The logo for the Silvermine Guild of Artists (now called the Silvermine Arts Center) was designed by prominent industrial designer and artist John Vassos., but his association with the organization is almost forgotten. The logo is a broad tree, divided into five branches representing the union of Painting, Sculpture, Drama , Music and Dance. The symbols hold reference to a common allegiance, among the basic human arts. Vassos thought the arts must be rooted in a place like Silvermine which was a very significant place to John Vassos who lived very close to it on Comstock Hill in the Silvermine area of Norwalk, Connecticut.  Vassos was the President of the guild for 10 terms, in 1936, 1940, 1941, 1949-1955 and raised significant funds for the center using his considerable influence with RCA, where he worked as a consultant designer for almost four decades.  The school building was named the John Vassos building in honor of his fundraising and leadership of the organization, as noted in the New York Times on May 27, 1950 which discusses the $50,000 gift received for the building. I am not sure if the sign is still there, please let me know if you are there. When he died, an exhibition "A Tribute to John Vassos, 1898-1985" was held for him in the "Vassos Gallery" which examined his leadership of the organization and role as a driving force behind the development of the Silvermine Guild. Fellow artist and Silvermine member Carlus Dyer in his moving tribute to John Vassos at the opening of the Vassos memorial exhibit, said that "Vassos  was the most outstanding of its artist members.. and was vital to the expansion of the Guild as an art center of national status." His wide contributions to this organization are not mentioned on the Silvermine Story on their website, one of many exclusions for John Vassos. I hope that my work rediscovering Vassos and my new biography can help shed light on his significant contribution to this important regional art center and to American industrial design in the 20th century. 

Big thanks to the Art Deco Society of Washington DC and especially Jim Linz, President Emeritus, and Steve Knight, President, for inviting me to speak at the Bowie Library today followed by a tour of the National Capital Radio and Television Museum (also a sponsor). Jim brought not one but two Vassos-designed RCA Victor Specials from his collection which illustrated perfectly my point that Vassos used modernistic shapes and new materials in his quest to bring modern design to RCA. Jim also brought along a teardrop phonograph player which is not designed by Vassos (he didn't like to use extreme streamlined shapes). The audience included not one but two former employees of RCA, one was an engineer who worked for many years for RCA Limited in Montreal and the other was also an engineer and an RCA employee in Camden, NJ where John Vassos had an office for many years. Other audience members included a graphic designer who fell in love with Vassos's graphic illustrations and members of the Art Deco Society of Washington DC. They asked amazing questions like what was one surprising thing that I found out about Vassos during my research? How did the book Phobia influence his industrial design work? What were his other books? Was he a mentor to other artists and designers? What languages did he speak? The event was so stimulating to me and enjoyable for the audience too, based on the feedback I received. After the talk, we headed to the National Capital Radio and Television Museum for a tour of their excellent collection providing an overview of radio and television history.  I was happy that their collection included a recently acquired Vassos-designed TRK-12 television. I loved seeing the early, crystal radio sets brought to life by their wonderful docents and the 1920s radios like the rare piano shaped radio - backing up a main point in my talk that radio had no concrete shape or form and could go in any direction. There was no consensus about what it should look like. My other favorite in their collection was the art deco radio that doubled as a bar.