RITISH
COLUMBIA
a

COMOX, BRITISH COLUMBIA
VANCOUVER ISLAND

20/2

FROM ACROSS CANADA

The NWCF Thrown Panel By Debra Sloan

On Friday, Sept. 9, the North-West
Ceramics Foundation sponsored a panel
discussion at Emily Carr University on the
recently-published book Thrown: British
Columbia’s Apprentices of Bernard Leach and
their Contemporaries. The book was edited by
Scott Watson, Naomi Sawada and Jana Tyner
and published in 2011 by the Morris and
Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University
of British Columbia. The well-attended event
was chaired by NWCF President Ron Vallis,
and the panel consisted of Belkin curator
Scott Watson, Emily Carr faculty member
Paul Mathieu and retired faculty member and
long-time potter Tam Irving.

The book grew out of a very successful
exhibition held at the Belkin in 2004 that
included some 600 studio pots made by
Leach apprentices Glenn Lewis, John Reeve,
Michael Henry and Ian Steele as well as by
BC ceramists influenced by these apprentices
including Charmian Johnson, Gathie Falk,
Wayne Ngan and others. Works for the
exhibition were selected from collections
around BC and Canada, with some literally
being taken out of their owners’ dishwashers.
Archival photographs, letters and other
materials contributed to the understanding
and context of the exhibition and the

subsequent publication.

Heated discussion
and heated

discussion arose among the participants

An especially interesting
regarding whether or not ceramics should be
collected by museums. Scott Watson expressed
the opinion that pottery is kept alive through
use, and museums are a sort of tomb for the
work. Paul Mathieu keenly disagreed, stating
that it isin museums and galleries that ceramics
become valued additions to the artistic lexicon,
and that by collecting ceramics, museums and
galleries contribute to the value and context
of these works. Tam Irving brought in a
different perspective, suggesting that ceramics
go through different stages of function,
beginning with use and then finding a new
role to play in being displayed, especially as
the work gains provenance. Julie York asked
whether or not museums dedicated to craft or
ceramics are perhaps more appropriate places
to preserve these collections, and she also

suggested that ceramics could spend more

time developing the sort of discourse the art
world admires and through which museums
justify their collections of art.

Interesting Evening

It was a very interesting evening where
different schools of thought about art and
the material arts crossed paths. Watson, who
has long experience with the contemporary
art world, was attracted to this particular
group of potters on account of the social
and political principles that created their
community and propelled their art practice.
He is also intrigued by the abstract nature of
the life of these objects, their making and their
use. While this is a challenging position for
ceramists to absorb, it is a very interesting and
provocative point, one that we hope potters in
our guild and beyond will contemplate.

Check out the blog

If you have an opinion about whether or
not pots should be collected by museums or
left out to be used by the people who treasure
them, or if you attended the panel but did not
get a chance to express your point of view, log
on to our BC-in-a-box blog (which is usually
reserved for stories about our exhibition
as it travels in Alberta and B.C., see:
www.bcinabox.blogspot.com) and have your
say. It would be very interesting to hear from
our members—if we get some interesting
ideas, we'll print them in the next newsletter.

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter - December/January 2011/42 9