"Swan, Awareness Series," by Adrian Arleo
Clay is fused into our state’s heritage. Big Sky Country is home to some of the best ceramic artists – past and present – in the United States and the world, but why? Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art in Great Falls hopes to unlock the answer through its current exhibition, “Montana Clay: Celebrating Ceramic Arts Under the Big Sky.”
The exhibit, which opened Sept. 11 and continues through Dec. 1, showcases works by more than 75 artists who continue to help shape the force that is contemporary ceramic arts in Montana. The exhibition is a survey of the diverse artists who work in the medium, from potters focused on the vessel, to figurative sculptors and installation artists.
The museum’s Thayer, Wylder and Rothschiller Galleries house the extensive works of current members of Montana Clay. Works by past-masters in the field are on display in the Mungus-Volk Gallery, dubbed the Founding Mudders and Potters Gallery during the exhibition.
These 18 makers set in motion a ceramic arts revolution that started in Montana in the 1950s and spread throughout the nation to solidify ceramics as a viable contemporary art medium. Innovators Rudy Autio and Peter Voulkos, educators Frances Senska and Sister Mary Trinitas, art supporters Archie Bray and Branson Stevenson are among those who helped build the foundation from which the Montana Clay group continues to build.
Montana Clay is the brainchild of potter Julia Galloway, a ceramics professor at The University of Montana. Since moving to Missoula in 2009, Galloway has worked steadily to develop Montana’s active ceramic artists into one unified front.
According to the Montana Clay website (montanaclay.org), the group is focused on “full time active makers, artists, craftsmen, schools, art centers, and galleries that are invested in the preservation, promotion and advancement of the ceramic arts in Montana through shared resources, networking, open dialogue and advocacy.”
Through an ever-evolving slate of artists living and working in Montana, the organization is currently thriving. In addition to the exhibition at The Square, Montana Clay’s current membership will also show work in conjunction with the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) conference in 2016 in Kansas City, MO. Plans are also afoot for Montana to host the International Wood Firing Ceramics Conference in 2018, which will draw experts from around the globe.
The Montana Clay exhibition is fitting for Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, which has supported variations of a ceramic arts program since opening in the late 1970s. Since 2012 the museum’s education department has greatly expanded and amplified the program, growing the number of participants to over 400 students of all ages working in clay in 2014. The museum currently maintains a pottery and ceramic sculpture studio, a glaze laboratory and an outdoor kiln yard with firing options ranging from electric to raku and wood/soda/salt. A high-fire gas kiln is in the works for 2015-16.
In 2012, the Square hosted the first Arts on Fire festival, a fundraiser to support the institution’s education department – specifically ceramic arts. This year’s Arts on Fire coincided with the opening reception for the Montana Clay exhibition, and included a performance by the Big Sky Mudflaps, family-friendly educational activities and demonstrations by artists from across the state.
Great Falls also hosted Montana Clay’s annual meeting. Topics ranged from K-12 ceramics education to ergonomic practices in working with clay. The annual meeting closed with a special reception at the Portal Gallery in downtown Great Falls, celebrating the opening of Montana Clay member Ken Kohoutek’s “China Works” (portalgallery.weebly.com).
All of these efforts culminated in a weekend long salute to clay in Great Falls – a celebration of the vitality of an art form that has shaped Montana’s cultural heritage for the past three-quarters of a century.
For more information, visit www.the-square.org.
– Jeff Kuratnick, Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art Education Director