Martha P. Pitts Connell

Martha Connell, 1936 – 2014

Martha Connell, 78, ardent arts advocate and beloved wife, mother and grandmother, passed away on October 26, 2014. Born on July 28, 1936, to Lewis and Kathleen Little Pitts in Atlanta, Georgia, Martha Connell studied at Randolph Macon Women’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia, and Emory University in Atlanta. She is survived by her devoted husband Pat Connell, three daughters Shawn Stamm (husband Sean Smith), Erica Stamm (husband Karl Swartz) and Allison Stamm-Kirk (partner Renie) and three stepsons Timothy A. Connell (wife Carol), John A. Connell (wife Janine) and Thomas G. Connell (wife Marcie), and her grandchildren Kirsten Brownsmith (partner Hillary), Shalyn Smith, Tyler, Caeman and Roger Swartz, Katie Stamm-Kirk, Kendra Russell (husband Jason) and Kate Doles (husband Andy), and three great grandchildren as well as a host of friends, artists, collectors and colleagues who have treasured her support for many decades.

A native Atlantan, Martha Connell began her career by co-authoring a book on home renovation but she is best known as a gallerist and curator. Martha devoted her long career to advocating an appreciation of the achievements and significance of America’s leading crafts people.

The Connells began presenting contemporary crafts and fine arts objects to the Atlanta public at Great American Gallery on Peachtree Street in 1985. After five years of successfully assembling a stable of more than 50 of America’s most outstanding craftspeople and developing an appreciative audience for their work, the Connells moved their gallery to Buckhead Avenue in 1990. When the Connell Gallery closed its doors in 2003 Atlanta lost one of its treasures.

Through the gallery and her extensive writing, lecturing, jurying and curatorial efforts, Martha Connell established an appreciative and knowledgeable audience for studio crafts in Atlanta and the Southeast. She placed works in the permanent collections of many internationally prominent cultural institutions including the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery (Washington, D.C.), the American Craft Museum (New York, NY), the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, England), the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, CT) and the High Museum of Art (Atlanta, GA) as well as in leading regional museums and institutions like Mobile Museum of Art (Mobile, AL), the Georgia Museum of Art (Athens, GA), the Art Museum of South Texas (Corpus Christi, TX), the J.B. Speed Museum (Louisville, KY), and the Mint Museum of Art and Design (Charlotte, NC). Throughout her influential career, Martha Connell served as an advisor and board member of the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, The Furniture Society, National Basketry Organization, Studio Art Quilt Associates, Society of North American Goldsmiths. Her devotion to contemporary studio crafts never flagged.

The United States Information Agency sponsored her selection of American woodturners in a show that was presented at 23 venues during a tour of 17 countries. Master woodturner Rudy Osolnik was also showcased by the gallery including a historic retrospective of his work shortly after his death in 2001. Martha Connell offered master furniture maker Sam Maloof his first solo exhibition in 1996 during the Olympics, the same year the artistry of Ed and Philip Moulthrop was celebrated in "Wonders in Wood.” She championed the work of many other fine furniture makers such as Craig Nutt both at the gallery and beyond through regional touring exhibits of contemporary southern furniture. Another influential crafts educator master jeweler Earl Pardon was also closely associated with Connell Gallery, which regularly presented exquisite exhibits of contemporary studio jewelry including works by Arlene Fisch, Harold O’Connor and other modern masters. Contemporary ceramics with a focus on figurative works in clay by leading innovators was another important focus of the gallery’s wide range of innovative craft aesthetics. The gallery was a premiere showcase for contemporary art quilts with internationally acclaimed studio quilt artists like Yvonne Porcella and Pamela Studstill regularly presented there. The finest of fiber arts, in particular basketry, was represented by Connell in exhibitions of outstanding works by John Garrett, Patti Lechman, Mary Jackson and many others. Her insightful survey of American basketmaking, “Tradition and Innovation,” organized for the Handweavers Guild of America, invited America’s most important basketry artists to present their works at Arrowmont School for the Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg and essentially defined contemporary American basketry for our time. Among her more recent curatorial initiatives were an acclaimed woodturning exhibit of three international recognized artists at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport in 2012, an exhibit of jewelers Earl and Tod Pardon for the Mobile Museum of Art in 2009, and a show of figurative ceramics for the Mobile museum and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art in 2006.

In lieu of flowers, a contribution in her name to the Decorative Arts and Design division of the High Museum of Art, or the charity of your choice, is suggested. A memorial service is planned by the family for Saturday, November 1, 2014 at 11 o'clock at Spring Hill Chapel, 1020 Spring Street NW. Speakers will include Sarah Schleuring, Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, High Museum of Art, nationally recognized Alabama artist and furniture maker Craig Nutt, and eminent collector Dr. Ronald Porter from South Carolina. Online condolences may be made at hmpattersonspringhill.com