To date, my involvement with the board has more than met my original
expectations. The changes that are now taking place, upsetting as they are to
many, hold the potential for increased organizational vitality and for
generating the financial resources necessary to fulfil the Guild's mandate.

As a board member, that i8 something to look forward to.

ECHOES = STUDENTS OF THE CERAMITC
ARTS ConTAac?T
THEIR ANCESTORS

CAROL EF. MAYER
CThie 48 8 mere) Pe oP ee See See Tie Bede Poe Goer Seeder Crees cupnferersss 4n 19654

Last year I had the opportunity to teach a course, “Topics in World Ceramics,"
to students of the Ceramic Department at the Emily Carr College of Art and
Design {ECCAD), I used the Museum of Anthropology"s (MOA) collection to
examine the social, technical and artistic history of ceramics - which rmeant
that the students "got to touch the real thing". I know that the idea of
students working directly with historic ¢ollections is mot a new one, but it
is one that is rarely activated. Museums and Galleries, for many good
reasons, find it difficult to lower the barriers that distance objects from
the touch of the uninitiated. The ECCAP students had never touched historic
pieces. They were not really enthralled with the literary, academic,
ethereal, untouchable world of the arts. They wanted to contact "their
ancestors”. What legacies had these early potters left for their descendants?
Each student's final project for the course was to produce a contemporary
piece for an exhibition - a piece that contained echoes of a technology, form
decorative technique, iconographic message, or whatever, found in the
information I had shared with them, and their personal and physical contact
with the historical pieces. Joining the company of the maker, collector and
curator the students touched and examined the works made so long age but
existing in this reality, for now. They were asked to consider the question
50 eloquently posed by Alan Caiger-Smith:

What is it in a tradition that enables such feeling to come to the
surface through what are, after all, mere lines and shapes painted on a
Simple glaze? Why does one piece have an inner content, whereas
another, very similar, is only decorative? What is it that men pass
down from one to another in a living tradition that makes that tradition
more than the sum of its technical process and skills? (Caiger—Smith
1974:80)

They thought about their own works in the future. How will they interact with
works yet to be created? Will they be allowed to?

some Students were inspired by earlier technologies:

I decided to stray from the Greek Firing method and use an electric kiln
which maintains a strict oxidizing atmosphere. By doing this I hoped to
gain more control over colours and simplify the firing procedure,
although this sacrificed the ability to reproduce the rich black of the
Greek potters, The designs on the pot are derived from standard designs
used on Classic pots, (Jay MacLennan, 1993)