Founders' Circle 2006 McColl Award Goes to Culbertsons, Berlins

CHARLOTTE - The Founders’ Circle of the Mint Museum of Craft + Design has named Bob and Peggy Culbertson of Charlotte and Arnold and Barbara Berlin from Potomac, Maryland as the recipients of the 2006 McColl Award. The awardees were honored at the Founders’ Circle Sixth Annual Mint Condition Gala: Craft a Dream in conjunction with the exhibition “Woven Worlds - Basketry from the Clark Field Collection.” The award winners received unique glass sculptures created especially for the Founders’ Circle by glass artist Tom Patti, who created “Spectral Boundary,” the architectural glass curtain wall at the Mint Museum of Craft + Design which separates the foyer from the gallery.

"Peggy and Bob Culbertson have had their names prominently associated with and recognized for leadership in civic, education, arts and philanthropy endeavors for three decades," says Barbara Laughlin, immediate past President of the Founders' Circle. "Thousands of children have enjoyed the experience of the Peggy and Bob Culbertson Learning Center of the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, which evidences the Culbertson’s dream of bringing art, craft and learning to future museum audiences, artists and collectors."

Arnold and Barbara Berlin are long-time leaders in the craft art community. Both have held leadership positions with the Founders' Circle and the James Renwick Alliance, the support group for the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery. As avid collectors of contemporary studio ceramics, furniture, glass, jewelry, and fiber, their collection of antique Staffordshire figurines is one of the largest Staffordshire collections in the world.

The McColl Award was established by the Founders’ Circle and the Mint Museum of Craft + Design in 2000 as recognition for its first recipient, Hugh McColl, former Chairman and CEO of Bank of America. The award recognizes the gifted vision, extraordinary generosity as well as endless energy that are a pivotal force in the cultural community and essential to assuring the success of the Charlotte-based Mint Museum of Craft + Design as an internationally recognized venue for the promotion, collection and presentation of craft art.

In addition to Hugh McColl, previous winners are Patty and Bill Gorelick and Carol and Shelton Gorelick, pioneers in significant contributions to the Visual Arts Endowment lead by Hugh McColl and the Mint Museum of Craft + Design; Arthur and Jane Mason, international craft art collectors from Washington DC who contributed 123 works by 43 artists to the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, constituting one of the most significant collections of contemporary turned-wood objects in America today; and Dudley and Lisa Anderson, international collectors from Wilson, North Carolina who have contributed several glass art pieces to the Museum and whose collection will be featured at the North Carolina Museum of Art. The Andersons have the largest private U.S. collection of Libensky glass and were largely responsible for the Libensky Wall at the entry to the Mint Museum of Craft + Design galleries.

For more information, contact the Founders’ Circle at 704-337-2008.