Peter Dormer Lecture 2024. Helen Drutt: A Passionate Observer

Helen Drutt will take us on a visual journey documenting international exhibitions in the field (1968-2024) which began to flourish after an initial meeting with Graham Hughes in Dublin. There will be a glimpse into the role Peter Dormer played in encouraging Helen's deep commitment to the crafts after they met in Oslo. From the Wendy Ramshaw/David Watkins exhibition which introduced them to America (1973), Ruth Duckworth/Claire Zeisler (1979), the seminal Robert Arneson: Self Portraits (1979) and Poetics of Clay: An International Perspective (2001-2003), to exhibitions at The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia (2014); Beauty and the Unexpected at the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden (2023-2025); and concurrently Bracelets, Bangles and Cuffs: 1948-2024 at the Metal Museum, Memphis, Tennessee, USA will be explored. Like Bernard Berenson Helen's greatest greed is seeing—observing—and bringing those works “captured” into the public forum.

Date: Monday 7th October - 6:30pm

 
Speaker Biography
Helen W. Drutt English (Helen Drutt) was Executive Director and a founding member of the Philadelphia Council of Professional Craftsmen (P.C.P.C., 1967-1974) and the Founder/Director of her eponymous gallery in Philadelphia (1973–2002), which was among the first galleries in the United States to make a commitment to the modern and contemporary craft movement. In 1973, she developed the first syllabus for a college-level course in the history of the field.
 
Drutt holds Honorary Doctorate of Arts degrees from three universities. She has lectured internationally and developed major exhibitions in the field of craft. Dedicated to bringing American craft abroad, Drutt curated Gifts from America, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (2014), Beauty and the Unexpected, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden (2023-2025), and most recently Bracelets, Bangles & Cuffs: 1948-2024, Metal Museum, Memphis, TN, USA.
 
She is a former trustee of the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. (2010-2021) and a current trustee of the Bard Graduate Center, New York; She served on the American Board, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Indian and Himalayan Art Committee, Philadelphia Museum of Art (1996-2019); the American Board of Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum in Athens, Greece; and has served on the Peter Dormer Lecture Committee, London, England, since its conception. In 2021, she was appointed as an Associate of the Goldsmiths’ Company, London. Her extensive library is held as a vital resource and frequently used by scholars.


The Peter Dormer Lecture is the UK’s major annual applied arts lecture, held in memory of Peter Dormer, the writer and critic who died in 1996. Organised by a committee of his friends, colleagues, and specialists in the disciplines of applied art, the lecture aims to continue the debate about applied art and society that was central to Dormer’s concerns. Peter Dormer’s writings embraced art, architecture, design, technology and education; and his critical and curatorial work helped to promote the crafts into the free-flowing currents of postmodern visual culture. This connectivity is something these lectures celebrate and promote – previous speakers have embraced architecture, ceramics and modernism, the implications of digital technology, craft history and criticism, and design innovation. Previous speakers have included the artists Edmund de Waal, Grayson Perry and Richard Wentworth, the inventor Saul Griffith and the writers and theorists Rosemary Hill, Julia Bryan Wilson, Malcolm MacCullough, Deirdre figueiredo MBE, Mònica Gaspar, Dr Gus Casely-Hayford OBE, and Glenn Adamson.