BELLEVUE, WA.- The Bellevue Arts Museum is pleased to present Turning Wood into Art: The Jane and Arthur Mason Collection, 120 works by more than 40 artists from the collection of Jane and Arthur Mason. This exhibition was organized by the Mint Museum of Craft + Design and represents one of the most significant assembling of contemporary turned wood objects in America today and is a celebration of some of the major North American and European wood turners.

This exhibition is organized around five conceptual themes: Design, Material Esthetics, Process and Image, Storytelling and Tree Life; design in woodturning can be identified in several ways. The associations formed between specific objects and themes are, however, fluid. The abundant meanings suggested by the selection of crafters illuminate the versatility of the provocative forms, and the many ways and conditions through which works of art in craft media can possess value and meaning.

This exhibition has been organized by the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, North Carolina and was made possible through the generosity of the Windgate Charitable Foundation. Bellevue Arts Museum presentation has been made possibe in part by the Weyerhaeuser Corporation Foundation.