Oral History Interview with Tage Frid, January 1997
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Description
Interview of Tage Frid conducted by Rosanne Somerson in Frid's home on January 1, 1997. Frid speaks of his time building houses in Iceland and working in Denmark before moving to the United States to teach. Frid also recalls opening Shop One in Rochester and working with many of his former students. Along with this, Frid discusses what he values in woodworking and design with a model of one of his chairs.
Biographical/Historical Note
Tage Frid (1915-2004) was a woodworker, educator, and author who taught at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1962-1985. He was educated in Denmark as a journeyman, serving for 5 years as an apprentice to master craftsman Gronlund Jensen. He graduated from the Vedins School in Copenhagen in 1940 and from the Graduate School for Interior Design in Copenhagen in 1944. Prior to coming to RISD, Frid taught at the School for American Craftsmen at Alfred University in New York, and the Rochester Institute of Technology. Frid was a Fellow of the American Crafts Council and the recipient of an honorary doctorate from RISD in 1984, the Governor’s Award of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (1992) and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Furniture Society (2001).
Frid is interviewed by his former student Rosanne Somerson who served as the president of the Rhode Island School of Design from 2015-2021, the first alumna to be named president. She received her BFA in Industrial Design at RISD in 1976 and co-founded the Furniture department in 1995, a department she ran until 2010. The interview takes place on January 1997. Produced by Frank Muhly.
RISD Fleet Library Catalog Record
Recommended Citation
Frid, Tage; Somerson, Rosanne; Archives, RISD; and Muhly, Frank, "Oral History Interview with Tage Frid, January 1997" (1997). RISD Oral History Project. 15.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/archives_oralhistories/15
Date of Interview
01/01/97
Interviewer
Rosanne Somerson
Interviewee
Tage Frid
Department
Furniture Design
Run Time
38 min.
Original Format(s)
VHS
Keywords
Tage Frid, Jewelry + Metalsmithing, Industrial Design, Albert Bush-Brown, Lee Hall, Merlin Szasz, Jun Kaneko, Ceramics, Norm Schulman, Art Wood, Dieter Roth, Frances Wright Caroe, G.I. Bill, Crafts, Glass, Dale Chihuly, Franz Wildenheim, Furniture Design
Disciplines
Furniture Design | Industrial and Product Design