Tradition/Innovation : Philip Simmons

Tradition Innovation: American Masterpieces of Southern Craft and Traditional Art

Philip Simmons (1912-2009)
Charleston, South Carolina
Ornamental Iron Worker
Traditional Artist

About the Artist

Philip Simmons’s ornamental ironwork graces many of the homes and buildings of Charleston, South Carolina. Working on many architectural restorations sponsored by the Historic Charleston Foundation, Simmons has created over five hundred iron gates, fences, balconies and window grills. Awarded a National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowship in 1982, Philip Simmons is a nationally recognized master craftsman.

Simmons passed away on
June 22, 2009.

Websites

http://www.aaa.si.edu
Transcript of oral history
interview with Simmons

http://www.nea.gov
(PDF page 13)

http://northbysouth.kenyon.edu
http://www.usca.edu
http://www.carolinaarts.com

Experience the Exhibit

Metals Gallery

Innovation/Evolution Gallery

Room Divider, c. 1970
Iron
90" x 72" x .5"

Photo by:
Philip Simmons Foundation, Inc.

What is mastery to Simmons?

“What blacksmithing taught me through the many years is that if you try, you can do it, that’s all. That’s all. If you try, not blacksmith only but to be plumbers, hairdressers, clothes making, all of those things, that if you try, you can do it.”