A New Traveling Exhibit from Seattle's Museum of History and Industry

SHEEN OF SILVER, WEIGHT OF AIR:  Aluminum in Art, History and Design
Tour:  July 1998 through December 2001 (please phone for details about
which periods are available)

Aluminum, so commonplace in modern American life, was once valued more
highly than gold.

This exhibit of approximately 65 objects will include examples of
19th-century European uses, such as luxury dressing table items by
Lalique, and images of objects fashioned from aluminum for Frederick VII
of Denmark and for Napoleon III and his household.

SHEEN OF SILVER will include a replica of the aluminum pyramid that capped
the Washington Monument and a collection of everyday items from the
turn-of-the-century which document the Americanization of aluminum.  In
the 1850s, aluminum was a rare and exotic material, found only in the
homes of European nobility; within fifty years, in the wake of Charles
Martin Hall's patent for the electrolytic reduction of aluminum, American
farmers could mail-order aluminum teakettles and milk pans from Sears,
Roebuck and Company.

Curator Lloyd Herman, director emeritus of the Smithsonian's Renwick
Gallery, has chosen 40 examples of contemporary art and craft in aluminum
for SHEEN OF SILVER.  Selected from submissions by more than 200 American
artists, these objects range from jewelry to furniture, and demonstrate
the artists' expressive interpretations of aluminum's physical properties
-- its lightness, ductility, "alloyability," and conductivity.

The exhibit will include examples of high-tech industrial components, as
well as a 1950s vignette of the corner of an aluminum-sided house with a
patio, aluminum lounge furniture, an aluminum Christmas tree, an aluminum
baseball bat and so on.  From tinsel to flywheels to Seinfeld's Klein bike
to sculpture, SHEEN OF SILVER will interpret utilitarian and artistic uses
of the most familiar manmade material in modern life.

This exhibit will include a section that explores the early uses and
manufacturing processes of aluminum through photos and documentary
materials.  Another area of emphasis will include aluminum recycling,
featuring contemporary art and craft objects made from recycled aluminum.
Each exhibitor on the tour may wish to add educational materials from
local and regional aluminum recycling organizations.  We plan a video
component for historic film footage of aluminum processing and
fabrication, as well as a video documentary concerning Pacific Northwest
artists and craftspeople working in aluminum.

An illustrated catalog will be published, and we will provide hands-on
activity centers and the museum's educational material and programming
suggestions, specifically developed for this show.  This will be a turnkey
traveling exhibit, with casework included.

Our fundraising is still ongoing, but we anticipate a rental fee
for SHEEN OF SILVER at $900.00 per week.

Please contact the Museum of History and Industry to request an
information packet, to be updated as the exhibit moves forward.  We would
be delighted to answer any questions you might have.

You may reply to the above email address at the University of Washington,
to reach Lorraine McConaghy, project manager for this exhibit.  Or phone
her at 206-324-1685, ext 16.  The Museum's mailing address is Museum of
History and Industry, 2700-24th Avenue, East, Seattle, WA  98112.

Thank you very much for your interest.