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POTTERS
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COLUMBIA
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2010: A Year of Opportunity = 2) zinda Doheny

There are so many pottery-related exhibitions,
workshops and travel opportunities available to
us. Here is one B.C. potter's experience.

Last year was a year of opportunity,
starting with the By Hand exhibition in the
Vancouver Museum, coinciding with the
Winter Olympics. March brought exhibitions
at the Seymour Art Gallery, the Maple Ridge
Gallery, and the Deer Lake Gallery all during
the hosting of the Canadian Clay Symposium
which culminated with a wood firing in the
Ombu kiln with Jack Troy and Robert Barron.
I was then off to Philadelphia for NCECA.

In May, Maeva Collins invited me to
join her to fire her woodfire train kiln on
Vancouver Island (see more on Maeva's kiln
on Page 13.) July brought Vince Pitelka for
a five-day workshop on coloured clays at the
Shadbolt Centre,

In September, I was off to Germany for the
First European Woodfire Conference held in
the Brollin Castle two hours north of Berlin
by train (see story Pages 7 & 8). It was a
chance to meet up with a few old friends as
well as meeting some new artists sharing the
same interests. After the conference, we left
on a week-long tour visiting potters studios,
staying with a different potter each night and
ending in Dresden for a two-day outdoor
potters’ market with 70 booths.

All this would have been enough but I
could not pass up on an invitation from
Janet Mansfield to participate in the 3rd
International Ceramic Magazine Editors
Conference (ICMEA) in China.

The purpose of ICMEA is to promote
better understanding among the ceramic
communities of the world through journals.
Every three years, chief editors of the ceramic
journals and writers from various countries
are invited to participate in a symposium. The
symposium also welcomes other international
ceramic artists, speakers and Chinese ceramic
editors and artists to audit the lectures and
forums, and also to view the exhibitions. It
is held in the Fuping Pottery Art Village
(FPAV) in Fuping, Shaanxi Province, China.
Fuping is about 70 km northeast of Xian city,
the most famous old capital of Qin, Han and
Tang dynasties in China.

The FPAV owns 1,000 acres of orchard, a
modern tile factory, a three-star hotel and a
ceramic museum complex called FLICAM
(FuLe International Ceramic Art Museums).
It represents more than fifty different

countries and regions with its Museums and

Terracotta warriors, Xian, China

Documentary Centre. Each architecturally-
unique museum is built with bricks from the
factory. The aim of FLICAM is to advance the
development of world ceramics; promote the
interaction of international ceramists and the
exchange of ceramic information; organize
group and solo exhibitions; collect and
display superb ceramic works permanently
by building museums for countries and
inviting their artists to Fuping to create
ceramic work that will be exhibited in their
museum. FLICAM has initiated a residency
program inviting artists to come and treat
Fuping as their work base. The Canadian
museum opened in 2007 with work of several
Canadian artists such as Les Manning, Sally
Michener, and Ann Mortimer.

The 2010 ICMEA conference program
included the opening of the East European
Ceramic Art Museum exhibiting the work
of 28 artists from Czech, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.
The artists produced the work during a
month-long residency.

‘The program included the award Ceremony
of the Emerging Ceramic Artist Competition
where generous prizes were given. Three
Canadian emerging artists had pieces
accepted for the exhibition, including Jasna
Sokolovic of B.C. Their work will remain
in the collection in
the main Exhibition

Museum.
The conference
theme was Jnter-

pretation of Ceramics.
Delegates represented
27 countries. I gave a
talk and PowerPoint
presentation on

Influences on Ceramic

Jingdezhen pottery
workshop.

Design in British Columbia.

From the time we arrived, we were given
the red carpet treatment including marching
bands, incredible food and fireworks. The
three days of lectures were intermingled with
side trips to see the Terracotta warriors, the
Chen Lu pottery village and many other
historic pottery related sites dating back to
the Tang Dynasty.

The closing ceremony was held in Xian
in the Tang Paradise Park followed by the
opening of the Dao Artspace Gallery.

‘The speakers were then treated to a post-
conference tour to Jingdezhen, visiting the
Pottery Workshop, Big Piece Factory, Sanbao,
the Tian Bao Dragon Kiln and the ancient
town of Yaoli (see Pages 5 & 6 for more on
Jingdezhen).

A bus tour took us to Longquan to take part
in the Longquan Celadon Festival. Some of
the events there included a welcome party and
opening ceremony, and a visit to the Baoxi
Dragon Kilns (one firing and one unloading)
and the Piyun Celadon Cultural Park. On
the last day we took part in an International
Ceramic Leadership Forum at the Longquan
Vocational School and planted a tree in the
Celebrity Tree Court before visiting the
Celadon Museum.

A bus ride to Shanghai took most of the day
but gave us enough time to view the night
lights of the city before our flight home.

China had not been on my bucket list but
I must say a return visit is definitely on the
list now,

Linda Doherty /as been a working potter for
more than 20 years. Her work has been shown
throughout Vancouver and in Burnaby, and has
been featured in books including the American
Ceramic Societys book, Extruded Ceramics. She

teaches pottery classes at the Shadbolt Centre.

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter « February 2011