MANCHESTER, NH – On June 20, the Currier Museum of Art opened a special installation of more than 45 ceramic vessels, weavings, prints, paintings and sculpture by Mary and Ed Scheier as a tribute to their artistic legacy.  Ed Scheier, an internationally acclaimed studio potter, died at age 97 on April 20, 2008, at his home in Green Valley, Arizona. His wife and artistic collaborator of 70 years, Mary Scheier, died in May 2007. The Currier has presented several exhibitions of their work from 1943 through 2000, including a major retrospective in 1993. The Scheiers gave much of their personal art collection and archive to the Currier in the last decade making the museum the most important resource for the study of their work.

The current installation highlights the wide range of the Scheiers' work in many media from the Currier's collection of over 500 pieces. Important examples from their 70-year career include early experiments with ceramics made during the late 1930s, ceramic master works from the New Hampshire years, wooden sculpture and weavings made in Mexico, and the digital computer drawings Ed made the last decade of his life.

The Scheiers leave a legacy of ceramic art that has strong ties to New Hampshire and the Currier. Ed and Mary moved to New Hampshire from Virginia in 1940 at the invitation of David Campbell, director of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen. From 1940 to 1968, they lived in Durham, where Ed taught at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and where Mary was an artist in residence.

The Scheiers are considered pioneers of the studio pottery movement when in the early twentieth century potters once again focused on making individual, handcrafted functional vessels as a source of making a livelihood. Mary Scheier became known for her thin-walled pots of elegant proportions, reminiscent of the finest Sung-dynasty porcelains.  Ed threw larger, bolder shapes that were often decorated with fanciful, figural designs of themes of love, birth and entrapment. From the start of their careers as potters in the late 1930s, their creations won awards in national exhibitions. The Scheiers inspired a younger generation of ceramic artists. When Ed retired from teaching at the University of New Hampshire in 1968, they moved to Oaxaca, Mexico, where Ed produced carved wooden sculptures, paintings in oils and wax, and designs for weavings. In 1978 they relocated to Green Valley, Arizona, where Ed again worked in ceramic, creating some of the largest works of his career. At age 89 he was forced to put aside ceramics. To find expression, he taught himself to use the computer to create digital drawings that he printed with archival inks on watercolor paper.

The Scheiers' pottery is represented in many major museums and private collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Art, and the American Craft Museum. Ed and Mary were the recipients of many prestigious awards throughout their career. Recent accolades include in 2003 the Lotte Jacobi Living Treasure Award by the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts and in 2007 the Lifetime Achievement Award from the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen.

About the Currier
The Currier Museum of Art (http://www.currier.org) in Manchester, NH is home to an internationally respected collection of European and American paintings, decorative arts, photographs and sculpture. New galleries showcase the collection of over 11,000 objects, including works by Picasso, Matisse, Monet, O'Keeffe, and Wyeth. Visitors of all ages will enjoy the engaging traveling exhibitions, a series of dynamic programs ranging from music to lectures to hands-on art-making, an expanded gift shop and an airy new café filled with light and equipped with WiFi.

The associated Art Center offers studio classes, art camps and intensive workshops for all ages. The museum also owns the Zimmerman House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, complete with the original furnishings and the owners' fine art collection.  The Zimmerman House is the only Wright-designed house in New England open for public tours, which are offered March – December. To book a tour or get more information, visit http://www.currier.org or call 603-669-6144, ext. 108.