Winners
The potters Cynthia Bringle and Norm Schulman, both longtime teachers at the Penland School of Crafts, were hailed as “North Carolina Living Treasures” by the University of North Carolina Wilmington in a ceremony held at its Museum of World Cultures on January 23…*Joh Ricci*, a basket maker, is one of six recipients of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts 2009 Fellowship Grants in the crafts category, along with ceramist Sumi Maeshima, metalsmith Susan Myers, and glass artists Ron Desmett, Jon Clark and *Daniel Cutrone*…*C. Matthew Szösz* of Oakland, California, is the winner of the Jutta Cuny-Franz Memorial Award, given every two years to a glass artist aged 40 or younger in honor of the German glass sculptor. Administered by the Glass Museum Hentrich in Düsseldorf, the competition drew 191 entries from 33 countries. New work by Szösz, including Untitled (Inflatable) No. 33, along with glass by Caitlin Johnston, will be at the Turtle Gallery in Deer Isle, Maine (August 2-22).

Passings
The silversmith Michel Royston, known for her elegant jewelry and flatware, died December 4 in Redding, California, after a two-year battle with cancer. She was 61. “I love metal,” she wrote on her website. “I love the way the light hits it, revealing what has happened to it. Each time I pick up a hammer, hit the metal and watch it moving to my blow, I am intrigued again. It is direct cause and effect. I call it grace through violence.”…*Paul G. Mathews*, 90, a master shoemaker and proprietor of the Cordwainer Gallery of Fine Crafts in Bedford, New Hampshire, died February 3 after a brief illness. Mathews started making shoes in his father’s shop as a teenager, and earned a reputation for the beauty and extraordinary comfort of his footwear.

Spaces
Baskets by John McQueen and glass by Michael Janis (through June 13) inaugurate the new and expanded home of Duane Reed Gallery in the Central West End of St. Louis…”The Museum of Arts and Design“:http://www.madmuseum.org had opened a Design and Innovation Gallery, currently featuring furniture by Gord Peteran (through July 26).

Kid Stuff
“Back to School With Therman Statom,” at the Racine Art Museum in Wisconsin (June 6-July 26), presents art made in workshops led by the noted glass sculptor for 200 kids at elementary, middle and high schools in the city…Pittsburgh schoolchildren were among those who collaborated with artist Daviea Davis to create a 360-degree glass mosaic panorama celebrating the city’s neighborhoods, on view at the Pittsburgh Glass Center through June 14.

Changes
“It has truly been a labor of love for me,” John I. (“Jack”) Russell said upon his retirement in February after nearly 30 years as executive director of the Brookfield Craft Center in Connecticut. His wife, Judith, also stepped down as manager of the center’s retail gallery. Richard Herrman of Ironwood Gallery is interim head until a successor is found…The Hunter Library at Western Carolina University continues to grow its digital collection documenting the region’s craft revival of the early 20th century which includes the work of such basket makers as Lottie Queen Stamper, who made Storage Basket, Julia Taylor and Eva Wolfe. It will soon become “a significant resource for material culture studies,” says project director Anna Fariello.