NIADA History

The National Institute of American Doll Artists was officially founded in May 1963, at the Watts Barr Resort near Ozone, Tennessee by Helen Bullard, who gathered with her co-founders, Gertrude Florian, Magge Head and Fawn Zeller. These artists, working primarily in isolation had come to know each other through the annual conventions of the United Federation of Doll Clubs (UFDC), a national doll collectors organization, which they had been attending since the early 1950s.

Fascinated by the work of the artists she was meeting, Helen had been writing their stories and publishing them in The Toy Trader, a small but widely read trade magazine edited by Elizabeth Andrews Fisher. The first monograph Helen completed and published was on Dorothy Heizer. It was followed by others on Fawn Zeller, Ruth Ellery Thorpe, Avis Lee, Dewees Cochran, Gwen Flather and Martha Thompson. Five of these artists came to the UFDC Convention in Buffalo in 1962 and Helen rented a nearby room in which their work was exhibited with great success.

In September of that year Helen and Dewees Cochran corresponded about organizing a formal group of creative dollmakers. The May 1963 meeting was set up at which Helen, Gertrude Florian, Magge Head and Fawn Zeller officially organized themselves into the National Institute of American Doll Artists. They invited Dewees Cochran, Dorothy Heizer, Ellery Thorpe, Martha Thompson, Halle Blakeley, Lewis Sorensen and Muriel Buryere to join them as charter members. The group’s aim was to work together toward a common goal: the recognition of original handmade dolls as fine art. The first NIADA exhibit was held on August 13, 1963, at the Los Angeles UFDC Convention. The work of the eleven charter members, plus that of newly elected member Tamara Steinheil, was displayed.

The original group of founding artists had put in place by-laws, procedures and standards for the acceptance of new members. Over the 1960s and early 1970s NIADA grew and further organized itself. Early artists who served as presidents, such as Astry Campbell, Wee Paulson and Magge Head incorporated the organization, established a Standards Committee and, as the group grew too large to continue meeting at the annual UFDC Convention, set up the group’s own annual meetings. Like contemporary NIADA artists, these pioneering dollmakers were also teachers, sharing their knowledge with other artists.

NIADA Today

The work of early NIADA artists reflects their era in terms of medium and subject. Historical figures, children and portraits were a predominant theme. Charter members Halle Blakeley, Muriel Bruyere, Gertrude Florian, Magge Head, Martha Thompson and Fawn Zeller worked in bisque and Parian. Dorothy Heizer, many of whose dolls reside in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., is known as a cloth sculptor. Dewees Cochran began working in balsa wood, then moved to composition. Lewis Sorenson made his dolls from wax.

Some contemporary artists still work in traditional mediums and concepts. Others have chosen newer mediums, such as polymer clays, air-dried clays and paperclay. Subject matter ranges across a broad spectrum, from traditional realistic figures to anthropomorphic creatures to somewhat-abstract pieces that merely suggest the human form. What has not changed since NIADA’s founding is that every element of a doll created by a NIADA artist is completely made by the artist. Each NIADA doll is authenticated as a painting or a piece of sculpture.

Today dolls by NIADA members are well represented in the print media, on the Internet, in value guides and in exhibitions worldwide. NIADA flourishes as an international organization with artist members from France, England, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Denmark, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The NIADA Annual Conference is always an exciting event at which member artists and patrons as well as visiting artists and collectors are welcome. At the conference, NIADA Artists share their experience and skill through master classes, program presentations, visiting artist critiques, the NIADA Gallery, the Annual Show and Sale and much more.