Jon Michael Route
BIOGRAPHY
Jon Route has been a metalsmith working commercially, academically and independently, for over 40 years. Born in 1954, he received a BS in Art from the University of Wisconsin-Stout and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Jon worked in an architectural metals firm and as a jeweler before striking out on his own as an independent craft-artist. He has been invited twice to teach at U-W-Stout, Menomonie, Wisconsin as an adjunct professor as a sabbatical replacement and has given many workshops throughout his career on the technical aspects of his craft. He has exhibited his hand constructed vessel forms, teapots and wall pieces at some of the best art/craft festival events in the United States including the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, the American Craft Expo in Evanston, the Philadelphia Craft Show, and the Smithsonian Craft Show. He is a 1998 recipient of a Wisconsin Individual Artist Fellowship and his pewter teapot was featured in Metalsmith Magazine’s 2001 “Exhibition in Print”.
Route’s work was chosen in 2001 to be included at the American Craft Museum in New York in an exhibition entitled “Objects for Use: Handmade By Design”, and the accompanying book published by Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Paul Smith, Director Emeritus, American Craft Museum, and General Editor. In 2006, Jon was invited to participate in an exhibition honoring the 28 year teaching collaboration between Fred Fenster and Eleanor Moty in the University of Wisconsin, Madison Art Metals program, organized by the Chazen Museum of Art, U-W Madison, Wisconsin, and at an exhibition at the West Bend Art Museum entitled “Time For A Nice Cuppa: Wisconsin Teapots”, in West Bend, Wisconsin. In 2009 Jon was invited by the Charles Allis Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to exhibit a retrospective of his work in his first solo museum show entitled, “For the Love of Metal”. Route’s work was commissioned by the Wisconsin Foundation for the Arts to create the 2010 Governor’s Awards in Support of the Arts.
Jon has served as a Juror and Advisor to several fairs and festivals and two years as a Director on the board of the National Association of Independent Artists. He is a founding and current board member of Frederic Arts, Inc. and maintains his studio as a part of One 10 Gallery in the small town of Frederic, in northwestern Wisconsin.
Restless Teapot. Available, $3000
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Four Wheeler
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Tall Teapot, available. $1500.
In 2010, Jon was commissioned to Create the Governor's Award for support of the Arts. A video was produced by the Wisconsin Foundation for the Arts.
You can view the video here: