Herberger College Regents’ Professor Kurt Weiser receives national artist award

TEMPE, Ariz. – Regents’ professor of ceramics at Arizona State University’s Herberger College School of Art and world-renowned ceramist, Kurt Weiser, is one of seven recipients of the 2003 Aileen Osborn Webb awards, recently presented by the American Craft Council in Chicago. Weiser and six other recipients join the council’s College of Fellows, which now numbers just 235, all elected by their peers.

The Webb awards, presented in the fall, are named for the council’s founder and honor individuals and institutions for their distinguished roles in the field.

Weiser is known for his painted porcelain vases featuring lush landscapes filled with rich plant, animal and human life. His work is highly sought after by private and public collectors alike and can be found in collections that include the Smithsonian Institution, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Albert Museum in London, the Helsinki Museum of Applied Arts in Finland, and the Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art and Institute of Ceramics in Shigaraki, Japan.

Weiser said he had always been intoxicated with clay and had never really considered doing anything else.

“It’s always a pleasure to be noticed for something you love to do,” Weiser said. “To my amazement, things have worked out a great deal better than I would have expected, had I given it serious thought as young student. I owe this outcome to the teachers I’ve had as well as those other informal teachers, fellow students and now the students I teach.”

Weiser has been a professor of ceramics at ASU’s Herberger College of Fine Arts since 1988 and Regents' professor of art since August, 2000. He was the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, in 1989 and again in 1992. Prior to joining the faculty at ASU, Weiser was resident director of the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, in Helena, Mont.

The Katherine K. Herberger College of Fine Arts at ASU educates more than 2,500 students annually and encompasses the School of Music, School of Art, Department of Theatre and Department of Dance, as well as the research-based Institute for Studies in the Arts and the ASU Art Museum. The college’s community programs annually engage more than 25,000 local residents in the arts. Visit the Herberger College on the Web at http://herbergercollege.asu.edu

Media Contact:
Jennifer Pringle
480-965-8795
jennifer.pringle@asu.edu