Should Pots be in Museums?

Image: Bowl, Jinny Whitehead

For the most part, this blog is used to keep members apprised of the travelling exhibition BC-in-a-Box and the APA component Wide Open. However, we are considering having a blog with different questions to get members thinking about issues in contemporary ceramics and to give them a chance to express their point of view. We are hoping you will take the time to log in and leave a comment.If we get interesting comments, we'll report them in the next PGBC Newsletter.

On Friday, September 9^th, the North-West Ceramics Foundation sponsored a panel discussion at Emily Carr University on the recently-published book Thrown: British Columbia’s Apprentices of Bernard Leach and their Contemporaries. The book grew out of a very successful exhibition held at the Belkin in 2004 that included some 600 studio pots made by Leach apprentices Glenn Lewis, John Reeve, Michael Henry and Ian Steele as well as by BC ceramists influenced by these apprentices including Charmian Johnson, Gathie Falk, Wayne Ngan and others. Works for the exhibition were selected from collections around BC and Canada, with some literally being taken out of their owners’ dishwashers. Archival photographs, letters and other materials contributed to the understanding and context of the exhibition and the subsequent publication.

An especially interesting and heated discussion arose among the participants regarding whether or not ceramics should be collected by museums. One person expressed the opinion that pottery is kept alive through use, and museums are nothing short of a tomb. Another disagreed, stating that it is in museums and galleries that ceramics become valued additions to the artistic lexicon, and that by collecting ceramics, museums and galleries contribute to the value and context of these works. One potter suggested that ceramics go through different stages of function, beginning with use and then finding a new role to play in being displayed, especially as the work gains provenance, while another thought ceramics could spend more time developing the sort of discourse the art world admires and through which museums justify their collections of art.

What do you think? Should pots be collected by museums or left out to be used by the people who treasure them? If you attended the panel but did not get a chance to express your point of view, or even if you did not, please log on to our BC-in-a-box blog and have your say. We hope to hear from you—if we get some interesting ideas, we’ll print them in the next newsletter.

Thanks to Debra Sloan for her notes on the panel.

For more information on the North-West Ceramics Foundation, please see our website at www.nwcf.ca.

"Wide Open" opens at the Gallery of BC Ceramics

The Alberta Potters Association exhibition Alberta In A Box: Wide Open  opened in Vancouver at the Gallery of BC Ceramics November 12 and will be on view until December 1, 2011. For more information on the show, please see our earlier post for August 29. These pictures come to us courtesy of our main tech volunteer, Linda Lewis. The gallery certainly looks lovely during one of our all-so-rare sunny days, so we hope that our members and friends in the Vancouver region come and see what their fellow potters in Alberta are doing. We hope to see you here!

The Edge of Here in Medicine Hat

BC-in-a-Box: The Edge of Here is on display in Medicine Hat, Alberta until October 26. It looks just great in the gallery, and it seems as if quite a few people are getting a chance to see it. These pictures came from Louise Cormier, who is one of the organizers of the Alberta show Wide Open. I had to crop a few close to the boxes as I didn't have permission from the people in the pictures, but they were certainly looking closely at the show. It's a beautiful gallery. The last three close-ups are of works by Glenys Marshall-Inman, Gillian MacMillan and Sheri Ukrainetz. Just above that, on the table with four works, you can just make out works by Nora Vaillant, Amy Gogarty, Danny Kostyshin and Chris Heywood. Be sure to check out the on-line catalogue that is on the Potters Guild of BC website for information and images of all the works.

"Wide Open" in Courtenay

The Alberta Potters Association exhibition Alberta In A Box: Wide Open has opened very wide in Courtenay, BC at the Comox Valley Art Gallery. It will be on display from October 1 to November 5, at which time it will travel to Vancouver to be in the Gallery of BC Ceramics from November 12 to December 1. For more information on the show, please see our earlier post for August 29. These pictures come to us courtesy of the curator of the Comox Valley Art Gallery, Anh Le. What a lovely job the gallery did setting up the show! We hope our members on Vancouver Island will have a chance to view the exhibition and to introduce family and friends to ceramics from "the other side of the mountains."

For more on the Comox Valley Art Gallery, please see their website at

www.comoxvalleyartgallery.com

On another note, both the APA exhibition and BC-in-a-Box: The Edge of Here are now scheduled to be shown at Medalta in Medicine Hat in January and February 2012. It will be great to have both shows together!

Red Deer College Exhibition

Well, the show is up and it looks great! Dawn Detarando of Voyager Tile (www.voyagertile.ca) in Red Deer did the honours of setting up the show in the glass cases of the new Fine Arts Building. Unfortunately, we had one work break--Debra Sloan's wonderful Painted Baby lept off its shelf in the middle of the night. We were so sorry this happened, and that's why you don't see that work in the pictures. At least everything arrived in perfect order, so the packing and unpacking went perfectly. We are hoping we will get a new piece by Debra for the Medicine Hat exhibition in October. Robin Lambert, who looks after the cases, sent us these pictures--thanks Robin and Dawn! The exhibition will be in Red Deer until September 30.

The pictures are, in order from the top:

1) General overview of the exhibition in the cases. It's nice to think that so many people will be able to see the work daily over the course of the show.

2) (l-r) Joan Barnet, Judy Burke, Amy Chang

3) (l-r) Jean Pederson Ellis, Jackie Frioud, Amy Gogarty

4) (l-r) Sheila Morissette, Kathryn O'Regan, Sharon Reay

5) (l/r) Elizabeth Harris Nichols, Tracy Harrison

We'll try to get pictures of the other works as time goes on.

Alberta Potters Association "Wide Open"

Images, top to bottom:
Andrea Revoy. Lickin' Pickin' Chickin'. n.d. Hand-built, Earthenware, Cone 04 oxidation fired.

Deborah Williams. Dialogue in Black and White. 2011. Porcelain, naked raku. 15 x 15 x 5 cm.

Ed Bamiling. Rockfall. 2011. Stoneware, glaze, metalic oxides. Oxidation, raku fired, 21 x 14 x 7.5 cm.

As part of our BC-in-A-Box exhibition, we are collaborating with the Alberta Potters Association’s (APA) on a travelling inter-provincial exchange. The APA show, Alberta In A Box: Wide Open will be on view in the Arts and Craft Gallery of the Comox Valley Art Gallery in Courtenay BC, October 1 to November 5. It will then travel to Vancouver, where it will be on display at the Gallery of BC Ceramics November 12 to December 1. We are hoping our members in both locations will have the opportunity to see this excellent exhibition.

Wide Open contains fifty-one works by thirty-nine Alberta ceramic artists. Each work fits within a 6” cubed box, making the works essentially miniatures. As the organizers Louise Cormier and Elaine Harrison suggest, quoting French philosopher Gaston Bachelard, “. . . the minuscule, a narrow gate, opens up an entire world.” They continue, “These works evoke many ‘worlds’ such as diverse approaches, concepts and techniques” as befits the title. The diversity in particular caught the attention of Aaron Nelson, the exhibition juror, who winnowed the initial field of sixty-seven works down to fifty-one. Nelson looked for work that “references historical and contemporary precedents . . . [that moved] beyond initial inspirations and embraced exploration in a unique and personal way.”

Both the PGBC and the APA are volunteer organizations that aspire to encourage the education, development and promotion of ceramic arts. Founded in 1969, the APA has supported biannual exhibitions for its members, which travel around the province. These exhibitions promote appreciation and understanding of the ceramic arts to the public, and they offer opportunities for members to profile themselves and Alberta ceramics on a national and international level.

Former Vancouverite Aaron Nelson, who is now the Artistic Director of the Medalta International Artists in Residence (MIAIR) in Medicine Hat, Alberta, writes, “I have selected pieces for this exhibition that I felt resonated with the incredible diversity of this province. It is apparent in the work selected that many artists have not only a deep connection with the material, but also to the rich culture, heritage and landscape of this region.” What more reason could one have for making sure he or she sees this exhibition?

For more on the Alberta Potters Association, please see their website at www.albertapottersassociation.com.

On our way!

Hello! We are on our way! The work has all been carefully packed into the BC-in-a-Box boxes (which were made by Keith Rice-Jones--thanks!!!) and then placed into larger double-walled heavy cardboard boxes. Today Greyhound will collect them and start them on their journey.

The first stop is at Red Deer College, in Red Deer, Alberta, where they will be shown in the new Visual Arts building. The curator there is Robin Lambert, who studied ceramics at ACAD and the University of Regina. This exhibition will run from September 1 to September 30, so if you have friends or relatives in the Red Deer area, be sure to let them know about it. We hope to post images of the exhibition in situ when they are available.

Hello! Welcome to the blog in support of the Potters Guild of British Columbia's travelling exhibition BC-in-a-Box 3: The Edge of Here. This blog will give background on the exhibition, the participants and the venues to which the exhibition will travel. As work is exhibited, we will post images of the show in situ. We hope you will be able to see the show, and that you will want to comment, but, if not, we also have the on-line version of the exhibition you can view.
The first exhibition will take place at Red Deer College in the Visual Art Department from September 1 to September 30. The show will then travel to the Medicine Hat Cultural Centre, where it will be on view from October 5 to October 26.

The image above is by Joan Barnet, wedge of edges. It was selected for special recognition by the two artists we invited to view and comment on our exhibition, Sally Michener and Mary Daniel. Here's what they said:

"Joan Barnet's wedge of edges combines technical confidence, elegance and tactile qualities that make you want to touch it. It demonstrates what can be done with clay and the spontaneous results of raku firing. Offering contrast, depth and thoughtful working of the clay; it is open to possibilities and shows the essence of clay. And it addresses the theme of 'the edge'! "

For these reasons, Joan Barnet's work has been selected to represent our exhibition as the publicity image, and it has been designated with the Special Merit Award. Congratulations Joan!

For more information about the Potters Guild of British Columbia and the Gallery of BC Ceramics, please see our website at http://www.bcpotters.com/.