Image courtesy of Ferdinand Hampson.

Ferdinand Hampson

In 1971, gallerist Ferdinand Hampson (1947– ) cofounded Habatat Galleries with Linda Boone (his sister) and Thomas Boone in a Detroit suburb. Habatat was the first gallery in the United States to focus exclusively on glass. Habatat has organized an international glass invitational each year since 1972 and has had several locations, including in Chicago. Since 2001, Habatat’s Michigan Gallery has been located in Royal Oak and is now run by Hampson’s son, Corey Hampson, and stepson, Aaron Schey. Alongside establishing Habatat, Hampson has authored several books on contemporary and studio glass, and along with his wife, Kathy Hampson, he organizes annual glass collectors’ trips around the world.

Ferdinand Hampson discusses naming Habatat Galleries.

Playing0:48 Transcript
Ferd Hampson

Ferdinand Hampson discusses naming Habatat Galleries. Oral history interview with Ferdinand Hampson by Catherine Whalen and Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, January 31, 2020, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 00:48.

Ferdinand Hampson: Yeah. We found the name as, you know, probably in the thesaurus or something. And it was a place to return to. And we thought in terms of collectors, that’s—it was nice. A nice name. And we spelled it out and didn’t like the way it looked. So we said, ‘[inaudible] if that was H-A-B-A-T-A-T, that it would be a more—a much more beautiful word.’ So that’s what we did. And actually served us well because we would go into other states now and have a name that was different than the way habitat is spelled because there’s generally some kind of habitat spelled correctly.

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Ferdinand Hampson talks about Paul Hollister coming to Habatat.

Playing1:23 Transcript
Ferd Hampson

Ferdinand Hampson talks about Paul Hollister coming to Habatat. Oral history interview with Ferdinand Hampson by Catherine Whalen and Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, January 3, 2020, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:23.

Ferdinand Hampson: Sure. Well, when he came to the gallery in 1977, he was—we did have a section where we had some studio glass out, aside from the paperweights. And he had an interest in it, a strong interest in it. And we told them that each year we have a national glass exhibition, and that he should come and write about that. And so the next year, which is always in April, he came and reviewed the show and met a number of the artists, and I think it was exciting for him. It was something very different. And so—and then in 1979, of course, he came back again to review the second paperweight show. And I believe he came a fourth time for another one of our national shows. And, yeah, I would say four times. I can’t think of another. But so I think that the gallery itself kind of piqued his interest in what was happening in glass other than paperweights.

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Ferdinand Hampson discusses Paul Hollister writing for Habatat Galleries.

Playing1:53 Transcript
Ferd Hampson

Ferdinand Hampson discusses Paul Hollister writing for Habatat Galleries. Oral history interview with Ferdinand Hampson by Catherine Whalen and Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, January 3, 2020, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:53.

Ferdinand Hampson: In 1981, I did a, I had an idea for a show. It was called Glass, Artist, and Influence. And the idea was if you took any one of the artists out, you know, they weren’t there, it would alter the history of what had happened so far in studio glass. And so I assembled the artists, [inaudible] and then the catalog—I mean, the exhibition, which I was working with a smaller museum in Michigan. The Detroit Institute of Arts said, ‘Oh, I like that exhibit. I want—I’d like to have that exhibit. We’d like to travel it.’ And so I’m delighted with that. However, when I submitted the catalog to them, they said, ‘Well, the director of the Detroit Institute can’t possibly write something when a commercial gallery has written something.’ And so the little museum stood up to them completely, and said, ‘Well then you can’t have the exhibit.’ And they were somewhat taken aback. Well, then the agreement that we made was that if I could have a published author co-sign it, then they would allow it. So I contacted Paul [Hollister] and submitted to him the information, and he made some, well, minor revisions to it, and so we co-published it, and it ultimately went to like 13 different museums.

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Ferdinand Hampson discusses Paul Hollister learning about studio glass at Habatat Galleries.

Playing0:42 Transcript
Ferd Hampson

Ferdinand Hampson discusses Paul Hollister learning about studio glass at Habatat Galleries. Oral history interview with Ferdinand Hampson by Catherine Whalen and Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, January 3, 2020, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 00:42.

Ferdinand Hampson: It was my impression that he didn’t. I believe he had some exposure through the Heller Gallery—in New York. But somehow the exposure was limited. Well, mainly because I think he would go to the Heller Gallery primarily when they’d have paperweights—and so he wasn’t fully aware, I think, of all that was happening. The Heller Gallery at that time was at 608 Madison Avenue—it was—it must’ve been like 500 square feet. And Habatat was 3,000 square feet. So we could show a lot more things.

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Ferdinand Hampson discusses studio glass collectors and the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass [AACG]

Playing1:14 Transcript
Ferd Hampson

Ferdinand Hampson discusses studio glass collectors and the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass [AACG]. Oral history interview with Ferdinand Hampson by Catherine Whalen and Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, January 31, 2020, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:14.

Ferdinand Hampson: Well, I think based on the excitement and based on so many people being of the same age and also being so many people from the Jewish community, there was a camaraderie. And so a man in New Jersey, Jerry Raphael, started a group and it morphed now into what is the AACG [Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass]. And that—you know, all of a sudden people would join this national organization. And it was exciting because now they had people of common interests, and they would get to know each other. And I started doing trips abroad, or elsewhere. And we’d have sometimes as many as 50 collectors at these. Well, during these trips these people would get to know each other and become friends, and it became a national network of people that were all excited about what was occurring in glass.

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Ferdinand Hampson discusses showing national and international artists at Habatat Gallery.

Playing0:58 Transcript
Ferd Hampson

Ferdinand Hampson discusses showing national and international artists at Habatat Gallery. Oral history interview with Ferdinand Hampson by Catherine Whalen and Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, January 31, 2020, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 00:58.

Ferdinand Hampson: Well, it wasn’t so much I was building an audience—in Europe or Australia or elsewhere, except for the United States. But I was exposing the collectors in the United States to artists from all over the world. In 1987 I changed the national to an international, which in some ways was painful because I had to eliminate a number of artists, American artists, to make room because we really didn’t have a very large space to make room for the international. And these are like people that I had become friends with. it was a very difficult decision. But, you know, I realized if I was gonna make things grow, I’d have to do that.

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Ferdinand (Ferd) Hampson, founder of Habatat Gallery, discusses networking with artists from Eastern Europe at the Corning ‘79 show.

Playing01:20 Transcript
Ferdinand (Ferd) Hampson

Ferdinand Hampson, founder of Habatat Gallery, discusses networking with artists from Eastern Europe at the Corning ‘79 show. Oral history interview with Ferdinand Hampson by Catherine Whalen and Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, January 31, 2020, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:20.

Ferdinand Hampson: However, in Europe—well, I’ll tell you a funny story. We used to do postcards for our exhibitions and we would send them out all over the world. And it was mainly my partner’s idea to do this. I had a partner at the time, and I pictured people getting them—just like throwing them on the streets of Paris and then watching people walk on them. I mean, because we never get any response back from anybody and never—you know? So I thought, ‘That’s probably a real waste of time.’ Well, 1979, I came to the opening of that Corning New Glass show. And, I mean, I’m a kid, you know? Waiting for us are all these people from communist governments, artists that are renowned translators that are telling to—representing their countries. And we had, like, a lineup. I mean, I went to go to the party and all of a sudden I was just like working all the way to like two in the morning with appointments with people. And so there’s kind of—was kind of the start of it all.

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Ferdinand Hampson discusses how he became interested in running a glass gallery.

Playing1:12 Transcript
Ferd Hampson

Ferdinand Hampson discusses how he became interested in running a glass gallery. Oral history interview with Ferdinand Hampson by Catherine Whalen and Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, January 31, 2020, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:12.

Ferdinand Hampson: My former partner—who was married to my sister, they wanted to open up an art gallery. And they solicited me to help; to help more with business and they would take care of more of the aesthetics, it seemed like that was their impression. So as they were telling me that, you know, that this would be a fun business to be involved in and such, I was doing research on it and there was literally nothing written about galleries. It’s very interesting. But, so it was coming right down to it where I had to make a decision. And there was a Gilbert Johnson paperweight. And I said, ‘You know what, it’s the weekend, ‘Would you mind if I just take this home for the weekend?’ And they said, ‘No, go ahead,’ you know. So I fit it into my pocket. And so that weekend I carried it with me. And whenever I would be thinking about the decision, which was quite often, I’d pull this out and look at it. And so that paperweight convinced me that I should get involved in the business.

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Ferdinand Hampson discusses his relationship with Doug Heller.

Playing0:27 Transcript
Ferd Hampson

Ferdinand Hampson discusses his relationship with Doug Heller. Oral history interview with Ferdinand Hampson by Catherine Whalen and Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, January 31, 2020, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 00:27.

Ferdinand Hampson: I have gotten along [with Doug Heller]. I mean, I have a great respect for him. I know how tough the business is, and I know that they are—you know, I feel—I said in my book that if you measured by competitors and I feel very good by that cause I had great appreciation for the Heller Gallery and, you know, and some others.

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