Start virtual classes with Northern Clay Center TODAY!

Feeling isolation frustration? Stir up your creativity and Clay-Along with NCC through classes and kits designed to fulfill your clay longings at a social distance. This reimagined approach to ceramic education will pioneer a couple of different avenues: 5-week virtual classes, and self-guided clay kits. Virtual classes will meet once a week via Google Meet and Google Classroom with an NCC Teaching Artist who is eager to guide you through quality at-home digital learning; and clay kits that feature instruction for a self-guided clay experience. Both offerings have the option to include low-fire clay and a set of engobes (colored slips), firings at NCC, and a guide to setting up a space for clay in your home.

No clay-specific tools? No problem! All classes and lessons can be accomplished with everyday utensils and objects. To learn more about Clay-Along options, click HERE.

Clay-Along Classes

Beginning the week of May 18, Clay-Along Class offerings will explore the compelling potential and versatility of creating with clay at home. Reunite (virtually) with your clay-mates for weekly, live instruction via Zoom where experienced teaching artists will give demonstrations and guide you through different projects and techniques. Classes will run for an hour and a half each week for five weeks. Between meetings, learn from online resources and connect and discuss with others via Google Classroom. With a variety of experience levels and creative offerings — all tailored to be accomplished in a simple home studio — we are sure to have a class that is enticing and accessible to you.

No materials? No problem! You can select an optional materials kit that includes a guide to setting up an at-home clay space, 25 lbs of low-fire clay (choice of Low-fire Red: a smooth terracotta body; or Raku: a grittier, off-white body), a set of engobes (colored slips) and firings at NCC. If you have everything you need already, just select the content-only version. The details of kit pick-up and work drop-off at NCC will be communicated to you with your registration. We can’t wait for you to Clay-Along with us!

store.northernclaycenter.org/classes-workshops-camps/online-clay-along/

upcoming online Curator talk: It’s Still Political: Gender, Sexuality, and Queerness in Contemporary Ceramics

Mar 6 to Jun 21

Curated by Mac Star McCusker with Kelly Connole

REMOTE Curator Talk with Mac Star McCusker
Join the curator of It’s Still Political: Gender, Sexuality, and Queerness in Contemporary Ceramics, Mac Star McCusker, for a lecture and conversation surrounding topics of the associated exhibition.

Thursday, April 16, 6 pm
X12R: Remote Login

It’s Still Political, curated by Mac Star McCusker with Kelly Connole as Curatorial Advisor, revisits the themes addressed by Sexual Politics: Gender, Sexuality, and Queerness in Contemporary Ceramics, an exhibition originally on view at Northern Clay Center in the spring of 2015. In that exhibition, Kelly Connole wrote, “Artists have the potential to freeze a moment in our collective cultural history, record it, interpret it, and help us breathe in the truth of our own time.”

The theme is just as relevant today. It’s Still Political focuses on gender fluidity, specifically, gender expression. McCusker offers, “We are all forced to participate in narrowly defined gender roles. Feminine men and masculine women have assumptions immediately made about their sexuality even though gender expression and gender identity have nothing to do with sexuality.” Five years after the original exhibition, it is still a misconception frequently held in our culture.

This exhibition features works by artists who actively engage in and promote insightful dialogue about gender expression and identity and provides much-needed current perspectives on the subject within the context of both human experience and ceramics.

Participating artists include: Shane Elliot Bowers, Dekalb, Illinois; Shannon Gross, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Arthur Halvorsen, Somerville, Massachusetts; G.V. Kelley, Lincoln, Nebraska; Mac Star McCusker, Durham, North Carolina; Marval Rex, Los Angeles, California; and Maya Vivas, Portland, Oregon.

About the curator
A maker themself of wheel-thrown, slab-built, and sculpted ceramics, McCusker’s work “spotlights the policing of gender, anti-discrimination laws, Bathroom Bills, and issues addressing the LGBTQ community.” The artist has produced work in such series as The Transition Series, Project Canary: The Gender Magnet Drop, Trans-Action Figures, among others. McCusker lives and maintains a studio in North Carolina and currently teaches at Odyssey Clayworks. They hold an MFA from Georgia State University in Atlanta and a BA from Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Georgia.

Of their practice, McCusker says, “Living and working in the state of North Carolina has forced me to address things affecting my community, making me the subject of my own work. I have become, for better or worse, visible and vulnerable through making and creating ceramic sculptures. I am generating a dialogue about my life, my own narrative, political, and social concerns, and through that process I am educating others.”

Northern Clay Center WEBSITE

Online sales from the NCECA expo!

We’re going to miss our clay family at NCECA this year! Join NORTHERN CLAY CENTRE for our online NCECA Gallery Expo sale, Pots From a (Social) Distance, starting Tuesday, March 24 at 5 pm EST! Link coming soon!
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Here’s where you can find our fellow Gallery Expo friends’ sales:
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Artstream Nomadic Gallery (@artstream_nomadicgallery): 5 pm EST Tuesday, March 24 at art-stream.com
Baltimore Clayworks (@baltimoreclayworks): public.baltimoreclayworks.org/public/shop
Clay Art Center (@clayartcenter): clayartcenter.org/shop?category=NCECA+2020
Eutectic Gallery (@eutectic_gallery): 5 pm EST Tuesday, March 24 at eutecticgallery.com
Gandee Gallery (@gandeegallery): 5 pm EST Tuesday, March 24 at gandeegallery.com
Objective Clay (@objectiveclay): 12 pm EST, Monday, March 23 at objectiveclay.com
Signature Contemporary Craft (@signature_atl): www.thesignatureshop.com
Spinning Earth Pottery (@spinningearthpotter): spinningearthpottery.net

call for artists: McKnight Artist Fellowship for Ceramic Artists


Northern Clay Center

In its 23rd year of programming, the McKnight Artist Fellowship for Ceramic Artists will support outstanding Minnesota ceramic artists who identify with any methodology: functional, sculptural, relational—all techniques are welcome. The intent of this program is to recognize and support midcareer artists living and working in Minnesota, who demonstrate a sustained level of accomplishment, commitment, and artistic excellence. Two $25,000 grants will be awarded in 2020. Fellowship support may be pursued for, but is not limited to: experimenting with new techniques and materials; purchasing materials and equipment; collaborating with other artists; and pursuing education, exhibition, or travel opportunities. The McKnight Fellowship recipients will be featured in a workshop and an exhibition with a corresponding catalog at the end of their grant year.

This program is made possible by the generous support of the McKnight Foundation, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The deadline for the 2020 McKnight Fellowship application is Friday, May 22, 2020, by 5 pm.

McKnight Fellowship Applicants must deliver all work samples to be reviewed by the jury at NCC between Monday May 25, 2020 and Friday, May 29, 2020 at 5 pm.

Find more information and apply here: https://www.northernclaycenter.org/artist-services/artist-fellowships/mcknight-artist-fellowships-ceramic-artists

call for artists: McKnight Artist Residency for Ceramic Artists


Northern Clay Center

The McKnight Artist Residency for Ceramic Artists program, in its 23rd year at NCC, intends to recognize and support mid-career ceramic artists whose work demonstrates exceptional artistic merit and who have already proven their abilities in the field. The program is intended to provide these ceramic artists with an opportunity to be in residence for three months at Northern Clay Center, where they can develop their own work and, at the same time, exchange ideas and knowledge with Minnesota ceramic artists. Up to three, 3-month residencies will be awarded in 2020, to take place during the 2021 calendar year, through a competitive application process. NCC will invite one or two other artists through a nominative process.

Each resident artist will receive a $6,000 award (for a three-month residency), studio space provided at no cost, and a glaze and firing allowance. During the residency, each artist will present a public lecture, for which they will receive an additional honorarium. At the culmination of the grant period, recipients will be featured in a catalog and group exhibition at Northern Clay Center. The exhibition will also travel to 3 – 5 sites around the state of Minnesota. Recipients are also required to submit a final report at the end of the grant period.

The deadline to apply for the 2020 McKnight Artist Fellowships and Residencies for Ceramic Artists program is Friday, May 22, 2020 by 5 pm

This program is made possible by the generous support of The McKnight Foundation, Minneapolis, MN. The McKnight Foundation, a family foundation based in Minnesota, advances a more just, creative, and abundant future where people and planet thrive.

Find out more and apply here: https://www.northernclaycenter.org/artist-services/artist-residencies/mcknight-artist-residency-ceramic-artists