Master Metalsmith :

Harriete Estel Berman

September 26 - November 14. 2004

Each year, in conjunction with Repair Days Weekend, the National Ornamental Metal Museum presents a one-person exhibition of work by an outstanding American metalsmith. This year, the Metal Museum is honored to present a retrospective of the work of Harriete Estel Berman.     As "the appliance lady", her jewelry and sculpture comment on and reflect the images presented to us by our consumer society. Harriete Estel Berman, as "recycling evangelist", works preprinted post consumer metal containers into art. A frequent exhibitor at the Metal Museum, Berman's

work is included in the permanent collections of the Renwick Gallery,

Smithsonian Institute and Temple University's

Tyler School of Art as well as numerous private

collections. A catalogue will be available in the

Museum giftshop..                                                                                                

October 14, noon, Harriete Estel Berman lectures at Memphis College of Art October 15 - Reception 7 - 9 pm  Metal Museum Gallery Talk  8 pm October 16 - Tin Cap Opening  Metal Museum bring in decorative tin                     containers (cookie tins, altoids boxes, etc) October 16 - Kids Grass Project hands-on activity for children,                     based on grass installation

grass \ 'gras\  (detail) 9' x 9' x 5.5" installation, 2000 -2001, recycled tin

National Ornamental Metal Museum

Memphis, TN  

Metal Museum receives $50,000 gift from

Birmingham Foundry

Stanley Lawler, President of Lawler Machine and Foundry of Birmingham, Alabama, has pledged a $50,000 gift as well as much needed foundry equipment to the National Ornamental Metal Museum.  The gift will be used to build and equip a foundry to the west of the Schering-Plough Smithy. It will house melt furnaces, a kiln, and molding equipment for a green sand operation. The new foundry, to be dedicated during Repair Days Weekend, October 17-19, 2003, will replace a small casting shed that must be demolished to make way for the renovations to the 1880s Executive Building for the Metal Museum Library. 

Lawler Machine and Foundry was founded in 1933 in Birmingham, Alabama, and is a leading supplier of both cast and forged iron components to the ornamental iron industry. Stanley Lawler, a founding member of the Metal Museum’s Board of Trustees, said, “My personal interest in the National Ornamental Metal Museum has been sustained by the Museum’s commitment to furthering the public’s awareness of fine metalwork.”

Lawler Machine and Foundry cast the railings for the Riverbluff Pavilion, site of many weddings and concert performances on the Mississippi River bluff. The company sponsored the Museum’s 1986 exhibit and catalogue, Cast Iron: Art and Industry and has been a long time supporter of both the Metal Museum and Birmingham’s Sloss Historic Furnace.

In recognition of both Stan Lawler and Lawler Foundry’s twenty-five years of support of the National Ornamental Metal Museum and its mission of encouraging new work in traditional metals, the Metal Museum will name the new building The Lawler Foundry.

National Ornamental Metal Museum

374 Metal Museum Drive

Memphis Tennessee 38106

www.metalmuseum.org

For more information, contact Jim Wallace at 901-774-6380

or email library@metalmuseum.org