52
Friday, March 29, 1985
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
4•I
As their reputations
have grown, sculptor
Irving Berg and dancer
Harriet Berg have
planted deep roots.
BY VICTORIA DIAZ
Special to The Jewish News
A
t 64 and 60, respectively,
Detroit sculptor/teacher
Irving Berg and his
dancer/ choreographer
wife, Harriet, show no
signs of seeking a quiet retirement
community, putting their feet up and
taking life a little easier. In fact, their
main problem these days seems to be
figuring out how to fit even more of the
things they love into their already
jam-packed daily schedules.
Irving has been a familiar figure
in the city's art circles since the early
1950s, when he began teaching in area
schools and held his first one-man
show at the Studio Theatre. Since
then, he's exhibited his sculpture
(most of it done in wood or metal) at
numerous shows in the area, been
commissioned to execute a number of
works in Ohio and Michigan (includ-
ing the large, brass-figured wall clock
at Westland Mall), and written and
published more than 20 articles on art
and art education.
For nearly 20 years, he's served as
he4d of the prestigious Art Depart-
mot at Cass Technical High School
q.ii in addition to his administrative
dudes there, teaches classes in art his-
tory, sculpture /and lettering.
"I ove teaching," says the tall,
professorial Big. "If I had to make a
choice be,tw eeri y sculpture and
teaching, I'd have a very tough time."
During the past six summers, in
his "spare time," he has also worked
with children at Camp Maas in Orton-
ville, where he serves as artist-in-
residence, along with wife Harriet.
"I think I have most of my profes-
sional fun during the summer at Camp -
Maas," says Irving. The kids work
with me and we do all kinds of projects
to enhance the area. We work mostly
in wood or concrete. I do the design,
then cast it with the kids. I usually
work with Judaic themes." Included in
the projects have been a Jerusalem
column, Jacob's ladder, brotherhood
symbol, menorahs and a Holocaust
memorial.
When it comes to his art, Irving
Berg likes to make it perfectly clear
that he's a sculptor and not a painter.
"I'm absolutely not into painting," he
contends, smiling. "Paintings are just
something you pass by in the museum
when you want to go look at the
sculpture."
Despite recent bouts with
pneumonia and appendicitis, slim,
blond Harriet Berg seems tireless. A
former student of contemporary dance
artists Martha Graham and Jose Li-
mon, she performs "at least once a
month" and teaches modern dance at
the Jewish Community Center of Met-
ropolitan Detroit three days a week,