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President’s Message

A lot of activity that has been percolating below the radar last year
will be rising to the surface during 2011.

We have several exciting exhibit opportunities for which members
can stretch their imaginations! For Spottery, Sharon is asking you to
let your inhibitions loose and come up with fun interpretations of
the “spot”. This is an open exhibit for all members and we hope it
will bring smiles to the faces of all who see it.

Celebrate the Bowl is a salute to this universal vessel form and
a recognition of the work by A Loving Spoonful to provide food
to people fighting HIV/AIDS. Members are invited to create and
submit a feature bowl for this July 2011 exhibit. See Calls for Entry
(Page 17) for more info.

‘This year's B.C. in a Box 3: The Edge of Here is a juried show that
will travel to Alberta in exchange for an Alberta Potters Association
exhibit that will travel here. We also hope to take the exhibition
to Seattle in 2012. The challenge will be to create an interesting

interpretation of the theme that fits inside those boxes. I can’t wait
to see what we get!

Some people may be wondering what has happened to the marks/
chops registry. Don't give up, it's coming! Of course, we found that
it was a bit more complicated than anticipated and in order to doa
good job we need a more complex data management system, some
software and some more up-to-date hardware. So, just days before
Christmas, we submitted an application for an archival grant and
we are keeping our fingers crossed that it will come through. If it
does, we hope have the registry up and running before the end of
the year.

‘There’s more on the horizon, so read your newsletter to keep up to
date. And dont forget the newsletter is for everyone—an opportunity

to share your events and experiences with others.

—Jinny Whitehead

Ga | le ry N @wWS By Sharon Cohen

What can I say? I drank a lot of tea in
December. Our teapot section made me do
it! The previous year, we had many Christmas
shoppers in the gallery wanting teapots and,
as work is grouped by artist rather than
commodity, we found ourselves escorting
customers from plinth to plinth pointing
out which gallery artists make teapots. For
Christmas 2010, we decided to put all of
the teapots together in one section, for ease
of shopping. The initial thinking was purely
practical. We had no idea that it would work
so well visually, and create a kind of mini
exhibition that turned out to be something
quite delightful! In addition to being a
pleasure to behold for purely aesthetic reasons,
it really served to highlight the diversity
within the gallery: a functional item, the basic
teapot, realised and interpreted in so many
ways and styles, showing each artist’s unique
stamp and creative vision. From wood-fired to
multi-coloured, from cosy to whimsical, from
understated to embellished, all tastes were
catered to, with Junichi Tanaka’s puffer fish
teapot attracting as much attention as it always
does! We took the opportunity to add-on sell,
and showed matching sugar and creamer sets
with the teapots, and mugs too. If we could
get the customers to buy a whole set, so much
the better! So, yes, all these wonderful teapots
made me want to drink tea all day, and I did! (1
could have worse vices, I suppose. In fact, I do.
And all the treats that found their way into the
gallery at Christmas time contributed to both
my vice and my waistline dimensions!)

‘The gallery is closed on Mondays in January,

Darrel Hancock’s set joined many other special pieces in our teapot display.

when we'll be hard at work taking down
Christmas decorations and painting plinths,
getting ready for a fresh, clean start to 2011.
A very big and special thank you to Heather
McCulloch and Penny Birnam for helping
with the painting. They're real pros, those
two! Thanks also to Keith Rice-Jones for the
plumbing repairs.

And so the new year begins, with exciting
challenges and adventures ahead of us. One
of the most exciting is our imminent plunge
into the world of social marketing. We're
about to launch the gallery’s Facebook page,
which should be up and running by early
March. We're really looking forward to being
able to showcase all our events and highlights

in an open, dynamic forum. Carita Ho, one
of our gallery assistants, went on a course to
learn all the ins and outs and dos and donts of
social marketing, so she’s our resident expert.
We can’t wait to benefit from her ideas and
expertise when it comes to implementing this
project. Good news indeed!

Time to start gearing up for our first
members’ exhibition of the year, so I hope
you have your concepts (or even your finished
piece) all ready to go. The application form for
the “Spottery” members’ group show can be
downloaded at www.bcpotters.com/Gallery/
forms/Spottery_Application_Form.pdf.

I hope youll be participating. The more the

merrier!

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter « February 2011

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