‘Devastating’: Artist’s work broken in transit back from Hilton Head showing
When Carrie Gustafson’s box arrived back at her art studio in Massachusetts, it rattled with every step.
Since she’s a hand-blown glass artist, she knew that was a really bad sign.
Her piece, titled Azure Mbola for the African currency bracelet it’s modeled after, had just returned from a month-long stay at Hilton Head Art League’s exhibition in Shelter Cove.
She opened the box and her fears were confirmed: Her artwork, valued at $14,000, was broken.
“I was devastated, because someone wanted to buy the piece and were coming to look at it the next week,” Gustafson explained.
The artist, who has been working with hand-blown glass for 25 years, had never seen a piece broken when it was being shipped back from a gallery showing. Azure Mbola was shown on Hilton Head throughout October. But instead of being packed in the specialized foam inserts she’d sent it in, the piece arrived loosely packed with peanuts.
Gustafson and Hilton Head Art League have reached a settlement for the damage done to her piece, but her experience has launched an online discussion among artists, gallery owners and others about whose responsibility it is to pack pieces — and lamenting how mishaps have become more likely as artists look for shows across the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reached Friday by The Island Packet, Art League General Manager Kristen McIntosh said “An art piece was damaged in return transit to an artist in Massachusetts. An agreement was reached that was mutually acceptable to both the artist and Art League of Hilton Head for any claim related to this.”
Who’s responsible?
Gustafson said in normal times, she relies on setting up booths to show her artwork near her home in Arlington, Massachusetts and works with local galleries she knows to receive and show her pieces.
“We artists have been looking for any opportunity to get our work out there and get seen” during COVID-19, she said.
Using a site called “Call for Entry,” Gustafson and artists across the country have signed up to send pieces to new corners to gain exposure. Gustafson had never been to Hilton Head, but sent her piece to be displayed on the island alongside others.
When it came back broken, Gustafson said it launched a discussion among her community of artists about who is responsible for packing artwork safely for these newly established cross-country routes.
“It was just sort of tossed in there very haphazardly,” she said of the packing. “I posted on social media because I wanted to know what my responsibility and what the gallery’s responsibility is.”
Artists and galleries agreed: “It’s their responsibility to get it back to the artist safely,” Gustafson said.
Still, as art finds new venues across the country, Gustafson said she doesn’t harbor any resentment against the Art League.
“This is really a learning experience,” she said.
Besides, she said she understands the precariousness of her preferred medium.
“We work with glass,” she said, “and glass breaks.”
