Tabor Academy Hosts Ceramics Exhibition and Opening Reception
Februrary 6 at 6:30pm in the Braitmayer Art Center
Wood Fire: Kiln, Art & Community
Ceramics from a Pre-Industrial Technology
Two years ago, as reported in this blog, Tabor Academy art department faculty member Kevin Arnfield (Ceramics, Art History) received a Braitmayer Fellowship from Tabor to research, design and construct a 50 cubic foot wood-fired kiln. Mr. Arnfield’s project, much more complicated and involved than he anticipated, took nearly two years to complete and ended up involving a range of people from the Tabor community and beyond. Tabor art faculty, students, trustees, alumni, and people from the local community came together either in the work of constructing and preparing the kiln or in the work of filling the kiln with ceramics to be fired. The inaugural firing of the kiln in October 2014 was a great success and produced very promising results.
Arnfield with his advisee group, just one of the many groups that helped him with his project and inaugural firing in October.During the first two weeks of February, the gallery in the Braitmayer Art Center will feature an exhibition entitled Wood Fire: Kiln, Art & Community – Ceramics from a Pre-Industrial Technology curated by Mr. Arnfield. The exhibition will address the history and aesthetics particular to wood-fired ceramics and the design and construction of his kiln. It will also address the value of labor and community work inherent in the wood firing process. A selection of ceramics from the 300+ pieces fired in the inaugural kiln firing will be on view side by side with a number of important pieces of wood fired art pottery from local collections.
All are welcome to the opening reception of this exhibition on February 6th in the Braitmayer Art Center at Tabor Academy from 6:30 to 7:30pm. We hope you will come and enjoy the celebration of the completion, but really the beginning, of this amazing project.
Additional ceramics evening presentations will take place in Braitmayer Art Center this month on 2/16 and 2/23 from 6:30-7:15pm as we welcome two groups of UMASS graduate students to share their work with our community. Our Tomlinson Visiting Visual Artist Fellow, Eric Kao, who will be with us for a full week, will be sharing his work on 3/5 at 6:30 as well. We invite you to join us for any or all of these presentations.
Please enjoy this video about our Visual Arts programs at Tabor.
[vimeo 107081874 w=500 h=281]
