by Carole Epp | Mar 8, 2022 | Uncategorized
This is Yuliya Makliuk, a fellow potter from Ukraine. At least I was a potter until two weeks ago, but I’m not sure if this is the case anymore. I had to flee my home and my studio. On the 24th of February, I woke up at 5 am to the sounds of rocket shelling on Kyiv. I woke up my husband and said to him “Russia has attacked”. Since then, we live in what seems to be a never-ending nightmare. I’m sure you have seen the news.
While our army and volunteers do everything possible and impossible to resist the invasion, ceramicists of Ukraine also try to help our people. There are several ways to provide support from abroad if you’re willing to help:
1. Buy charitable digital posters from Ukrainian artists on Etsy. Unfortunately, there’s virtually no way to send physical goods like ceramics at the moment.
If you are an Etsy user, search for digital items from Ukraine. We will send this money to local humanitarian organizations or the national army. I’m just one of many and here’s my shop.
2. Host a Ukrainian ceramic artist in your studio. Fill out this form if this is something you can do.
Be it for a couple of days or half a year, any help is vital now. Many women, some with kids, are forced to leave their homes and studios to save their lives. European countries are a priority, as it is easier to get there and the visas have been waived.
3. Many international aid organizations accept donations for war relief in Ukraine. Choose the one you trust and send some help if you can. I would recommend SaveLife In UA and Hospitallers.
4. Also, Ukraine needs political support from our partner states that is commensurate with the scale of Russian aggression. Please petition your authorities and representatives to provide defense measures, financial aid and impose sanctions on the aggressor. Every day of delay costs the lives of Ukrainian civilians and is a threat to broader Europe.
We have received immense solidarity over these weeks. The people of Ukraine are grateful for every step taken by people of goodwill from all over the world.
www.instagram.com/hereandnowpottery/
by Carole Epp | Feb 2, 2022 | workshops
The North-West Ceramics Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Ronnie Watt as their next speaker for their Speakers Series. Dr. Watt will present via Zoom on Sunday, February 27, 2022, 11 am Pacific Time. This daytime presentation will allow interested parties from Europe and Africa to attend. All are welcome, but registration is required. Please see here or below to register for this exciting talk.
Dr. Ronnie Watt is a collector and specialist researcher of South African studio pottery and studio ceramic art. He is a graduate and postgraduate of the University of South Africa. His Master’s dissertation addressed South African studio pottery of the later twentieth century and its Anglo-Oriental label. The focus of his PhD was a contextual history of South African ceramics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He has published numerous articles on South African studio pottery. After retiring from his career as journalist and producer of television programmes, he emigrated from South Africa to Canada in 2015 and is now resident in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island where he continues his research and writing.
Dr. Watt’s lecture will discuss what is a distinctive feature of South African ceramic art, the expression of identity within a multi-cultural society. Contemporary ceramics produced by both white and black ceramists reveal the practice of cultural referencing to be a conscious engagement with issues of identities, values and meanings, which are expressed as complex symbolism and metaphor in the visual vocabulary. The lecture will refer to works by 20th and 21st century South African ceramists such as Maggie Mikula, Andile Dyalvane, S’bonelo Thau Luthuli, and Michelle Legg.
To register for this talk, please register (free of charge) here:
by Carole Epp | Feb 2, 2022 | Uncategorized
Haystack is pleased to steward a new fellowship fund celebrating the life of renowned potter, Michael Simon (1947-2021), who passed away last August after a long illness. Michael taught and met many other artists at Haystack. He recognized that the special environment at the School could be sustaining and even life-changing, and designated Haystack as the recipient of memorial gifts.
In honor of his wish, the Michael Simon Studio Pottery Fellowship is being established by friends and family. The fellowship honors and celebrates his life—his powerful teaching and work—by giving others the opportunity that was transformative to so many artists over the years. Once fully funded, the fellowship will annually provide tuition, room, and board, plus $500 in travel assistance for a mid-career functional potter to attend a ceramics workshop at Haystack. Individuals will be selected through the annual Haystack scholarship review process and the fellowship will be awarded each summer.
Images:
1) Michael Simon, by D. Hayne Bayless
2) Michael Simon’s work by John Polak, courtesy of Ferrin Contemporary.
by Carole Epp | Jan 25, 2022 | job posting
Studio assistants are students who assist instructors and are responsible for maintaining the school’s standards for studio operation. They receive housing and meals and pay only a $5 application fee in Slideroom and a $25 non-refundable processing fee if selected.
Studio assistants are selected based on their knowledge of a working studio. In addition to 25–40 hours of work each week, studio assistants are required to work from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on the day before their session and may have some work to do on Friday after the session is over. Clay studio assistants have a work assignment on Saturday morning after the session and stay on campus Friday night.
Summer 2022
See a full list of workshops offered HERE. Please apply using the scholarship application form on Slideroom by 11:59 PM ET on February 17, 2022.
Note: we cannot accept applications from studio assistants who are not US citizens unless they have current documents authorizing them to work in the US.
Studio Assistantships
