Objects of Desire – Upcoming Symposium

by | Jun 28, 2012 | Uncategorized

Objects of Desire
an international ceramic symposium with masters
5th – 26th July, 2012
During
the three week syposium, workshop participants will create new works, share
information and learn new techniques through the formal and informal
sessions, discuss the advances and developments in this expanding field of ceramics through a series of presentations
and lectures from all the participants. The workshop
will culminate in an exhibition of the work created during the symposium
in the Museum of the International Ceramics Studio.
Featured Masters:
Paul Mathieu (Canada)

His work in ceramics uses function and decoration as concepts
to explore the specificity of ceramics within art and culture.
Altogether art, design, media and crafts, the works contest and subvert
these categories to show their irrelevancy, ultimately.

Márta Nagy (Hungary)
Márta Nagy works within themes, and her
symbolically-charged art is characterized by a diversity in form and
decoration. Márta Nagy uses snow-white Hungarian porcelain and
red-firing chamotte clay. Almost always she combines the two. She
handbuilds her sculptures. The techniques she uses to colour her works
are various: metal oxide, coloured clay, lustre glaze, gold and silver
leaf. The combination of hese exceptional colourings are Nagy’s
signature; combined with the unpredictable forms they present a very
personal and unique work.

How to participate
At the International Ceramics Studio we have
comfortable ceramic studios and on site accommodation in single bedrooms
(provided with bedding, pillows, blankets, towels etc.). The
accommodation is self catering and we have large modern kitchens for
preparing meals and lounges for socialising. Artists have full 24 hour
access to their studios.
Cost of participating in the symposium is
210,000 HUF and includes, accommodation in single room, studio space,use
of all equipment etc. Extra costs will be for the materials and firings
you use.
Please email Steve at [email protected] for details and application. 
http://www.icshu.org/2012/desire/desire.html
International Ceramics Studio
H-6000 Kecskemét
Kápolna u.11
Hungary

Telephone and Fax: +36 76 486867

Canada Council increases support for international market access

by | Jun 28, 2012 | Uncategorized

via The Canada Council for the Arts

The
Canada Council for the Arts announced today that it is adding $2
million to its existing support to individual artists and arts
organizations to access international markets, bringing dedicated
international market access funding this year to $7 million.

The increase will expand opportunities for artists to strengthen
their artistic practice and engage more members of the public with their
work as part of a broader suite of market access initiatives.

“Market
access is a critical component in how artists enrich the lives of
Canadians,” said Canada Council Director and CEO Robert Sirman. “This
support is part of a broader strategy of the Canada Council to give
artists the tools they need to not just make art but also reach the
broadest possible public with their work.”

Changes to the Council’s support to market access include the following:

  • $500,000 has been added for international touring in the performing
    arts. The funds will be awarded to projects that were recommended by
    peer assessment committees in the current fiscal year.
  • The maximum grant level for international touring in the performing
    arts will be increased next fiscal year from $50,000 to $75,000.
  • New market access strategies will be introduced in writing and
    publishing by reallocating existing resources, and in media arts through
    targeted interventions, to strengthen competitiveness in a rapidly
    changing marketplace. The objective of these strategies is to help these
    sectors pursue new market opportunities online and adapt to the
    technological changes in each sector. These initiatives support both
    national and international access and more details will be released in
    coming months.

The increased support for market access comes from in-year budgetary
reallocations and is expected to grow even further in 2013-14.

The
Canada Council for the Arts is Canada’s national arts funder. Its
grants and payments to artists and arts organizations contribute to a
vibrant arts sector. Its awards celebrate creativity by recognizing
exceptional Canadians in the arts, humanities and sciences. The Canadian Commission for UNESCO operates under the general authority of the Canada Council.

The Fabric of Clay: Alexandra McCurdy

by | Jun 23, 2012 | Uncategorized

black and white raffia box
Alexandra McCurdy
Black box with raffia, 2009
Porcelain, wire, beads, raffia
13 x 13 cm
photo: Chris Myhr
25 May – 29 July 2012
Main Gallery:
The Fabric of Clay: Alexandra McCurdy
in collaboration with Burlington Arts Centre
Curator: Gloria Hickey
This career retrospective of work by Nova
Scotian ceramist Alexandra McCurdy is organised around the artist’s
ongoing engagement with textiles. Her work often directly reflects, not
only the surface ornament, but the structural patterning of fibre media.
As curator Gloria Hickey notes in her catalogue essay, McCurdy “has
never made pots about pots or ceramic history,” but “about textiles and
autobiographical ceramics.” The exhibition pairs McCurdy’s ceramics with
their textile and fibre companions and displays them against the
backdrop of the artist’s personal narrative. Saint Mary’s University Art
Gallery produced the full-colour exhibition catalogue in partnership
with the Burlington Art Centre.
Side Gallery
Lorenzen Pottery: 50 Years in the Making
Curator: Victor Owen

The Fabric of Clay exhibition will be accompanied by a small
retrospective of the ceramics of Alma and Ernst Lorenzen- a Danish
immigrant and his Canadian-born wife- who were active in the Maritimes
for four decades, starting in the 1940s, and helped to introduce
modernist ceramics to the region. Dr. J. Victor Owen, of the Saint
Mary’s University Geology department, has assembled a detailed narrative
of their careers and examines the chemistry of their ceramics.

For more info: http://www.smu.ca/administration/externalaffairs/artgallery/ex.html

Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery

Location:
5865 Gorsebrook Avenue, B3H 1G3 (street address)

The Gallery is located on the 1st floor of the Loyola Academic Complex
on the Saint Mary’s University Campus, accessible from Gorsebrook
Avenue or off Robie Street south of the McNally Building.