ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
JUNE 17, 2005

President’s Report

I am honoured to be presenting this report to you, in this, our 50 year of existence. One of our
Guild’s primary aims is to foster excellence in ceramic arts and I think that the events we have
put on this year reflect that goal. I think I can safely say that this will be a year to remember!

I would like to thank all the members of the Board and the 50" Anniversary Committee, as well
as Gallery Managers, Tamara Ruge, and Brenda Beaudoin, for their hard work and strong
leadership during the year. Special thanks go out, too, to our gallery staff members, whose
dedication helped make the change-over of managers during the busiest month of the year a
smooth one, and to the many volunteers who continue, year after year, to support the activities
of the Guild. Without these active members we would not be the robust and vigourous
organization we are today.

Thank you everyone.

50" Anniversary
Keith Rice-Jones: Chair, Debra Sloan, Heather Cairns, Karen Opas, Al Sather, Maggi Kneer, Suzy Birstein,
Jinny Whitehead. With help also from Rona Hatherall, Gillian McMillan and countless others.

Planning got a bit of a late start with the resignation of the first chair but we soon made up for
this by coming together as a small, tight and incredibly hard working and dedicated group.

Karen Opas headed the “BC in a Box” show. This show, of 150 unjuried pieces in
packing/display cubes made with help from Port Moody Secondary School, is now traveling the
province to rave reviews. Look for it in a location close to you.

In February, in collaboration with the Shadbolt Centre, we brought over Paul Davis, a prominent
potter with enormous experience in Japan and head of the Sturt Pottery in Australia, fresh from
their own 50" anniversary. Paul presented for the NWCF and Surrey Art Gallery and conducted wood
firings and workshops at Arrowsmith, Shadbolt and Kamloops. February also saw us in very

active cooperation with the BC Art Teachers Association at their conference, with clay as one of

the workshop strands, Debra Sloan as Artist in Residence and Markian Kyba running a Raku-U.
Several articles from the Guild were featured in one of the association’s quarterly journals, which
was entirely devoted to clay. Arrowsmith Potters Guild did an amazing job of tying in our 50"
Anniversary with their own 10 and put on a very special BC Masters Symposium and a splendid
celebration dinner with Paul Mathieu as speaker.

May was the closest we came to holding a “BC Potters Month”, actually one of the ideas we
weren't quite able to realize. Heather Cairns, who has been our main recorder and publicist,
single-handedly organized all the galleries on the North Shore to synchronize ceramic shows in
May, coordinating with the opening show of “BC in a Box” at the Blackberry in Port Moody.
Seymour had “Fire Women”; Cityscape “Island Fire”, Ferry Building “Fired” and Silk Purse
“Masked Flame". In addition, the Fraser Valley Potters Guild moved their Annual show to May and
it was held at the Evergreen Cultural Centre in Coquitlam, and a ceramic show, curated by Coralie
Triance, was held at Crafthouse. A Gallery Managers’ Show celebrating the 20" anniversary of the
Gallery will now be held in December as a sort of “wrap”.

10 Potters Guild of British Columbia Newsletter July/August 2005