Featured Articles

  • Pandemic Zoom Group Becomes Forum for Potters

    When Deborah Bedwell transitioned from Executive Director to Trustee of Baltimore Clayworks, she made a point of continuing to teach one class each semester.  Her retirement at the end of 2011 from the organization she and a group of artists founded in 1980 did not curtail her enthusiasm for teaching.  For over a decade, Bedwell has continued to guide potters in a variety of topics in her Thursday morning class.  In March of 2020, she was doing just that when the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered Baltimore Clayworks.  The determination of Bedwell and her students not to be idled led to a response that transitioned from a simple on-line Zoom substitute for class to a generative forum that speaks to the collective nature of the origins of Baltimore Clayworks itself.

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  • The Art League Reopening for Spring Term

    As wintery February draws to a close and the evening light is starting to look like spring, there is reason to be hopeful that the long pandemic of 2020 might be coming to a close.  At The Art League of Alexandria, Virginia, nine months of mostly shuttered doors is giving way to registration for a spring session that just might look normal.  Last autumn we featured The Art League and its Ceramics Chair, Blair Meerfeld, in a story about the effects of closures on art communities.  We spoke to him recently about the challenges of re-opening.

  • The Art League Reopening for Spring Term

    As wintery February draws to a close and the evening light is starting to look like spring, there is reason to be hopeful that the long pandemic of 2020 might be coming to a close.  At The Art League of Alexandria, Virginia, nine months of mostly shuttered doors is giving way to registration for a spring session that just might look normal.  Last autumn we featured The Art League and its Ceramics Chair, Blair Meerfeld, in a story about the effects of closures on art communities.  We spoke to him recently about the challenges of re-opening.

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  • Caitlin Wismer and Wyland Elementary School: A Clay Gathering

    When art educator Caitlin Wismer started her first year as a long-term substitute teacher at Wyland Elementary School in the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh this past September, the year ahead looked challenging and uncertain.  Wyland is part of the Hampton School District, which made the decision to start the new academic year with a hybrid model, in light of the ubiquitous COVID-19 pandemic.  Students would be instructed through a mix of in-person and virtual learning. 

  • Amy Song: Tea Pots and Wood Firing at River Song Pottery

    With the new year upon us, Ceramic Supply Chicago is pleased to be reviving our Second Saturday Workshops – with a twist.  Like all things these days, the new year’s first workshop will be virtual, online through Instagram Live, and will feature a demonstration by potter Amy Song.  So, shake off that holiday lethargy, tune in, and get those creative juices flowing.

  • Pittsburgh Center for Arts and Media: Executive Director Kyle Houser at the Helm

    With a 75-year history as one of Pittsburgh’s major arts organizations, Pittsburgh Center for Arts and Media (PCA&M) has weathered many changes.  Founded as a conglomeration of individual art groups in 1945 as The Arts and Crafts Center, it grew to become a nexus for art education and exhibition with a unified vision and strong leadership.  When the center’s current Executive Director, Kyle Houser joined the organization in 2013, a decade of uncertainty had left the group in financial difficulty and organizational turmoil.  Houser’s dedication to rebuilding the center’s strengths contributed to a major reorganization in late 2019.  Houser says, “2020 was the year to turn the ship around.  Unfortunately, in March, we hit an iceberg.”

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  • Neil Estrick Gallery: Transformation through Adaptation

    One of 2020’s irritating catch words has been “pivot.”  Restaurants have pivoted to carry-out, then to outdoor dining. Schools have pivoted to remote instruction.  Arts organizations have pivoted to online concerts and shows.  For Neil Estrick, pivoting has been an integral part of his artistic life, beginning with a realization that Mathematics was a boring college major.  This prominent Chicago-area potter and owner of Neil Estrick Gallery in Grayslake has always employed a practical analytic sense, softened by the nudges of his heart, to make adaptations to his work, never fearful of going in a different direction. 

  • Blair Meerfeld and The Art League School of Alexandria: Community of Inspiration

    When Blair Meerfeld left a solitary Colorado life as a studio potter in 2009 to accept a position at a thriving East Coast art school, he had no idea how radically his life would change.  As the Chair of the Ceramics Department at The Art League in Alexandria, Virginia, Meerfeld oversees over 1,400 students a year in a program that has continued to grow under his stewardship.  In a position that he thought he would keep for a year or two before returning to his independent artist’s life, his days are filled with constant interaction with students, faculty and administration.  Yet it was not until the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all operations at The Art League that Meerfeld was able to reflect on his experience and fully appreciate the importance of human interaction in the creative process.

  • Jill Leary and Railyard Arts Studio: Persistence During a Pandemic

    As the year 2020 got underway, ceramic artist and teacher Jill Leary was looking forward to another year of growth at her Westchester studio and school, Railyard Arts Studio.  Open for about eighteen months, the converted former lumber yard building was humming with activity, with potters busy in the clay studio and a variety of artists painting, print making, and working in stained glass in the big “art room.”  Leary’s dream of creating a warm and welcoming community for artists had become a reality.  By March, that dream was under attack by a micro-organism called COVID-19.

  • Brian Peters, Digital Clay

    As we are well into the new century, there is little left in our lives that has not been touched and transformed by the digital revolution of the late 20th century.  Even the humble potter, with hands in the earth, markets on social media, buys supplies online, and relies on digital programming for the kiln.  Nevertheless, the basic work of transforming an idea into clay remains as it has been for centuries.  Pittsburgh spatial artist and designer Brian Peters is changing all that.  Using 3-D printing technology, Peters creates ceramic blocks and tiles for architectural installations and for smaller-scale art pieces, starting not with a slug of clay but with a computer.

  • Octogenarian Potter Lou Ann Gallanar

    In many ways, a piece of artwork is a hidden trove of the life experience of the artist, waiting for the appreciator to unearth and interpret through the filter of personal experience.  Octogenarian Lou Ann Gallanar understands the mysteries of artistic communication, with decades of expression in clay throughout her many life journeys.  From a recreational class offered by a southern California park program through exhibits and teaching at art centers, the recently widowed 88-year-old Gallanar works on new “series” in her garage studio, still reaching out to communicate through clay.