Past Exhibitions
August 07, 2009 - January 03, 2010
UK/OK: Exploring Traditions in Contemporary Design
Handmade craft has been around for generations but only recently has the question been asked, “When is craft elevated to high design?” UK/OK is an upcoming exhibition at Price Tower Arts Center, that will help you answer that question. UK/OK: Exploring Traditions in Contemporary Design, will be on display for the public from August 7, 2009 to January 3, 2010. This exhibition will be curated in house by Price Tower Arts Center curator Scott W. Perkins and will consist of over 75 objects that focus on the recent resurgence in handcrafted design.
Perkins, who is scholar in the history of decorative arts, design and culture, has served as the Price Tower Arts Center’s Curator of Collections and Exhibitions since January 2006. His exhibition credits include Karim Rashid (2006), a retrospective of this industrial designer’s work; Setting the Table: Designs in Mid-Century Dinnerware(2008); and Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things (2008), an exhibition of contemporary art and design created from unusual and often reused found objects.
“We hope to celebrate the ways in which, for instance, basketry techniques can be used to construct contemporary jewelry or the ways in which pottery can explore embroidery techniques. It is not our intent to place value judgments on the work, or position them into ‘UK versus OK’ comparisons, but rather to comment on similarities between the two regions and the training, materials, and cultural identifiers of each,” says Perkins.
Emanating from a curiosity of cross-cultural comparisons, UK/OK examines contemporary British and Oklahoman designers through 
the lens of “traditions” – in technique, materials, and influences. The focus of the exhibition is the recent resurgence in handcrafted design and those working within the fields of metals, book making, ceramics, stone, glass, embroidery, quilting, apparel, woodworking, basketry, woodblock printing, and jewelry.
Following an international call for submissions, British designers working over the past decade were balanced with an equally select list of Oklahoma artists representing the breadth of education/training, ethnicities, and diverse pockets of creativity in the state. Many designers employ “traditional” media or techniques, while others adapt more contemporary materials and methods as a commentary on the changes within the handcrafted design culture.
The works exhibited will delight those familiar with handmade design, but also dispel the stereotype of “craft” and “making” as lesser in quality to mass-produced manufactured goods. In this way, each piece will not only tell the story of its maker, but the circumstances surrounding its particular location and means of production. Objects in UK/OK are on loan from their makers or from local, regional, and international private collectors as well as drawn in part from the British Council Collection.
Programs associated with UK/OK: Exploring Traditions in Contemporary Design will complement the diversity of the exhibition 
and include studio tours, gallery discussions, and educational activities for all ages. The exhibition’s contents will also serve to inspire Price Tower Arts Center’s annual Family Arts Festival, held October 9-10, 2009 as well as its annual Usonian Gingerbread House workshops on December 4-5, 2009.
UK/OK is made possible in part by ConocoPhillips, KJRH Channel 2, Bank of Oklahoma and with the assistance of the Oklahoma Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Program partners include The British Council and Casa Hispana.
