Artist Spotlight

Suzanne Stumpf

Victor D. Infante Worcester Magazine | USA TODAY NETWORK

Suzanne Stumpf has received wide recognition for both her sculptural and functional ceramic creations. She was selected as a 2017 Niche Award Finalist in both the ceramic sculpture and functional ceramics categories as well as a 2013 Niche Award Finalist in ceramic sculpture. In 2019, she was named an Artist of the Year by the Cambridge Art Association and won First Prize at the Legacy 4 Art Exhibition in North Easton. That same year, she was selected for an Open Studio Residency at Haystack Mountain School of Craft. This year, her sculptures received Best in Show at the Winter National Art Show in Duxbury and Honorable Mention awards at the State of Clay (national juried exhibition sponsored by the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society) and the ArtsWorcester Biennial. Her work has been included in numerous national and international juried art and ceramics exhibitions from across the U.S. to Bucharest, Hungary, including six times at the National Prize Art Show in Cambridge, three times at the Potters Council International Show, and four times at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts ceramics biennials. Her interactive sculptures and other work have been included in numerous books and publications, including 500 Ceramic Sculptures: Contemporary Practice, Singular Works (Lark Books); 500 Raku: Bold Explorations of a Dynamic Ceramics Technique (Lark Books); Humor in Craft (Schiffer Publishing), the European magazine Ceramics Now, Art-

“Breast Project,“ sculpture (porcelain) SUZANNE STUMPF/ARTSWORCESTER

scope, among others. To see more of Suzanne’s work, visit her website at https://ceramicsatthebarn.com.

This Artist Spotlight is presented by Worcester Magazine in partnership with ArtsWorcester. Since 1979, ArtsWorcester has exhibited and advanced the work of this region’s contemporary artists. Its exhibitions and educational events are open and free to all. Learn more at www.artsworcester.org.

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away or “their families got tired of tripping over them in the living room,” said Christianson. The heyday of such collecting was in the 1800s, he said, making many of the specimens quite old. You wouldn’t know it from looking at them though, as each animal is in equally good condition as any of the items on display. This is the result of diligent maintenance on the part of staffers like Christianson, making sure there is nothing to attract pests like moths in the first place, keeping everything clean and dry along with a careful temperature control.

If anything, the specimens out on display require more active care, and Christianson revealed his primary tool is actually a toothbrush for dusting. As many of the animals are perched in high display cases or on top of shelves, he gets through the cleaning routine with a “mix of acrobatics, parkour, art direction and blind luck.”

The staff at the EcoTarium hope that kids can come, see and learn about animals that they might not otherwise get to see. The goal is for their parents or guardians to bring them and for them to ask what climate change is and what they can do? After all, many famous researchers often point to a single experience in their impressionable years, which sparked their curiosity and set them on a path to change.

Since Oct. 6, the EcoTarium has been open five days a week. “We’re really excited and it helps us be more accessible to school groups now,” said Chapell who also added that they have been reopening exhibits and slowly adding back staff to the team. “Were guests ready and comfortable to be inside the museum,” she asked, “well, here science is the first thing on our mind.”

So far, it looks like families want to be back, school groups are delighted, and kids need it. “They’ve been at home on Zoom-school for the past year and a half, so it’s important to create informal in-person education opportunities available to kids.”

Skulls of a stag and possibly a cow, acquired from the former

Becker College collection. VEER MUDAMBI/WORCESTER MAGAZINE