Each semester, we present an exhibition of works from all students enrolled in ceramics courses, from intro-level undergraduates to grad students. It's a great way to cap off the semester, and also gives us an opportunity to invite the public into the studio and share what we have been up to. Here's a sample of this year's exhibition:
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas is pleased to announce a transformational $40 million gift to Campaign Arkansas from the Windgate Charitable Foundation that will create the new Windgate Art and Design District in the heart of south Fayetteville.
The Windgate Art and Design District will expand on the School of Art’s Hill Avenue sculpture complex that opened in 2016.
The district will be developed close to campus, near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Hill Avenue. It will feature several new buildings for art and design classrooms, labs, studios and potentially a public gallery space. The district will bring together art, design and education, while serving as the central hub for the student and faculty artists and designers at the University of Arkansas and beyond.
“This is a tremendous step forward,” said Chancellor Joseph E. Steinmetz. “Through this partnership with the Windgate Charitable Foundation, the University of Arkansas will be able to achieve nationally competitive standing in the arts, which will in turn place the state of Arkansas on the map as one of the most innovative leaders in the global arts community.
“As a land-grant institution, we are charged with serving the public interest through outreach,” he added. “Thanks to the Windgate Charitable Foundation’s generosity, we will now be able to do this for our community in an unprecedented way. We thank the Windgate Charitable Foundation for this amazing gift.”
The Windgate Art and Design District will further expand the reach and scope of the university’s School of Art, which was established in August 2017 thanks to a $120 million gift from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation. The School of Art in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is the first and only accredited, collegiate school of art in the state of Arkansas.
“The Windgate Foundation is proud to partner with the new School of Art and to help it and our state's entire arts community continue to grow,” said John E. Brown, executive director of the Windgate Charitable Foundation. “Our board strives to develop and support the arts in many states, and the Windgate Art and Design District will be an outstanding example of the foundation's highest ideals for the arts and education. In fact, this commitment is the largest single grant awarded by the foundation in our 25-year history."
Robyn Horn, board member of the Windgate Charitable Foundation, said she also believes the spaces in the Windgate Art and Design District will provide the opportunity to engage the community with programming that is free, open and accessible to the public.
“The studio and design space will serve as key components to the Windgate Art and Design District and will invite the community to engage with School of Art faculty, students and international arts programs,” she said.
The Windgate Charitable Foundation has already made a significant impact on the School of Art, said Todd Shields, dean of the Fulbright College.
“In 2014, the Foundation gave more than $2 million to the former Department of Art, providing crucial funding that enabled faculty to expand curricula, improve teaching techniques, fund opportunities for student travel, enhance technologies and procure new equipment,” Shields explained.
The school used $500,000 of this gift in combination with $8 million from the university to build the School of Art’s sculpture facility. Architects from Modus Studio in Fayetteville and El Dorado Inc. in Kansas City, Missouri, designed the building, which houses studio classrooms and shops for sculpture, the school’s wood shop and advanced technology lab, graduate student studios and classroom space for the school’s freshman foundation classes.
Shields said that as a result of the opportunities and new facilities these funds created the number of art history, art education, graphic design and studio art majors increased significantly.
“With the Windgate Charitable Foundation’s help our students achieved higher levels of performance and became more competitive,” Shields said. “We are incredibly grateful for the continued support and cannot wait to see the amazing impact this next phase of our partnership will have.”
All of this growth directly contributed to the department’s natural evolution into a school, said Jeannie Hulen, associate dean of fine arts for Fulbright College and former chair of the department of art.
“Thanks to the Windgate Charitable Foundation, we were able to give sculpture a state-of-the-art, nationally competitive facility,” Hulen said. “By providing art and design students with the resources necessary for synthesis, as well as guidance from invested faculty, the School of Art is able to cultivate creative thinkers and leaders committed to inventive problem solving through art and design.”
Hulen said the creation of the Windgate Art and Design District will free up space in the university’s Fine Arts Center, which will help the School of Art develop planned graduate programs in art education and art history.
“The Northwest Arkansas region, as well as the state and nation, require significant investment in arts education, so this latest gift from the Windgate Charitable Foundation will help the University of Arkansas become a catalyst for that change,” Hulen said.
Additionally, Hulen said the school plans to capitalize on the growth of the visual arts in the region to further enhance the university’s partnership with nearby Bentonville-based Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
“Together, we are establishing the groundwork for future growth that will directly empower the local and national art and design community and have a resounding positive effect on the culture of the entire state,” she said.
For more information about the Windgate Art and Design District or the School of Art, please visit art.uark.edu.
About the Windgate Charitable Foundation: The Windgate Charitable Foundation is a private grant-making foundation established by an Arkansas family in 1993. One of its principal goals is to fund significant educational programs in the visual arts, as well as to provide funding to K-12 and higher educational institutions to develop and support the arts, scholarships and effective instructional programs.
The newly hired director of the Momentary, which will be part of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, moved to Bentonville a week ago in preparation for a 2020 opening. Lieven Bertels has led an international career in visual and performing arts and will be involved in the look of the Momentary, which will be built in the former Kraft Foods plant in downtown Bentonville, as well as its programming and vision.
Follow the link below for the KUAF interview.
Artaxis is hosting 24 conversations by our members streaming live from 16 countries over 12 hours on our Artaxis Facebook page. Each artist will spend 30 minutes answering questions submitted via the form on this page. The event begins at 10:00 am Eastern Standard Time on October 10th, 2017.
We'll be projecting the event in the ceramics studio, so feel free to stop by anytime!
UARK Ceramics is pleased to announce an unprecedented gift from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation to establish the University of Arkansas School of Art. The foundation has made a $120 million gift, which is the largest ever given to a U.S. university to support or establish a school of art.
The $120 million gift will be allocated to three primary goals:
Providing unprecedented levels of financial support for students in the form of scholarships, travel grants and internship opportunities.
Engaging the region in outreach and public service through partnerships with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and a variety of community arts organizations.
Expanding graduate programs and degree offerings in art history, art education and graphic design.
For more information, please visit: http://news.uark.edu/articles/39335/visionary-gift-creates-school-of-art-transforms-access-to-art-in-arkansas
Kathy Butterly, Ling Chun, Future Retrieval, Valerie Hegarty, Cody Hoyt, Heidi Lau, Rebecca Morgan, Joakim Ojanen, Elise Siegel, Anthony Sonnenberg, Guðmundur Thoroddsen, Cristina Tufiño
June 22 - August 11, 2017
September 29th Deadline.
About the exhibition:
The Greater Denton Arts Council proudly presents the 31st Annual Materials: Hard + Soft National Contemporary Craft Competition and Exhibition. Recognized as one of the premier craft exhibitions in the country, Materials: Hard + Soft began in 1987 and was originally initiated by area artist Georgia Leach Gough. The exhibition celebrates the evolving field of contemporary craft and the remarkable creativity and innovation of artists who push the boundaries of their chosen media. Approximately 70 works will be selected by an esteemed juror for exhibition at the Patterson-Appleton Arts Center in Denton, Texas.
LOTS of upcoming NCECA deadlines:
Venue Originated Exhibition Proposals—DEADLINE: June 7
NCECA Annual, "Visual Voices"—DEADLINE: June 14
Gallery Expo—DEADLINE: June 21
Projects Space—DEADLINE: June 28
Student Interests—DEADLINE: September 6
Emerging Artists—DEADLINE: September 6
National Student Juried Exhibition—DEADLINE: September 27
Hey recent grads—looking for that next opportunity to keep you working in clay? You might check out The Clay Studio's Work Exchange Program.
"The Work Exchange Program is a 1-2 year self-directed, independent study, educational program that provides its participants with unlimited access to a shared studio, as well as, affordable materials, firings, critiques and development opportunities to help them achieve their objectives as an artist. In exchange each individual provides 40 hours a month of support and is responsible for various tasks needed to maintain a functioning ceramics studio. Tasks are varied but some examples include studio maintenance, customer service, assisting special events, glaze preparation, kiln operation, teaching, community outreach, gallery experience and sales."
More info here: http://www.theclaystudio.org/apply/workexchange.php
Each semester, we present an exhibition of works from all students enrolled in ceramics courses, from intro-level undergraduates to grad students. It's a great way to cap off the semester, and also gives us an opportunity to invite the public into the studio and share what we have been up to. Here's a sample of this year's exhibition:
In Brooklyn? Check out Linda Lopez's paperweight in the inaugural exhibition at Fisher Parrish!
April 14th, 2017 – June 4th, 2017
Fisher Parrish Gallery is pleased to present our inaugural exhibition The Paperweight Show - an exhibition of original small works by over 100 contemporary artists and designers. The paperweight is a small weighty sculpture to which we have ascribed one very simple function (a somewhat obsolete function today). From clearly 'designed' and functional works, to more conceptual explorations of a specific function, The Paperweight Show aims to engage both established and emerging artists and designers in an important dialogue - pushing your own disciplinary boundaries and allowing for a deeper understanding of the object.
The J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences Fine Arts Faculty Showcase continues with a highlight of Department of Art faculty member Adam Posnak, who will present "Pottery Does the Things of Vodun (Voodoo)" at 4 p.m. Friday, April 21, in 319 Old Main.
Posnak will discuss his personal ceramic work, collaborations with African-Atlantic religious communities and his current research in West Africa. The event is free and open to the public.
Posnak earned his B.A. at Macalester College and his M.F.A. at Lousiana State University. He has exhibited his work in multiple venues across the United States, including showings in Philadelphia, Kansas City, Chicago and Minneapolis.
Posnak also won an Arkansas Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship and held a residency at Tainan National University of the Arts in Taiwan.
His current work explores the making and ritual use of Vodun pottery in western Ghana. He traveled there in summer of 2016 and presented an invited lecture at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
We're super-excited to announce that Laura Polaski will be included in Kent State's National Ceramics Invitational. She will be showing alongside Max Seinfeld and Emily Duke. The exhibition runs March 2 – April 15, 2017.
For more info: https://www.kent.edu/galleries/event/kent-state-national-ceramics-invitational
The Ceramics Program at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, is pleased to announce an open call for a Resident Artist for the 2017-2018 academic year. The program has an exceptional list of past residents that includes David East, Adam Shiverdecker, Kensuke Yamada, Andrea Marquis, Mallory Wetherell, Roberta Massuch, Michael Ashley, Drew Ippoliti, Julie Malen, Jessica Brandl, and Dennis Ritter. The resident artist serves an important role as a mentor to both the undergraduate and graduate programs, and compliments two full time faculty, a full time ceramics technician, adjunct faulty, and 4-6 MFA students. The resident artist will teach 1-2 courses each semester, and is provided with a 150 square foot studio space, materials, and kiln access.
You can apply here: https://temple.slideroom.com/#/login/program/35801
We were thrilled to be able to bring Jenni Sorkin to town this past week for an excellent lecture about her text "Live Form" and the exhibition, "Revolution in the Making" she recently co-curated at Hauser, Wirth, and Schimmel in Los Angeles. Jenni also spent time doing individual studio visits with our students and working with our Graduate Ceramics Seminar on their current writing project.
THURSDAY MARCH 9TH, 6-8 PM, LITTLE BREAD COMPANY
Once again, the Ceramics area is holding a soup and bowl sale with Little Bread Co. The sale features hand-crafted bowls filled with homemade Little Bread Co. soup for $15 each. Meet current students and faculty in the ceramics program, support the art community, help the student organization bring in visiting lecture artists, and attend the annual ceramics conference, NCECA, held in Portland, Oregon
The Pottery Technician’s primary responsibility is the facilitation of all technical and physical aspects of artists’ residencies. They directly support artists-in-residence through facility, process, and materials instruction. The Pottery Technician meets with artists-in-residence on a daily basis and guides the technical development of their progress in the studio. The Pottery Technician also engages in other Arts/Industry and John Michael Kohler Arts Center programming.
A Bachelor’s degree is required with an emphasis in ceramics or sculpture, 2–3 years experience with technical requirements, facilities management abilities including equipment maintenance and repair, excellent communication and organizational skills.
Technical requirements include slip-casting, model-making and mold-making skills. Experience with plaster, clay, and glaze technology and formulation, and firing procedures is essential.
Follow the link below for complete details.
Maybe the coolest show I'm in this year... "Infinity Pool" curated by Rebecca Morgan and Stephen Eakin for Spring / Break NY, "examines the artist as primary examiner, critical of both the inward and outward scope of art making and expression and their place in it." Included artists are: Paul Bergeron, Heather Garland, Paul Gagner, Lawrence Mesich, Bryan Rogers, Erik Schoonebeek, Ken Weathersby and Robin F. Williams.
Bryan Rogers, still from "In the Tub"
Safety Data Sheets - Ceramics Materials
Safety Data Sheets - Other Materials
