Our purpose is to establish an ongoing international dialogue about contemporary displays that will help to promote stone appreciation. We encourage members of the global viewing stone community to create new ways of displaying stones that reflect your life in the 21st century, your regional geology, your customs, craft and culture. Unfamiliar types of stones, bases, accessories and materials are welcome. We are not confined to displaying viewing stones in either the traditional Japanese or Chinese manner. These are options available to us and we should respect and acknowledge the established ways of displaying stones, but they are not the only way. It is timely to explore exciting new options to create stone displays that have bases, display tables, and other accessories that reflect our regional and national arts and crafts.

This large chert sea coast stone resting on a stool might suggest a prehistoric giant snail. The density and diversity of surface features—punctures, scars, lineations, imprints, gougings—invite sustained contemplation.

This stone from Palos Verdes, California, is one of a series of stone and stool displays created by artist Paul A. Harris. His collection of these paired objects will be an integral part of a new exhibition, Interpreting the Natural: Contemporary Visions of Scholars’ Rocks, that will be held from September 20, 2026 through January 17, 2017, in Phoenix Hall of the Art Museum Complex in Duxbury, Massachusetts 02332.