Looking back at how Jack Earl and Tom La Dousa forever changed bathrooms.
In August 1974 ceramists Jack Earl and Tom LaDousa took up residence at the Kohler Company, the Wisconsin bathroom fixtures manufacturer, for the pilot Arts/Industry program of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. The artists transformed leather-hard finished plumbing ware shapes into spirited ceramic sculptures that were exhibited at the center. A transcript of a conversation between the artists about their experience was featured in the December 1974 Craft Horizons.
Since its inception, hundreds of emerging and established artists have benefited from Kohler’s innovative Arts/Industry residencies, exploring new forms, concepts and materials. The center itself drew upon this network for its major expansion in 1999, encompassing an entire city block of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, by commissioning six former resident artists—Ann Agee, Carter Kustera, Merrill Mason, Yolanda McCay, Matt Nolen and Casey O’Connor —to create public restrooms in the new facility, stunningly epitomizing the achievements of the art and industry alliance. The restrooms are so spectacular that the Travel Channel ranked them third among 100 in their program “World’s Best Bathrooms” in 2002.
An additional women’s room was commissioned from ceramist Cynthia Consentino in 2004, and, following a seven-month residency at the Kohler Co., her vivid ex-ample of how the humble bathroom can become an expressive canvas was unveiled in June 2005.
Über bathrooms aside, through its groundbreaking art/industry collaboration and provocative exhibitions, the Kohler Arts Center offers the unexpected and demonstrates that art can enliven and enrich facets of everyday life. As for now-veteran ceramists Jack Earl and Tom LaDousa, visitors to the center can still, on occasion, view their works in the permanent collection.
