"It is to be remembered that one of the significant craft masters of a very old guild system was Max Krehan. Marguerite Wildenhain called him “the last potter of his lineage.” She in turn became the first master in what was becoming the rumbling thunder of the Studio Pottery Movement. Lightning struck thrice in the big bang, bang-bang of the Bauhaus Dornburg! Burg Giebichenstein!! And Abstract Expressionist Schools!!! South Bear employs this legacy by teaching its craft, through which the skills of the hand, and a healthy disrespect, might ignite art."
- Dean Schwarz
Background
In the second half of the 20th century, the studio arts movement was exploding across America. After World War II, an incredible number of students enrolled in fine arts programs throughout the nation thanks to the GI bill. Some of these young artists, having honed their crafts in the classroom and visited the ancient guild workshops of Europe and Asia during their service, were inspired to open their own studio practice and teach their communities crafts that for most of American history had been inaccessible to the general public.
Midwestern potter Dean Schwarz was one such artist who defined a generation of studio workshops. Born in 1938 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he enlisted in the navy at the age of 17 before studying ceramics at Iowa State Teachers College (now UNI). He served on the naval ship USS HORNET, and acted as a cultural and arts ambassador while stationed in Japan.
Having toured the celebrated ceramics workshop of Shoji Hamada, he returned to the United States and began apprenticing under master potter Marguerite Wildenhain of Pond Farm, one of the greatest of the 20th century artist colonies. Wildenhain had been forced to leave Germany in 1933 under threat of the Nazi regime due to her Jewish heritage; she eventually immigrated to the United States and settled in northern California. As one of the last surviving master ceramicists of the ancient German pottery guild, she was uniquely suited to kickstart American studio pottery from California’s redwood forests. Dean quickly became a favorite student of hers, and eventually her teaching associate during Pond Farm’s summer sessions.
Beginnings
By 1970, Dean was an arts professor at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and decided it was high-time that the Midwest had its own studio arts folk education program. Dean, alongside his wife Geraldine and area artist Doug Eckhart co-founded South Bear Creek School in Highlandville, Iowa. It was named for a small stream trickling through the sleepy driftless town of 30 residents. In the summer of 1970, they turned an abandoned 14 room hospital-house into dormitories for students and instructors; an adjacent barn became their pottery studio. Dean led the ceramics classes while Eckart taught painting. Geraldine, who was the most enterprising and tenacious of them all, operated the school’s day-to-day activities, cooked for the students, taught literature and feminist studies, and organized nighttime events like South Bear’s famous plays, concerts, and performance arts productions.
After six summer sessions at Highlandville, Dean and Geraldine decided they’d outgrown the location and moved to the recently-vancant historic Aase Haugen Home outside of nearby Decorah (pictured above). Formerly an old-folks retirement community, the building is nestled in the convergence of creeks, rolling hills, and pine forests. With 65 rooms, a small cottage, and two barns, the new South Bear campus had plenty of space to accommodate its growing student body. Artists from across the region flocked to South Bear School, adding new classes and crafts to its impressive offering. At its height, students from every corner of the globe came to study ceramics, painting, poetry, woodworking, stone carving, metallurgy, literature/social studies, music performance, photography, and fiber arts. South Bear School supported a community of over 100 artists and students during its 9-week summer programs.
Present Day
In 2020, on the 50th anniversary of South Bear School’s founding, Lane Schwarz, our current master potter, re-opened classes for the first time in decades. Along with his children Marguerite, Sophie, William, and his wife Juliana, he re-established South Bear as a non-profit and continues to work towards re-building and preserving the storied legacy nestled in Decorah’s rolling hills. Today, the Aase Haugen campus serves as a museum to Dean and Geraldine’s globe spanning collection of art, a family home for the Schwarzes, and a campus for the new South Bear School. We now hold two summer sessions and dozens of community events throughout the year, from film screenings and bird-watchings to music festivals and meditation workshops.
Today, South Bear strives to better our community through arts education and offers a two-week long pottery retreat which focuses on the same skills and forms taught by Marguerite Wildenhain; please join us this summer to experience the latest chapter in a storied tradition spanning centuries.