- [Announcer] Funding for "The Art Show" is made possible by the Rockwern Charitable Foundation, the L&L Nippert Charitable Foundation, Montgomery County, the Josephine S. Russell Charitable Trust, The Virginia W. Kettering Foundation, the Wohlgemuth Herschede Foundation.

Additional funding provided by... And viewers like you, thank you.

- In this special edition of "The Art Show," a historic Frank Lloyd Wright home, (bright music) utilitarian ceramics, and 360-degree photography.

(bright music fades) It's all ahead on this special edition of "The Art Show."

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music fades) Hi, I'm Rodney Veal, and welcome to "The Art Show," where each week we provide access to local, regional, and national artists and arts organizations.

Today, we're coming to you from Frank Lloyd Wright's Westcott House, located in the heart of Springfield, Ohio.

The house's story is a full circle one.

Completed in 1908, it underwent major alterations in the 1940s before being painstakingly restored to its original glory in 2005.

The house's history spans over a century.

And it's thanks to a team of preservationists that it's still standing and thriving as a community hub.

To learn more about the landmark, let's sit down with executive director Marta Wojcik and dive into its history.

(gentle music) (birds chirping) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) Marta, every great house begins with a bold idea from the people who imagine it into being.

Burton and Orpha Westcott made the remarkable decision to commission Frank Lloyd Wright to design the home.

What do you know about the Westcotts, and what might have inspired them to bring a Wright-designed house to Springfield in the first place?

- Burton and Orpha both were really interested in new technology, so it's kind of fascinating to look at the story as much as we can tell.

When they were working with Frank Lloyd Wright, having conversations about a new home, they were actively also discussing producing a Westcott car, first in Richmond, Indiana, and then they moved it eventually to Springfield, Ohio.

So, they were all about creating new experiences for themselves and their guests, a new way of living.

I think that Frank Lloyd Wright, he's famous today because he had some really bold visionaries who recognize that he has tremendous potential, that he can present them with something very different than their neighbors had, and they wanted it.

I think he just pushed the envelope, while at the same time not losing the sight of human experience and importance of human comfort.

- The story of The Westcott House is a remarkable story of survival.

Can you take us back to the moment when people realized this architectural treasure might be lost and the community stepped in to save it?

- The quality of Westcott's restoration was really in part of partnership that happened between the local community and Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy.

And it's really wonderful to have a national partner of this kind because they are devoted to really actively monitoring what is happening with the Frank Lloyd Wright properties around the country, and really raising alarm if there is any of those in danger.

We are one of the youngest public sites, but this partnership really allowed to intervene when they really felt that this was about, as far as the house is concerned, it was a final moment where the damage that happened could be reversed.

And they stepped in and helped to coordinate to identify architects, top-notch craftsman, who made this house a beautiful home that it is today.

I moved to Springfield in May 2005, when the house was almost ready to receive first guests.

And it looked wonderful.

I was really impressed with the restoration.

What I did not know, I only could learn from photos and videos of the process of restoration and how terrible the house was.

First thought was, how did they save it?

How did they believe that this house can be saved?

'Cause it was, it kind of looked beyond repair, quite honestly.

The whole process that it took, over the course of about four years of intense work to bring this house back to its original appearance, which we're just gonna be always grateful to the original team to have that imagination (chuckles) that this could actually happen.

- Now, historic preservation is rarely easy.

(chuckles) What were some of the biggest challenges faced during the restoration process?

- After World War II, the house was divided into apartments, and it was due to housing crisis in the community.

It was kind of a practical thing to do.

At the time too, the owner, I'm sure, appreciated the house but didn't necessarily understand the value of it as we do today, of course.

So over time, original elements were misplaced, the walls were painted many, many times, woodwork was painted.

There were additional walls that were built to accommodate all these apartments.

The floors were damaged, there was a lot of water and termite damage, so the foundations were in really poor shape.

One of the remarkable features of this house are sleeping porches, and they create this beautiful effect with deep overhang of the roof that has this unique Asian feel.

That's because Wright was heavily experienced by his trip to Japan.

They boxed in the sleeping porches.

They created kitchens for those apartments upstairs.

You no longer see this remarkable feat of engineering there.

You just see a room like everything else.

So that created really a shell of what Frank Lloyd Wright intended for this place to be.

And this restoration would not be possible if not for a set of original architectural drawings that were found in Frank Lloyd Wright archives.

Because there were so very few photos, it would be just impossible to decipher the arrangements that Wright had in mind.

- Today, The Westcott House is much more than a historic home.

It has become a gathering place for art, design, and conversations.

How do you think Wright's philosophy supports the ideas of the house as a living cultural space?

- This is important to us.

Well, it's been important from the very beginning.

How can we do things in the spirit of Westcotts?

How can we do things in the spirit of Frank Lloyd Wright?

And as I've been here for over 20 years, and I think that at the beginning we were trying to find our way, the house was beautifully restored, but it was missing number of key furniture pieces.

There was a lot of things that we still had unanswered.

So I think there was kind of a sense of inferiority complex, you know, comparing with some other more established Frank Lloyd Wright sites.

And we were trying to make things up in a sense that, okay, let's bring a contemporary artist and let's bring a musician, let's make it a living house.

Let's put contemporary art on the walls of this house.

And as I look back, I'm thinking we truly experimented.

And not all the experiments worked, but that was really essential to finding our own identity as a Frank Lloyd Wright site.

- Standing inside the remarkable Prairie Style home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, what do you think the house is still trying to communicate to us more than a century after it was built?

And what does it mean for Springfield to be home to one of Wright's designs?

- It is incredible that we have a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Springfield.

And it is so unique for Springfield, but it's also unique for the region and for the state.

And it was so close to us losing it.

I think also to have a home, this used to be a private home of a family, to have it turned into public site, a site that can be a resource to people.

Whoever wishes to come by and take a tour or attend an event or a program is welcome to come and explore the house.

There is nothing better than see it for yourself, to experience it, to be in a space and feel it.

It is a gift that, I think, the Frank Lloyd Wright community gives to the world because it's an impressive number of actually public sites that are currently open around the United States, and we are part of that bigger family.

(gentle music) - Some of the most meaningful works of art are everyday objects: a mug of coffee in the morning, a bowl shared around the dinner table, simple pieces that quietly become a part of life's rhythms.

In Yellow Springs, Ohio, ceramicist Naysan McIlhargey has built his practice around that very idea.

Working from a wood-fired kiln and drawing inspiration from centuries of ceramic tradition, he creates pottery meant to be used and passed along through generations.

Let's spend some time with Naysan to learn more about the philosophy and the community that shapes his craft.

(lighthearted music) - I have fond memories of growing up in Yellow Springs.

And I grew up two doors down from this building, riding my bike everywhere, spending a lot of time outdoors with friends.

And because I have such strong connections to this community, I always felt that it would be a good place to come back to build the pottery.

And I've always been attracted to the ceramic sections of museums.

But I would say, when I was a freshman at Yellow Springs High School, they had a program then that was called Community Experience.

I spent a lot of time doing art as a child, and I was placed in this program for credit.

You worked with people in the community and you got credit in school.

And I was placed with a couple that did pottery, and that was my introduction.

I was lucky to have that experience in high school.

My first year in college, I took a Japanese arts class and I fell in love.

And the aesthetic of Japanese ceramics is in itself very distinct and unique.

In the world of ceramic history, the tradition that I work in, originally, it comes from Japan, through England to the United States.

Part of the tradition is a philosophy in Japan that was started in the early 20th century called "mingei," a concept that is dear to me and it's part of how I live every day.

And the concept is that you live with handmade, beautiful objects every day.

I feel like it's part of my mission as a handmade practitioner to share that with my customers and to help them learn about this beautiful idea.

I would say that I knew that I wanted to be a potter my first year in college.

And it was partly because Mike Thiedeman, my professor, was so good at teaching ceramics, but also teaching Japanese arts and world ceramics, and we had the access to a wood kiln at school.

It was more important for me to learn the craft, to learn the skills, than to be in graduate school.

So, my kiln is a wood kiln.

It's based on a Japanese kind of kiln that's a single chamber, it's called an anagama.

And it's a very hostile environment, the wood kiln.

Very hostile.

It's so humbling.

It's amazing that a kiln can have that kind of play in the process, like, that kinda control in the process.

- We actually started photographing pre-firing.

So, you know, we started with the throwing and the painting, and we spent time with Naysan.

So, when we got to the firing itself, we felt like we had more knowledge and understanding and maybe a connection to what was happening because we knew what was inside.

We watched how he built the inside layer by layer.

So when that firing came, it was remarkable because it was kind of like the climax of a movie.

But with the photographing of it all, we were captivated both because we didn't know about wood firing.

I didn't grow up anywhere with a wood-fired potter that I knew of.

And then to enter that world with someone like Naysan, with the way he describes it and his passion for it, was a gift.

- And just watching the way it was all orchestrated.

It's like a dance.

It is.

Like everyone's- - He's the choreographer.

- He's the choreographer because there's... They have to keep the fire going at certain temperature.

You have to feed these people.

And there's constantly monitoring it.

And even to add another piece of wood into the kiln, it has to be choreographed.

- I feel lucky that, as a production potter, I have been able to create themes for each firing.

The authenticity of looking at different cultures, like, the fact that I'm half Persian and I did a in-depth study of Persian ceramics from history.

To me, it's a way to learn, it's a way to understand how 800 years ago they could do a thing that is still, like, incredible.

(soft music) - [Tom] And the relationship between Frank Lloyd Wright and Naysan is interesting to me on the functionality, 'cause you do all that beautiful artwork, but if it's not functional, it has to be functional, it's very basic.

I mean, I think that's why it's been around for thousands of years.

But Frank Lloyd Wright talked about how architecture has to be functional.

And so I love that tie-in between the functionality of Naysan's pottery along with the functionality of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture.

- We as a culture, we don't do a great job of understanding the basic concept of what it means to live with handmade, beautiful objects every day.

And when I was in Japan, I saw it, and I realize they do it every day.

They know how to do it.

And it's beautiful.

- [Vicki] But I love that Naysan chose to bring in these huge, really organically shaped, round, circular, oblong, and the designs on them are very circular.

You know, where the Westcott is very linear, you know, it looks like the plains, you know, you got these things coming out and very square, and Naysan brought in all of this circular pottery.

So I think that's why it was such a beautiful exhibition in there was because of that contrast of organic shapes.

- So I don't sign my pottery.

I use a stamp that says "Miami Valley Pottery."

'Cause it's not about me necessarily, it's not about me as a personality.

In the scheme of things, when you think about the history, I want my work to be used, and I want it to be used for generations, obviously, but I'm just one potter from generations and thousands of years of potters.

- Architectural photographer Thomas R. Schiff turns perspective on its head.

Wielding a specialized camera, he captures 360-degree views of all sorts of places from Las Vegas streets to library interiors.

Tom has also explored The Westcott House and Frank Lloyd Wright architecture across the state of Ohio.

Let's get a well-rounded look at Tom and his sweeping snapshots.

- I've been a photographer ever since I was a little kid.

I started taking photographs when I was in grade school.

So, just a little kid with a Brownie camera.

Maybe 35, 40 years ago I started photographing storefronts 'cause I always thought it was very interesting to get a picture of a storefront window that had a display in it, but also there was a reflection in the glass, which showed what was behind the camera.

So you had kind of two pictures in one.

And I think right around that time, I thought about, well, what if I had a panoramic camera and I could photograph something directly in front of me and also something to either side of me and to the rear of me.

Lately, the last 20 years or so, I've been shooting photos with a panoramic camera.

That's a camera especially made to take a picture in a 360-degree angle.

I've always been attracted to the built environment.

I've always enjoyed photographing buildings and bridges and viaducts, overpasses.

Then when I switched to color photography and panoramic photography, I continued that.

I discovered a lot of really great buildings around the country, and I set out to photograph as many as I could.

When you look at some of my photographs, you'll notice that they're not taken at an eye level.

They're kind of a bird's-eye view.

Panoramic photography has kind of taken off lately with cell phones.

People discovered you can set your cell phone as a pano and make these wide pictures of everything in front of you.

And one of the shortcomings of that is when you look at a lot of those pictures, half of the pictures are above the horizon and the other half are below the horizon.

So you have a lot of pictures of stop signs and pavement, and parked cars, so it kind of clutters up the image a little bit.

And I've discovered that if you could raise a panoramic camera up 10 or 15 feet, you can avoid a lot of that.

The camera uses just regular Kodak roll film.

It's motorized, and when you turn the camera on, it goes in a circle.

And at the same time, the film unwinds and moves through the camera.

So the camera movement and the film movement are synchronized.

(soft jazz music) I started maybe 25 years ago.

I'd go to California, and I'd take as many photos as I could of different things.

Maybe some art museums, some libraries, some movie theaters.

So, if you do that over 20 or 30 years, you'll have enough photos for 10 different books.

Movie theaters very interesting because they were designed as being a place for people to escape to kind of a fantasy land away from home.

So I did a book of Las Vegas.

And if you've ever been around there, the casino owners have spent millions and billions of dollars to make the buildings attractive 'cause they wanna kind of pull you in.

I found that the most interesting architecture is usually in the big cities, and concentrated on going to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York.

I found a few gems in small towns as well.

There's some interesting libraries in little towns that you've never heard of.

After a few years, I realized that Frank Lloyd Wright was a pretty big presence in the world of architecture.

And I discovered that he was gonna be a project all to himself.

He had a career that spanned about 70 years.

He was a real workaholic.

He died at age 92, and he still had several unfinished projects on the drafting board.

In fact, one of his most well-known buildings is The Guggenheim Museum.

Frank Lloyd Wright built 11 structures in Ohio.

There's a doctor's office building in Dayton and the rest are houses.

I started photographing The Westcott House probably in 2005 when I first met Marta.

And it was handy because it was only an hour and a half drive from Cincinnati, so I could visit it at different times of the year.

I could take photos in the fall, in the spring, with winter snow.

I'm still doing panoramic photography, although I've kind of slowed down in the last few years.

I just produced a book on significant architecture of America, civic buildings.

So I've photographed a lot of statehouses, city halls, county courthouses, the US Capitol Building, and the Supreme Court.

And that was my Ohio 250 and America 250 project.

I've enjoyed traveling around the country, taking a lot of different photos of mostly well-known architecture and some not so well-known.

And my hope is the viewer gets a sense of the building in its entirety.

A lot of times when somebody takes an architectural photograph, they usually back up in the corner to get a wide as view as they can, but you don't see what's on the left or right or behind you.

So when you put the camera in the middle of the room and make a 360-degree photograph, you see everything all at once.

And that's a little bit different way of viewing it.

(soft jazz music fades) (camera shutter clicks) - And that wraps it up for this special edition of "The Art Show.'

Until next time, I'm Rodney Veal, thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music fades) - [Announcer] Funding for "The Art Show" is made possible by the Rockwern Charitable Foundation, the L&L Nippert Charitable Foundation, Montgomery County, the Josephine S. Russell Charitable Trust, The Virginia W. Kettering Foundation, the Wohlgemuth Herschede Foundation.

Additional funding provided by... And viewers like you.

Closed captioning in part has been made possible through a grant from The Bahmann Foundation.

Thank you.