by Carole Epp | Mar 15, 2022 | residency opportunity
This summer Wildfire Ceramic Studio will be hosting its first short-term, summer residency! Missoula has an incredible abundance of nature, beauty, and art community that can help to foster a truly incredible creative experience. Wildfire Ceramic Studio would like to invite emerging women of color ceramic artists to apply!
The Bipoc Women in the Ceramic Arts Fellowship is awarded to one short-term summer resident to help assist with the cost of living, studio rent, and materials for artists who would like to dedicate their time and energy to their studio practice. Awarded artists are able to choose a 1-3 month stay at WCS, through the months of June-August.
Residents will be expected to be self-sufficient in their artistic practice, positive, and engaged members of the studio. Resident responsibilities include at least 20hrs a week of studio time, and 5hr of work for the studio a week.
The cost of Studio rent ($190 a month), and housing (if necessary) is deducted from the Fellowship. A fully furnished, private room with a full bathroom, closet, mini fridge, microwave, and kettle is available for $500 a month.
Missoula is a bike friendly town, with a free city bus system!
Residents are provided 24hr access with a studio space that includes a worktable, shelving, and a wheel.
Fees: residents are responsible for materials and kiln firings.
This residency includes:
$2500 Bipoc Women in the Ceramic Arts Fellowship
Be a part of the Wildfire Ceramic Studio show at ZACC in August
24hr Studio Access
A membership to the Clay Studio of Missoula
Tour of Helena clay studio
Attend the Montana Clay Tour (July 30, 31. Covid dependent)
Spot in our consignment spot for 6 months, with potential to renew
Free for current students (apply with student email)
Applicants must submit a 300-word letter of intent for their time at WCS that includes preferred duration and dates, 300-word bio and artist statement, contacts of 3 professional recommendations with name, affiliation, and email, CV, and a portfolio of 10 artworks.
Applicant requirements (except for images) must be in one PDF document formatted as jdoe_app, each on a separate page, in the order of:
Letter of intent, artist statement, bio, professional references, CV
Digital images must be in .jpeg format and must be 300dpi and the longest length of 1000 pixels. File name format: jdoe1, jdoe2, jdoe3.
All applications that do not follow this format will be disregarded and not juried and application fee will not be refunded. Please contact [email protected] for more information.
Email All requirements to [email protected]
www.wildfireceramicstudio.com/bipocfellowship
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.
