Clay resonates with one and all. It can be functional, sculptural, on the wall, off the wall. It can be vessel, installation or performance. It can be industrial strength or extremely delicate, commercial or domestic. In fact, there is not much that clay cannot be.

For this reason, perhaps, the ceramic field is bursting with innovative work in the areas of design, studio pottery, ceramic sculpture, ceramic painting and conceptual ceramics. Clay is continuously luring artists from the disciplines of painting, sculpture, architecture and design. What is it about clay that attracts artists, educators, collectors and historians to tackle and embrace this multi-faceted, process-oriented medium?

Join leaders in the field of ceramic arts and education as they examine current trends in contemporary ceramics and discuss how they affect us as art educators, collectors, students, designers, critics and writers.

SYMPOSIUM PROGRAM

8:30 Registration, Coffee, Meet & Greet

9:15 WELCOME Reena Kashyap, Clay Arts Center; Janet Langsam, Westchester Arts Council; Judith Schwartz,PhD., New York University

9:30 KEYNOTE “Vulnerability as Strength – in Both Clay and Life”. Chris Staley, potter and educator

10am HISTORY “Clay as Art: Not a New Idea”. Ulysses Grant Dietz, Senior Curator, and Curator of Decorative Arts, The Newark Museum

11am EDUCATION “Studio Thinking: What Visual Arts Teach”. Lois Hetland, Associate Professor of Art Education, Massachusetts College of Art

Lunch break

1pm ARTIST TALKS: Judy Moonelis, Julia Galloway, Jeff Shapiro

2:30 CRITICAL WRITING “Weighing Clay: Critical Writing about Ceramics”. John Perreault, art critic, curator, artist, poet and founder of Artopia.

3pm PANEL DISCUSSION "Why Clay?" with presenters. Moderated by Anat Shiftan, Associate Professor of Ceramics, SUNY, New Paltz

3:50 CLAY PERFORMANCE “Thrown”. Rachael Cohen, Racoco Productions

4:30 Wrap Up

Register on-line today!

Hosted by the Clay Art Center.

$95 per person; $65 per full time student with ID. Breakfast & Lunch Included.