In addition to a 2-day post NCECA conference, this coming March 19th and 20th, Montgomery County Community College is hosting the Artstream Ceramics Library.

Post NCECA Workshop with Artstream Nomadic Gallery
March 19th and 20th
Science Center Auditorium and live streamed.
10:00am-4:00pm

The Library is ready for check-out in Kansas City, Missouri at the Kansas City Art Institute. Contact for the month of February is
Paul Donnelly, Associate Professor, Ceramics
Kansas City Art Institute
www.pauldonnellyceramics.com
816-802-3314 (office) 215-910-2948 (direct)

Already putting the cups to use and adding layers of meaning to the history of this traveling program, Paul Donnelly describes the arrival-

“(W)e had a really great morning yesterday during class. All the students sat and used the cups and told stories about how they got involved with clay. Thanks for sending, I think this project will have an invaluable impression on them.”

Smiling faces and excited ceramic students, ready to enjoy their month of lending!

The Library has arrived at UNL and will be available for checkout. Find it @ Art Department Office, 120 Richards Hall, 9am to 4pm, February 23rd through March 18th. Andy Brayman will be a visiting artist February 23 and 24th.

Clemson Art and Architecture Library is hosting the Library this month, in conjunction with the Ceramics Department. Checkout and use has been furious with most cups currently in circulation and some traveling to important meetings. See here.

Cup makes it to the South Carolina Capitol

Hey Folks,

The library is currently being hosted by the CSU Pottery Guild, in the Glass Box Gallery, on campus.

More info to come. . .and images starting to arrive of the experiences the cups are having. Here are a few. . .

on display in Glassbox Gallery, CSU Fort Collins, CO

Another view of the current display at CSU

Checking out a cup. . . Make sure to read the fine print.

CSU Pottery Guild members with their cups. . .

Image of Julia Galloway cup in use. . .

The library recently completed a month with the lovely people of Deer Isle, Maine. Hosted by Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in their Center for Community Programs gallery space, the cups enjoyed a diversity of new experiences. Here are a few images, and the site is updated with the others. Also is a poem in response to a Christa Assad cup. . . Thank you Haystack for hosting. . . .

Broken Vessel

for Alleghany Meadows and Christa Assad

We are all after companionship,
sometimes it’s the love of our lives,
other times it might be as simple

as holding this cup that I am
about to pour my coffee into,
the one with the microcosmic

geology of the opalescent glaze
that has flowed over ridges
of clay, the one with the crazed

lines on the inner wall, like ice
and stone together, the one
that has the simple

finger mark at the bottom,
where the potter made a spiral, 
like the beginning of a galaxy.

It’s then I notice a crack, running
from rim to base, not enough
to break it right now, but the message

is clear:  It will split in two,
unable to hold anything else,
except the memory of its use,

how we brought it to our lips
to drink grief or joy, coffee or tea,
or perhaps just cool water,

flowing over the clay again.
The dance of erosion as old
as all of our beginnings.

Stuart Kestenbaum

From November 15-December 15 the Artstream Ceramic Library is at Haystack’s Center for Community Programs. Haystack trustee Alleghany Meadows helped develop this social-outreach project whose mission is to connect contemporary functional ceramics with ordinary people. Similar in structure to a literature-based library, the Artstream Ceramic Library loans out unique handmade cups made by thirteen nationally-known potters, for a period of seven days. A vital component of the social exchange aspect of this venture is that the Artstream Ceramic Library asks that the borrower to take a digital photograph of the cup in use, and encourages including other art forms as well, such as music, video, and visual art. The photographs and art will then be posted online.

The library is a social outreach project of the Artstream Nomadic Gallery, a 30-foot 1967 Airstream Sovereign land yacht that was completely remodeled into an exhibition space in 2001. Based in Carbondale, Colorado, it has traveled from Los Angeles to New York, putting contemporary ceramic art on the street.

Artstream Nomadic Gallery travels around the country exhibiting contemporary ceramic art. Pictured above at Holter Museum of Art, Helena, MT, guest of Archie Bray Foundation, 2009 library on display, Studio for Arts and Works, SAW, Carbondale, CO, 2010

by Ayumi Horie

“Potters as a group are particularly interested in the interaction between the things they make and the people who use them. The Artstream Ceramic Library grew out of a desire to explore this social exchange, rather than the usual monetary exchange. It grew out of wanting to extend and expand what was already happening in the Artstream Nomadic Gallery, a roving ceramics gallery established in 2001 by Alleghany Meadows that sets up its 1967 silver Airstream along city streets across the country. What was happening is that people got to talk directly to the makers of pots. This rare interaction and sharing, is of course, one of the best things about the whole experience on both sides. And people who would never go into a ceramics gallery were unexpectedly introduced and turned on to some of the best handmade pots around.

The Ceramic Library consists of forty cups from a dozen nationally-known potters, many of them current or former Bray residents. Cups can be checked out for up to a week to be used in whatever manner. In exchange, the Library asks that the user document the experience by taking a picture or by making some other piece of art in response. For example, here are pictures taken of Marc Pharis’ cup. The cups are housed in cushioned wooden boxes made by Andy Brayman and the process of checking out is done with a typewriter and a card catalog, just like in the old days.

Having the Ceramic Library here at the Archie Bray for its 60th anniversary is fitting given the history of social exchange and sharing at the Bray. In some ways, it defines the Bray. From the ubiquitous potluck where nearly every ceramic artist and is a devoted cook (or knows that Vann’s is the best place to get a quick contribution of fried chicken), to the sharing of glaze recipes and wood firing shifts, to the almost constant sharing of ideas, the Bray is also “a fine place” to share. The generosity of volunteers from the local Helena community to share their time, energy, and knowledge have been equally fundamental to the Bray experience and its success. Growth as an artist happens as much from these exchanges as it does from focused studio work.

We all have had experience with using something on loan, whether it’s a rental apartment, a leased car, or a cell phone. Most of us though, have never used a handmade object on loan. Because it’s temporary pleasure and relationship, do we appreciate the experience all the more? Is it like falling in love with a cup in a friend’s cupboard and then looking forward to using it on the next visit? Everything we experience in a museum is on loan, so how does it differ when one gets to take a handmade cup home? For James Klein, who has taken out a Lisa Orr cup, “it’s like visiting with an old friend.”

image of Lisa Orr by James Klein, Archie Bray Foundation 60th

The Artstream Library at UT Fine Arts

The Artstream Ceramic Library, featuring the work of thirteen nationally recognized potters, is being hosted by the Fine Arts Library through Thursday, March 31. The Artstream Ceramic Library is an extension of 2011 Art of the Pot Guest, the Artstream Nomadic Gallery.

Similar in structure to a literature-based library, the Ceramic Library loans out unique handmade cups for a period of seven days. Borrowers from the Ceramic Library are required to take a digital photograph of the cup in use, though other art forms are encouraged as well, including music, video and visual art. The photographs and art based on the loaned items will be posted online.

The borrowing program is limited to University of Texas at Austin faculty, staff and students.

The Library travels across the country to libraries and organizations interested in sponsoring this project so that people from coast to coast may participate in this distinctive cultural exchange.

A reception highlighting the 40 cups available for checkout will take place Friday, March 4 at 5 p.m. Lisa Orr – Art of the Pot Host and one of the Artstream artists – will speak at 5:30 pm about the Artstream project.

Also, on Monday, March 7 at 9 a.m. there will be a demonstration by Lisa Orr and fellow Art of the Pot Host Ryan McKerley in the Ceramics studio in the Art Building, Room 2.410.

Lisa Orr giving presentation on Artstream Ceramic Library @ UT Austin

The Library is on the road and is currently being hosted by The Alfred Clay Collective. The Collective is quite fitting to host this project. Here is their mission statement: “Alfred Clay Collective, in collaboration with the Division of Ceramic Art will provide a community for ceramic students and interested citizens. The collective will encourage conversation and awareness of the broader ceramic culture, thereby enhancing the studio experience. Scheduled meetings, activities and fundraising initiatives will provide opportunities for guest artists, travel and a venue to cultivate a richer artistic practice.”  Stay tuned for images of the cups in use and creative responses over the next month.

Allison Craver, Librarian

Audra Smith unpacking