Washington Museum Research Paper

Washington Exhibit Celebrates the Art of Wood Turning and Carving
Friday, January 14, 2011

Photo: VOA - J. Taboh Wood turner Eliot Feldman uses a lathe to shape a block of wood into a drinking vessel.

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. This week we play music by Nora Jane Struthers, and answer a question about Facebook. But first we look at an exhibit in Washington that celebrates the art of wood turning and carving. Revolution in Wood

www.justlisten.cn

1

An exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. is a celebration of the art of wood turning and carving. The exhibit is called “A Revolution in Wood: The Bresler Collection.” Collectors Charles and Fleur Bresler donated
But it is only since the nineteen forties that the machine began to be used as a way to create art. There is even a lathe set up near the exhibit area. About twice a week, artists show visitors how they use the lathe to create a turned wood bowl. Fleur Bresler says seeing art at the Renwick Gallery helped her discover her love of wood. She says the goal of the exhibit is to increase public awareness about the great value and skill of works made by wood artists. Facebook Our listener question this week comes from Daisy in China. She wants to know the history of Facebook. Friends, family, and co-workers use Facebook to communicate with each other. Many businesses use the site to show their products. Users can write about themselves or their companies and include pictures and videos. They can also permit everyone, or only a few people, to see their Facebook pages. This past summer, Facebook announced that it has over five hundred million active users around the world. About half of them use the site every day. About seventy percent of all Facebook users are in countries outside the United States. Mark Zuckerberg and three friends started Facebook in two thousand four. He was a second year student at Harvard University in Massachusetts. He began the project by illegally
Barbara Klein tells us more. That was Nora Jane Struthers singing “Greenbriar County.” Struthers is not from the state she sings about, West Virginia, although her music may sound like it. She grew up in New Jersey performing with her father Alan who is a blue grass musician. She says she learned music in the same way that folk and norajanestruthers.com traditional music has been learned for Nora Jane Struthers ages -- by playing and singing with family members. She started writing her own songs in high school and performed in college. She later recorded an album with her father. Here is the song “Willie” from Nora Jane Struthers’ own album. It tells about a love story with a tragic ending. Struthers began her career teaching high school English in the Brooklyn area of New York City. She says she read many works by great English writers including William Shakesp eare and Jane Austen. The universal subjects in their stories started to come out in the music she was writing. In two thousand eight, Nora Jane Struthers decided to work on her music career full time. She left New York and moved to Nashville, Tennessee. We leave you with the lively sound of “Mocking Bird.” I’m Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Dana Demange and Jim Tedder. Caty Weaver was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special