POTTERY in Colorado Springs All new, state-of the-art storage for the museum’s invaluable Van Briggle Pottery collection Annually, the nonprofit CSPM Board reviews unfunded strategic priorities to enhance the Museum’s mission. This year they allocated funds to ambitious and long-awaited storage projects. The staff of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum will be undertaking two compact shelving projects to help build storage quality and capacity for our collections. Thanks to the generosity of the Clock Tower Society for helping make these projects possible. The first project will create state-of-the-art and secure storage for the museum’s invaluable collection of Van Briggle Pottery. For the first time in the museum’s history, our collection of over 700 pieces will be stored together in a dedicated vault. Although over 150 Van Briggle pieces are currently on permanent exhibit in the From Paris to the Plains: The Artistry of Artus & Anne Van Briggle, the museum is the home to over seven hundred examples of the highly collectible Van Briggle Pottery. The CSPM collection includes early turn of the century pieces designed by Artus and Anne Van Briggle themselves, to more contemporary pieces made in the mid to late twentieth century produced under the Van Briggle trademark. The CSPM’s collection of Van Briggle pottery comes from two prominent sources. In 1904, examples of Van Briggle Pottery were shipped to St. Louis to be on exhibit during the World’s Fair. After returning them to Colorado Springs, the El Paso County Commissioners donated them to the museum. This donation provided the basis for our collection, and was first displayed in the El Paso County Courthouse, now the home of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. The second and largest gift of Van Briggle Pottery came from Dr. Winthrop and Lois Crouch. A native of Colorado Springs, Lois Crouch worked to preserve Van Briggle’s history and is responsible for revitalizing international interest in the study of this renowned Art Nouveau pottery. MUSELETTER JULY 2019| PG 2
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