Montgomery County Community College (MCCC) Arts and Humanities program and the Ceramics Club will be hosting a two-day Post Conference for the 2018 National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts March 19 and 20 featuring keynote artist Roberto Lugo, three nationally renowned artist potters—Lisa Orr, Mike Helke and Simon Levin—a traveling exhibition, Artstream Nomadic Gallery, and the Artstream Ceramic Library outreach project at the Central Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell.
The conference workshop, exhibition and outreach project are free, and the community is invited to attend and participate. The workshop will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days in the Science Center Theater, where each artist potter will be doing demonstrations.
Keynote speaker, Roberto Lugo, is an artist, activist, spoken word poet and educator. He was born and raised in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, where he witnessed drug and gang activity during his childhood. Inspired by his father’s work ethic and determination to provide a better life for his family, Lugo says he was motivated “to reach for more,” as he sought a career in art. He shares his experiences and artwork through presentations, including “Activism through Ceramics” and “From the Wheel to the Wall.”
Artist potter Lisa Orr has been a professional potter and student of ceramics for more than 30 years. She completed her Masters of Fine Arts degree at New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 1992 and later received grants include a Fulbright and a Mid-Atlantic Arts Alliance/National Endowment for the Arts. Her work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, and the permanent collection of World Ceramic Exposition Foundation in Korea. She currently teaches, lectures and exhibits nationally and internationally.
Artist potter Mike Helke grew up in Minnesota's St. Croix Valley. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics and minor in American Studies from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and a Masters of Fine Arts from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, New York. Helke recently relocated to River Falls, Wisconsin, where he lives and maintains a studio.
Artist potter Simon Levin started using a wood-kiln in 1993 and fell in love with the process. He earned his Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa, and he currently owns Mill Creek Pottery in Wisconsin, where he and his apprentices work to advance the cause of wood-fired pottery. In 2013, he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Taiwan exploring the potential of local materials. Recently, he was a visiting artist, lecturer and kiln builder at The China Academy of the Arts in Hangzhou.
In addition to the workshop, the Artstream Nomadic Gallery, which is housed in a 1967 Airstream trailer, will be parked in MCCC’s quadrangle in the middle of campus. With a home base in Carbondale, Colorado, the traveling exhibit has been in more than 150 locations across the country during the past 14 years. The 2018 Spring Tour, “Art for the Table,” features the artwork of 26 nationally recognized and emerging studio potters and includes a wide-range of styles, aesthetics and techniques found in contemporary ceramics.
An extension of the Artstream Nomadic Gallery, the Artstream Ceramic Library is a social outreach project with a mission to connect contemporary functional ceramics with a variety of people. The Ceramic Library loans out unique handmade ceramic cups created by 13 well-known artists. Borrowers agree to use the cups in some type of artistic manner—music, video or visual art—and then photograph the cups in use and share on social media. The Artstream Ceramic Library will be at MCCC’s Brendlinger Library in College Hall for the month of March 2018.
Visit our web page for more information about the workshop and related activities. Visitors are invited to share photos on social media using #nceca2018 and #montcocc.