Norman Ringdahl Owner of The Prints and the Potter Gallery celebrates 35 years of custom picture framing service in Worcester. Twenty nine of those in the Highland Street location. Ringdahl and his expert staff, Annette Powers and Allan Small, have over 85 years combined gallery and framing experience. This extensive experience in the care and handling of all forms of art mediums, family memorabilia, and collectables ensures you can be confidant that whatever you bring to us will be handled with care and creativity. We will work with you to design a beautiful custom frame that enhances your artwork and your home or office. Together we will. safeguard your treasures for generations to come.
An accomplished artist, Ringdahl holds a BFA in Art and is recognized as a certified picture framer by the Professional Picture Framers Association.
Allan Small
Allan Is a talented and accomplished watercolor artist. His work has been exhibited in solo shows in Arlington VA, Alexandria VA, Portland ME, Washington DC, as well as juried exhibitions in Massachusetts. He has a extensive knowledge of American antiques and of art tecniques.Allan has designed and executed the custom framing of a historical documents and artwork starting in the 1980's first in Washington D.C then in Massachusetts . He has been with the Prints and Potter Gallery since 2002.
Annette Powers
Annette has spent her entire life in love with all of the arts. When given the opportunity to work for the internationally acclaimed Galleri Astley of Sweden she moved from Massachusetts to Seattle W.A to work with Elisabeth Nyhlén in the opening of the Seattle branch of the galleri Astley. She enjoyed four years working in the contemporary art gallery, privileged to have been able to help exhibit the works of phenomenal artists such as Ernst Neizvestny, Gunnar Norrman, Henrie Michaux, Don Yeoman to name a few before returning to Massachusetts in the mid nineties
. She has been with the Prints and Potter Gallery since 1998.
How Supporting the Arts is Both Thinking Green and Supporting American Jobs
How does saving American jobs fit into the picture? I wonder if the public sees the arts as the local businesses it is. As a locally owned American craft gallery we have represented hundreds of potters, glassblowers, jewelry makers, painters and printmakers, wood workers and other creative people who are an under represented community. Each artist and their crews are small American businesses.
How is it green, well the pottery and blown glass shown at a gallery like the Prints and the Potter is both practical and beautiful the kind of things people not only love to use, but treasure as heirlooms, as well. What does this mean in terms of a greener earth? To begin with, fine craft work is fundamentally different from disposable wares and trendy decor. Because good design is timeless, hand made crafts are treasured and passed from one generation to the next. Even if the artwork is damaged beyond repair ,by nature of most of the materials( glass ,pottery ,paper ,wood) used in the arts creation will easily go back to the earth. This means fine craft work from the Prints and the Potter aren’t destined to be tomorrow’s yard sale items, or just more “stuff” piling up on ever-expanding landfills.
It also is not traveling across the globe in enormous tankers.
An increasing number of the gallery’s suppliers, too, have switched from petroleum-based plastics to recycled paper products for their packing. Many potters and glass artists are particularly sensitive to green issues, turning to renewable sources of fuel whenever practical. Several potters represented are now using recycled vegetable oils for kiln firing; others have revived old techniques, such as pit-firing, using discarded “trash” lumber and other discarded waste products for fuel. Additionally, a number of the artists the gallery represents have turned from lead, oil, and cadmium-based pigments and inks to water-based non-toxic alternatives, both for original work and for limited-edition prints.
The gallery does its part in preserving our green earth by using environmentally renewable products whenever possible and by following responsible business practices. They avoid purchasing new styrofoam packing materials and recycle all packing products from their vendors. Discontinued mat-board and mat paper scraps are not discarded, but donated to the Worcester public schools for use in student art classes.
In the custom picture framing gallery, the Prints and the Potter carries Eco Care ã moldings, made using wood harvested from ecologically managed forests and finished with water-based, non-toxic varnishes. Museum mats of 100% rag board are made from recycled cotton fiber. Also available is Artique ã acid-free conservation matboard, made of natural fibers from sustainable forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. .
Owner Norman Ringdahl is himself an artist, and exhibitions by area artists and Worcester public school students are regular events. Artwork by Worcester county artists Mark Waitkus, Laurie Atchue and Allan Small are regularly shown.
The Prints and the Potter Gallery on Highland Street is a Worcester business specializing in fine handmade crafts by American artisans, many of from Massachusetts and the New England area. The gallery started out over thirty years ago as a Worcester artists’ cooperative, and the tradition of close relationships between the shop and the artists represented continues today.