animal build a structure that’s protective? How does it use the dynamics of the space?

Because of the size and site-specific nature of Hutchinson’s work, her installations are typically commissioned for museums and galleries. A recent exhibition was at Miami’s Lowe Museum in fall 2003, and Hutchinson has exhibited at many other museums and galleries throughout the U.S. as well as in Canada and Costa Rica.

Hutchinson holds a BA in Ceramics from Berea College and received her MFA from the University of Georgia.

 

 Last Updated On: 11/7/05