Papers of Martha Longenecker, ceramic artist, professor of art, and founding president of Mingei International Inc., a non-profit foundation dedicated to furthering understanding of arts of the people. The collection contains Longenecker's notebooks documenting her glazing techniques, some files on Mingei International Inc. and the Mingei International Museum, and a small amount of biographical materials, correspondence, and subject files on ceramics and Native American art.
Martha Longenecker Papers, 1916-2013 (MSS 784)
Extent: 1.2 Linear feet (3 archives boxes)
Martha Williams Longenecker was born on May 18, 1920 in Oklahoma City. She earned her B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles and her M.F.A. from Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, California, where she studied painting with the artist Millard Sheets. In 1952, while attending a week-long graduate seminar, Martha met and was profoundly influenced by Dr. Yanagi Soetsu, founder of the mingei ("art of the people") folk arts movement in Japan. She decided to devote her life to art which had a practical use. Longenecker went on to do post-graduate study of ceramics in Japan under Shoji Hamada and Tatsuzo Shimaoka and became an accomplished ceramics artist.
Longenecker was an art professor at San Diego State University from 1955-1990. With support from her late husband, Sydney Martin Roth, she founded Mingei International, a non-profit public foundation for furthering understanding of arts of the people. She also served as director of the Mingei International Museum of World Folk Art in San Diego from 1978-2005. While at the Mingei, she supervised its 1996 move from University Towne Centre to its current location in Balboa Park, and directed or designed nearly 130 art exhibitions, 33 exhibition documentary publications, and 19 videos.
Longenecker was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun from the Emperor of Japan in 2003 for her lifelong contribution to world folk art. She died October 29, 2013 at the age of 93.
Papers of Martha Longenecker, ceramic artist, professor of art at San Diego State University, and founding president of Mingei International Inc., a non-profit foundation dedicated to furthering understanding of arts of the people. The collection contains Longenecker's notebooks documenting her glazing techniques, some files on Mingei International Inc. and the Mingei International Museum, and a small amount of biographical materials, correspondence, and subject files on ceramics and Native American art. The subject files include material on sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle, whose work has been extensively exhibited at the Mingei.
Arranged in five series: 1) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS, 2) CORRESPONDENCE, 3) MINGEI FILES, 4) NOTEBOOKS and 5) SUBJECT FILES.