50 Years in the Making - NCECA Richmond

For the exhibition 50 Years in the Making, we have invited current and former Resident Artists to create work that explores how being part of the community during the residency affected them as individual artists. Each will reflect on how seeing themselves as one part of a whole differed from other, more solitary times in their artistic careers.

The work in the exhibition will explore the memories of being in that place of transformation and how the artists saw their place within the larger group. The Clay Studio Resident Artist Program represents the larger body, and the Residents are the parts that come together to form a new entity. Depending on gallery space, between 20 and 30 artists will be represented at NCECA, with more being added when the exhibition travels back to the Jill Bonovitz Gallery at The Clay Studio after the conference. Twelve of the artists included at NCECA will be the current residents, including Adebunmi Gbadebo, Akiko Jackson, Celia Feldberg, Chris Rodgers, Jeanne Blissett Robertson, Jinsik Yoo, Josephine Mette Larsen, Kevin Snipes, Liisa Nelson, Ruth Easterbrook, and Soojin Choi.

The Clay Studio itself represents coalescence. The thousands of people who have come together over the last 50 years to create the organization, develop programs, and make art with us are the parts that have come together to create this wonderful entity. An organization not only reflects the people who comprise it, it is a manifestation of their collective selves. The Residents who each spent several years using The Clay Studio as their artistic home have made TCS what it is today.

50 Years in the Making will be a thought-provoking look at the artistic transformations of these artists during their Residency and how coming together to shape The Clay Studio in turn shaped them as individuals. Many of us have been part of groups that have changed our perceptions of ourselves during our lives, and therefore the feelings they represent will be universally understandable.

The current and former Resident Artists of The Clay Studio are some of the most acclaimed ceramic artists in the country. On the occasion of our 50th anniversary we want to bring together their amazing work and celebrate with our national community. We are proud to be one of many ceramic arts organizations around the country that, coalesced by our shared membership in NCECA, form a greater whole. Thank you for considering our proposal for NCECA 2024 in Richmond, Virginia.

Antonio Fink, Andrea Marquis, Amy Shindo, Andy Shaw, Barbara Botting, Bruce Weiner, Candy Coated, Bryan Czibesz, Dante Gambardella, Diane Marimow, Doug Herren, Ellen Litwin, George Pearlman, Hide Sadohara, Hiroe Hanazono, Hirotsune, Tashima, Heather Mae Erickson, Jason Starin, Jerry bennett, Joanna Pike, Julie Moon, Julie York, Kari Radasch, Chase Folsom, Lauren Mabry, Linda Cordell, Heeseung Lee, Lisa Naples, Liz Dailey, Mark Derby, Matthew Courtney, Melissa Mytty, Michael Morgan, Mimi McPartlan, Nathan Prouty, Nathan Willever, Nell Hazinski, Nick Lenker, Jinsoo Song, Paul Donnelly, Peter Barbor, Ryan Kelly, Neil Patterson, Rebekah Wostrel, Rebecca Chappell, Robert Raphael, Roberta Massuch, Sandi Pierantozzi, Amy Santoferraro, Susan Beiner, Jeremy Brooks, Shawn Spangler, Stephanie Kantor, Alex Ferrante, Kensuke Yamada, Ruth Easterbrook, Minah Kim, Jeanne Blissett Robertson, Katy Taylor, Ahrong Kim, Liisa Nelson, Rain Harris, Kukuli Velarde, Joshua Paul Hebbert, Kopal Seth