Boston gallery president leaves for West Coast job

After 21 years as executive director at The Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston, Beth Ann Gerstein is leaving to become the executive director of the American Museum of Ceramic Art in California.

During her tenure, the gallery presented more than 90 exhibitions and 19 CraftBoston shows. Gerstein established the biannual SAC Artists Awards program, which has distributed nearly $100,000 so far and helped launch the annual $25,000 furniture fellowship with the John D. Mineck Foundation.

The society’s board of trustees appointed Nancy Galluzzo as the interim director and a search committee has been formed.

“The decision to leave SAC was one of the most difficult decisions, personally and professionally, that I have ever made,” Galluzzo said in a statement. It has been a great honor to lead the country’s oldest non-profit craft organization and to have the opportunity to work with an amazing board, tireless staff, supportive members and donors, dedicated volunteers and creative artists.”

ICFF draws well

The 26th annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair, held May 17-20 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, drew 629 exhibitors and 31,421 attendees, according to the producer.

The number of exhibitors represented an 18 percent increase over last year’s show. Attendance increased 6 percent.

“The leading North American venue for global design and luxury, the ICFF continues to expand markedly as European and other far-flung suppliers cross oceans and continents to connect with the fair’s still-growing audience of design professionals: the architects, interior designers, and developers who are at the forefront of the burgeoning U.S. market for design,” producer George Little Management said in a statement.

“Further confirming the ICFF’s position as the North American center of gravity for the global design trade were the 10 international contingents in attendance. The British European Design Group, which celebrated its 20th anniversary at the ICFF, continues to be one of the fair’s largest foreign exhibitors: more than 30 participating companies bulked up this year’s contingent. Yet another sign of the hot-as-a-pepper-pot international design market was the return of the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions, Design Philippines, after a 13-year absence, with a delegation of 15 companies, the Philippine furnishings industry made a substantial presence on the show floor. Also making forceful statements were contingents from the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, Brazilian Furniture, Ceramics of Italy, Furniture New York, The Furniture Society, Inside Norway, Interiors from Spain, Portugal Brands.”

Next year’s ICFF is scheduled for May 16-19.

New Hampshire exhibit

The New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association opened a new exhibition for its “Schools of Thought” series in June, which will be on view at the guild’s gallery in Concord, N.H., through Sept. 8.

“Schools of Thought II: East Coast Contemporaries,” is the second exhibition in the series, focusing on graduates of the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rhode Island School of Design and Boston University’s Program in Artisanry.

It includes work by NHFMA members Jon Brooks, Gail Fredell, Garrett Hack, David Lamb, David Leach and A. Thomas Walsh.

Contacts

International Contemporary Furniture Fair. www.icff.com

New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association, P.O. Box 5733, Manchester, NH 03108. Tel: 603-898-0242. www.furnituremasters.org

The Society of Arts and Crafts, 175 Newbury St., Boston, MA 02116. Tel: 617-266-1810. www.societyofcrafts.org

This article originally appeared in the July 2014 issue.