The Springfield Museums proudly announce the September 23 opening of A Gathering: Works from Contemporary Black American Ceramic Artists, the first traveling museum exhibition to focus on Black ceramic artists working today.
It will be on display in the Starr and Alpert Galleries in the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts until March 24, 2024.
Inspired by the recently published book Contemporary Black American Ceramic Artists and co-curated by authors Chotsani Elaine Dean and donald a clark, the exhibition recognizes the important, current contributions of African American ceramicists.
“Chotsani Elaine Dean and I gathered 38 makers in our book. [The artists] worked with us to build a book that would share their stories and work with a broader audience,” said clark. “A Gathering at the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts carries that mission further, allowing Springfield-area residents to view the variety of work created by this group of incredible Black creatives working with clay.”
The artworks in this exhibition demonstrate a range of techniques, exploring topics of historical and contemporary relevance. Understanding the role of clay in carrying ancestral and cultural knowledge from Africa to the Americas, several artists use their medium to explore history, including histories of enslavement, as well as heritage and identity.
Other artists respond to calls for social justice, celebrate Black beauty, or convey personal stories of connection, celebration, and triumph. Incorporating processes that range from wheel throwing to slab building, and showcasing works that draw inspiration from other media including quilting and graffiti, this exhibition aims to broaden conversations about contemporary studio ceramics while asserting the presence and excellence of Black makers.
This exhibition was organized by the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
About the Curators
donald a clark began collecting ceramics in the 1970s and has been a core figure in the American ceramic art movement’s development for the past 40 years. He continued to build his collection on the basis of relationships with artists during his over 30 years of experience as a partner at the Ferrin Gallery. He has served as research manager for The Marks Project, a searchable online database documenting the marks of ceramic makers working in America from 1946 to the present. The Donald Clark Collection illuminates the rise of the studio pottery movement and was exhibited at the Springfield Museums in 2018. clark writes for Ceramics Monthly and Studio Potter, and he is the author of Making a Living in Crafts.
Chotsani Elaine Dean is an artist and assistant professor of ceramics at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She earned her BFA in ceramics from Hartford Art School and her MFA from Sam Fox School of Art at Washington University in St. Louis. She has been in residence at the John Michael Kohler Artist Residency and is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Grant. Dean was the inaugural MJ Do Good resident at the Red Lodge Clay Center in Montana, held the position of studio manager at Wesleyan Potters in Connecticut, and is the recipient of a Connecticut Arts Grant. She has lectured and exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions and has taught at institutions including Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India; University of Connecticut; Connecticut College; and Hartford Art School.