COFFEE & CONVERSATION

A CONVERSATION ABOUT THE BERNSTEIN/CHERNOFF COLLECTION
THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2023 | 1PM - 2PM EST
ONLINE ZOOM PRESENTATION

Join moderator Mary Savig, the Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft at the Renwick Gallery, in conversation with collectors Judith Chernoff and Jeffrey Bernstein along with artists Betty Scarpino and Sharon Doughtie. Together they will discuss the collection currently on display at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Chernoff and Bernstein donated 43 works from their collection of sculptural wood art, all of which are on display in a dedicated gallery in the exhibition This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World.

Internationally renowned artist and educator Betty Scarpino is known for her lathe-based wood sculpture. Her career has spanned nearly fifty years and her work is included in both public and private collections throughout the world. Her pieces From Within Our Own Bodies and Inviolate Portal, Gift of Bernstein and Chernoff, belong to the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The latter is now on view at the Renwick Gallery. Scarpino is the two-time recipient of the Windgate International Turning Exchange Resident Fellowship. She is now working from her studio in Indianapolis, Indiana.
 
Sharon Doughtie has been turning wood for thirty years and has been a full-time wood turner for twenty-five years. Her lifelong love of wood has inspired a thriving career. Doughtie’s piece Four Winds, Two Poles, Gift of Bernstein and Chernoff, contains her own story of survival and resides in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum It is now on view at the Renwick Gallery. She is working out of her studio in Hawaii.

Click here to learn more about This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World.