What is Art? An In-Shop Dialog

Art is a quality, not an object. To make a work of art, one must be immersed in the liberal arts—psychology, religion, literature, history or politics. The seminar will take place in a workshop, sitting on stools surrounded by machinery, files, pencils, grinders, drills, lathes, paper and canvas. They provide the points of departure for discussing the larger world through the wide-angle lens of art and provide a catalyst for extemporaneous, wide-ranging discussions.

Howard Newman studied architecture, anthropology and classics at Miami University of Ohio. He received a MFA from RISD and was awarded a Fulbright grant to Italy where he began making bronze sculptures. Howard and his wife, Mary, later returned to Italy for a year with their two young children, where he created the two bronzes on the grounds of the Newport Art Museum. During the 1990s, he taught drawing and three-dimensional design at RISD. Howard’s works are in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Newport Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Newark Museum and San Francisco Fine Arts Museum. He has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Tiffany Foundation and The American Academy in Rome. Currently the Newmans work as Newmans Ltd., Fine Art Object Restorers. Clients include Brown University, the cities of Newport and Providence, Yale University, the Newport Mansions and private art collectors. The Newmans restored The Trinity crucifix by Richard Lippold, at Portsmouth Abbey, made of a 22,000-foot gold wire web, receiving the Rhody Award for Historic Preservation, and the Honor Award for Historic Preservation from the American Institute of Architects. In recent years, Howard and his team have been involved in projects such as two new ceremonial maces for Yale University and the creation of the channel for Newport’s new Spring Park.