Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections, 2015.196.874c, Connecticut Historical S…

Interviews with Eldrid Arntzen, Laura Hudson, and Anna Salamone Consoli

IntervieweeInterview with Eldrid Arntzen American, 1935 - 2023

IntervieweeInterview with Laura Hudson American, 1920 - 2005

IntervieweeInterview with Anna Salamone Consoli American

InterviewerInterviewed by Rebecca Joseph

Date1991

Mediumreformatted digital file from audio cassette

DimensionsDuration (side 1): 47 Minutes, 40 Seconds
Duration (side 2): 30 Minutes, 20 Seconds
Duration (total runtime): 1 Hour, 18 Minutes, 7 Seconds

ClassificationsInformation Artifacts

Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections

DescriptionAudio cassette tape recording of three interviews with Eldrid Arntzen, Laura Hudson, and Anna Consoli. They were interviewed separately by Becky Joseph in 1991. The interviews were recorded for the first Living Legends exhibit project. The interviews with Eldred Arntzen and Laura Hudson were used in the video for the second Living Legends exhibit project.

Eldrid Arntzen is a rosemaling artist. Laura Hudson is an African American quilter. Anna Consoli discusses the work of her mother, Rosa Salamone, who worked in the form of lace making known as “filet” crochet.

Object number2015.196.874a-d

CopyrightIn Copyright

NotesSubject Note: Living Legends: Connecticut Master Traditional Artists was a multi-year project to showcase the excellence and diversity of folk artists living and practicing traditional arts throughout the state. The first CCHAP Director, Rebecca Joseph, developed the first exhibition in 1991, displaying photographic portraits along with art works and performances representing 15 artists from different communities, at the Institute for Community Gallery at 999 Asylum Avenue in Hartford. In 1993, the next CCHAP Director, Lynne Williamson, organized two exhibitions of the photographic portraits from the original Living Legends exhibit, at the State Legislative Offices and at Capital Community-Technical College in Hartford. The photographs were also displayed in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC in October 1994, with the help of Connecticut Representative Nancy Johnson. Also in 1993, a grant from NEA Folk Arts was awarded to CCHAP to expand and tour the original exhibit and create a video to accompany it. The Connecticut Humanities Council and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts supported an exhibit catalog and a performance series. CCHAP began fieldwork around the state in 1994 to document several of the artists involved in the first exhibit and add new artists. The expanded version of Living Legends opened at ICR's Gallery at its new office space at 2 Hartford Square West, then traveled to several sites in 1994 and 1995, including the Norwich Arts Council, the Torrington Historical Society, the New England Folklife Center, and the Boott Mills Museum at Lowell National Historical Park in Lowell, Massachusetts. CCHAP along with folklorist David Shuldiner produced a video based on images taken of the artists at work and audio interviews conducted with them. Portraits and images of the artists working were taken by photographer Gale Zucker. A catalogue of the images, art works, and texts based on the artist interviews was compiled by CCHAP and designed by Dan Mayer who also served as the exhibition designer.

The profound way these artists describe their inspirations, their intricate technical processes, and the dynamic tension they feel between traditional form and personal innovation within that form mark them as true creative masters. The artists featured in Living Legends had very different characters, stories, homelands, communities, art forms and techniques, but they were linked by their high level of artistic skill and a devotion to the traditions of their culture. The Living Legends project highlighted the way that cultural histories, technical information, aesthetic tastes, social values, and other deep aspects of heritage can be communicated through the process and creation of traditional arts. Also, these artists express a strong desire to teach what they know to others, to "pass on the tradition." Community survival, memories of the past, and hopes for the next generation depend on exemplary culture bearers such as these.

Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for these artists and this project.

Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.