Featured Articles

Pandemic Zoom Group Becomes Forum for Potters

April 07, 2021

When Deborah Bedwell transitioned from Executive Director to Trustee of Baltimore Clayworks, she made a point of continuing to teach one class each semester. Her retirement at the end of 2011 from the organization she and a group of artists founded in 1980 did not curtail her enthusiasm for teaching. For over a decade, Bedwell has continued to guide potters in a variety of topics in her Thursday morning class. In March of 2020, she was doing just that when the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered Baltimore Clayworks. The determination of Bedwell and her students not to be idled led to a response that transitioned from a simple on-line Zoom substitute for class to a generative forum that speaks to the collective nature of the origins of Baltimore Clayworks itself.

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The Art League Reopening for Spring Term

February 27, 2021

As wintery February draws to a close and the evening light is starting to look like spring, there is reason to be hopeful that the long pandemic of 2020 might be coming to a close. At The Art League of Alexandria, Virginia, nine months of mostly shuttered doors is giving way to registration for a spring session that just might look normal. Last autumn we featured The Art League and its Ceramics Chair, Blair Meerfeld, in a story about the effects of closures on art communities. We spoke to him recently about the challenges of re-opening.

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Lillstreet Art Center Stands Firm During Pandemic Year

February 19, 2021

A city the size of Chicago offers a multitude of venues for the exploration of human creativity, with studios and galleries throughout the metropolitan area and its suburbs, but the city’s artistic nexus can be found at Lillstreet Art Center. For over four decades, the center has provided a home for artists of all varieties. Founded in 1975 by current Director Bruce Robbins and Martin Cohen, Lillstreet has stood as the gateway for the human need to interpret the world through art. As we approach the one-year anniversary of a world pandemic, Director Robbins looks back on a year marked by innovative solutions to unique challenges.

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