It goes unsaid that for an artist, the Art is the thing.  Regardless of how a sculptor, a painter, or a potter chooses to live out a creative life, the art is always front and center.  Behind that choice, however, is the big job of making it work – the management of the arts.  The studio potter must find a market; the pottery school must recruit a student body; the gallery owner must balance the books.  Things generally move along smoothly with an occasional bump here and there, but late last September, unprecedented rainstorms and historic flooding collided head-on with the Art League of Long Island.  The organization’s management team launched into an emergency response that was buoyed by the artists and the wider community’s determination to keep the Art alive.

Florida-based Sculpture House is a business with a long history in the greater New York area that traces a century old history through the tutelage of two families.  By the end of this summer, Standard Ceramic’s Turnbull family will become the third line of craft-oriented businessmen to extend part of that tradition.  Standard will acquire the Ceramics Division of Sculpture House as Bruner Barrie, the company’s CEO, moves closer to a full retirement.