by Carole Epp | Apr 2, 2020 | Uncategorized
“Why is this the time to get creative?
Together we have stepped into history and are now living inside an event unprecedented in our lifetime. Every day the news provides us with dizzying information that a few weeks before would have been unthinkable. What deranged and divided us a month ago seems, at best, an embarrassment from an idle and privileged time. We have become eyewitnesses to a catastrophe that we are seeing unfold from the inside out. We are forced to isolate — to be vigilant, to be quiet, to watch and contemplate the possible implosion of our civilisation in real time. When we eventually step clear of this moment we will have discovered things about our leaders, our societal systems, our friends, our enemies and most of all, ourselves. We will know something of our resilience, our capacity for forgiveness, and our mutual vulnerability. Perhaps, it is a time to pay attention, to be mindful, to be observant.
As an artist, it feels inapt to miss this extraordinary moment. Suddenly, the acts of writing a novel, or a screenplay or a series of songs seem like indulgences from a bygone era. For me, this is not a time to be buried in the business of creating. It is a time to take a backseat and use this opportunity to reflect on exactly what our function is — what we, as artists, are for.” – Nick Cave
Read the whole post HERE.
by Carole Epp | Apr 2, 2020 | call for entry
2018 Warren MacKenzie Advancement Award Recipient, Isaac Logsdon
The Warren MacKenzie Advancement Award (WMAA), founded in 2014, provides an opportunity for students and emerging artists to continue their ceramic research and education for a period of up to twelve consecutive months within the grant year, further expanding their professional development. This award is available to current undergraduate or graduate students, recent graduates (within one year), or those who have completed a university-equivalent training in ceramics (including apprenticeships) within the year prior to the application deadline.
During the grant year, the recipients can research a new technique or process, study with a mentor or in an apprenticeship setting, travel to other ceramic art centers or institutions for classes and workshops, collaborate with artists of another media, and travel. Proposals to fund large capital equipment purchases will not be accepted. One or two cash awards will be made in 2020, up to $3,000 each, for projects taking place between May 1, 2020, and April 30, 2021. Recipients contribute project updates to NCC’s social media and are required to give a public presentation at their school or other institution. See updates from past recipients at northernclaycenter.blogspot.com.
This award is made possible through the support of generous individual and institutional donors in honor of MacKenzie’s legacy of ceramic education, both traditional and non-traditional.
The deadline for the Warren MacKenzie Advancement Award application is Friday, April 17, 2020, by 5 pm.
Find out more and apply here: https://www.northernclaycenter.org/artist-services/artist-grants/warren-mackenzie-advancement-award
by Carole Epp | Mar 31, 2020 | call for entry
Summer is Served: Plates call for submissions
This summer Charlie Cummings Gallery will host Summer is Served: Plates, an exhibition exploring the dinner plate, one of the vessels most closely associated with cooking and serving in the home or dining out and with celebrating with family and guests. This exhibition will be via both invitations and submissions showing four individual plates from each participant and will be online only. We are pleased to invite artists to submit plates for consideration for this exhibition celebrating this vital functional ceramic object.
Deadline: midnight Eastern, May 31st, 2020
Exhibition calendar and details:
May 31 – Submission deadline
June 19 – Notifications sent
July 9 – Plates Ship-by Deadline
July 16 – Plates due at gallery
August 1-27 – Summer is Served: Plates online
May 2022 – Unsold plates returned
Cup: The Intimate Object XVI call for submissions
This fall Charlie Cummings Gallery will host Cup: The Intimate Object XVI, the sixteenth installment of our iconic annual cup show. This year the exhibition will once again be via both invitations and submissions showing five individual cups from each participant and will be online and installed in our brick-and-mortar gallery. We are pleased to invite artists to submit cups for consideration for this exhibition celebrating the most intimate and beloved of functional ceramic objects.
Deadline: midnight Eastern, June 28th, 2020
Exhibition calendar and details:
July 5 – Submission deadline
July 20 – Notifications sent
August 21 – Cups Ship-by Deadline
August 24-September 4 – Cups due at gallery
October 5-October 31 – Cup: The Intimate Object XVI online
February 2021 – Cups returned
Our Lives in Clay call for submissions
In December Charlie Cummings Gallery will host Our Lives in Clay, exhibition exploring the iconography of the ceramist and a life immersed in the culture of handmade ceramics. The kiln, the potter’s wheel, the warm cat on your lap, the faithful studio dog at your feet, and a favorite cup on the studio table are symbols of a clay artist’s life. The neatly arranged rows of cups on the shelves of a beloved cup collection are immediately recognizable to collectors who choose to fill their lives with handmade ceramics. Tables full of gorgeous wares and sculpture the speak of ceramist’s booths at art festivals and the bountiful collections found at ceramics galleries. These images describe a life lived in appreciation of enduring things produced by human hands with great time investment and skill to be used an enjoyed intimately in the home and proudly shared with all who will touch them and all who will listen. This exhibition will focus on self-referential ceramics that celebrate and examine the life we’ve chosen working with clay.. The exhibition will be via both invitations and submissions showing three individual ceramic works from each participant and will be online only. Pottery, sculpture, and clay prints are welcome. We are pleased to invite artists to submit works celebrating Our Lives in Clay.
Deadline: midnight Eastern, September 13, 2020
Exhibition calendar and details:
September 13 – Submission deadline
October 23 – Notifications sent
November 11 – Work Ship-by Deadline
November 18 – Work due at gallery
December 12-January 7 – Our Lives in Clay online
July 2021 – Cups returned
Send questions (not submissions) to [email protected], or call 352-514-8821.
Full submission details are posted HERE.
by Carole Epp | Mar 23, 2020 | workshops
INTRODUCING: WORK-STOP WORKSHOPS
Hand building at home with live video instruction
Beginning Monday, March 30th at 2pm
This newly-imagined series of workshops includes a (heavily) sanitized Work-Stop Workshop kit delivered to your door including clay, tool kits, and pickup of finished work to be fired. Ground yourself in creative practice and expand your community while learning basic hand-building techniques from home.
Join us from home for our new live-stream hand building class, designed to spark creativity and foster community while respecting the public health recommendations of our strange new reality.
Over the course of five two-hour sessions, shared live via Zoom, one of our talented instructors will guide you through the basic skills of hand building. You will pinch, coil, roll, sculpt, and carve objects such as bowls, hanging plant pots, serving dishes, boxes, vases, wall hangings, mugs, cups, or small sculptures, and learn decorative techniques like sgraffito. Registration is now live!
Our hearts are with you as you protect your health, care for your families, and navigate new employment landscapes. We hope that the Work-Stop Workshops series will create new opportunities for connection, growth, mindfulness, and play as we ride this out together. Your support and participation will enable us to continue to offer Calgary-based artists valuable employment and an opportunity to share their skills. As always, we are very grateful.
Registration and additional details on their website.
OUR USUAL STUDIO OFFERING
Our regular programming includes wheel throwing and hand building workshops for participants of all skill levels. Held in our upstairs studio, these workshops last six or eight weeks and group sizes are limited to twelve participants.
We look forward to opening our studio to the public again as soon as we’re able. Stay tuned to this page for updates and registration. If you have any questions, please contact us.
workshopstudios.ca/ceramic-workshops/
