Made of Clay [antikvár]

FOREWORD Defined as an organization of artisans; an association of those having similar interests engaged in the same activity often formed for mutual aid, guilds came into being in the late Middle Ages. Formed to protect and look out for the interests of their members, guilds set standards of quality and value. Lf.s Manning «r Vice President of tto Interna- tional Academy of Ceramics. He mis the first President of the Canadian Craft Council, Past President of the A JM and the A.C ( , and Former Director of Ceramics at the Banff Centre for the Art> TQ-4- IW4 "Grotto * Thrown and altered stonevares and porcelain, celadon glazed reduaum fired to cone y mth post finny sand blasted surface Collection of Fntz Jqggi, Banff, Alberta as the economies of Western Europe moved from rural agrarian to the return of international eommerce in the eleventh century, guilds began to hold considerable political as well as economic clout. As we aim the cenrurv and die millennium we think of guilds less as political and economic entities and more as providing communal support structures. In this age of the individual, guilds provide an important collective voice that confirms a community's existence and establishes its activity as meritorious. Guilds provide a place to take a vision where the like- minded can spirit an idea into fruition. The Potters Guild of British Columbia has provided this collective "place" in the province for over fort)' years. The Potters Guild is one of the few modern organizations of its type to achieve a degree o 1 self-sufficiency. The Guild owns and operates the Gallery of BC Ceramics, a combined retail and exhibit space that regularly hosts special events. In short, the Guild provides the resources, physical space, and community necessary to support new and established clay artists. This kind of support has immeasurable value, often not realized by the recipients until much later. It has been during the forty-year existence of the Potters Guild that the most significant development of the BC ceramics commu- nity has been realized. From the Guild's beginning in 1955 to the present, die demographics of the province have changed dramatically Clay arts activity in education, in production, and culmral influence has increased multi- fold during this period due to the influx of individual artists, institutions, particular schools of diought, and a changing population. To define this expansion and to make sense of tliis history, the Board of Directors of the Potters Guild of British Columbia appointed a committee to produce a book, which would reflect the cumulative growth and advancement of ceramics in the province. Made of Clay celebrates the participation of the ceramics community in the culnire of British Columbia. A book to commemorate the art form, Made of Clay gives clearer definition to the contribution of artists who have dedicated their lives as makers of ceramics in all its various manifestations. On the basis of individual artists, t his province has incredible bragging rights: able to claim die highest concentration of Bronfman winners from the clay disci pi me in Canada, BC ceramists work is sought after bodi locally and internationally. BC ceramists appear in major collections in institutions such as die Museum of Anthropology, ubc and die Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England. What is important here Is the celebration of the individual, but that celebration docs not occur without the collective die v oice that can herald die news and promote and engage critical reception on an objective level. The significant growth and popular- ity of BC ceramics bodes well for the - «r Potters Guild of BC, bodi in terms of continued service in providing a message of continuity and the promotion of ceramic aits on the local level, and in terms of stepping out beyond the borders of die prov ince and the nation. This collective voice is a powerful tool, but it vv ill onlv be effective if the community is committed to making it work in this manner. We congratulate the Potters Guild of BC s leadership and vision in seeing through the creation oi Made of i lay. Such a publica- tion will go a long vv ay tow ards achiev ing greater aw areness of the clay community and the significant contribution that the clay arts are providing, not onlv at home in British (Columbia, but within Canada and the international arts community L I s M ANNING