It goes unsaid that for an artist, the Art is the thing. Regardless of how a sculptor, a painter, or a potter chooses to live out a creative life, the art is always front and center. Behind that choice, however, is the big job of making it work – the management of the arts. The studio potter must find a market; the pottery school must recruit a student body; the gallery owner must balance the books. Things generally move along smoothly with an occasional bump here and there, but late last September, unprecedented rainstorms and historic flooding collided head-on with the Art League of Long Island. The organization’s management team launched into an emergency response that was buoyed by the artists and the wider community’s determination to keep the Art alive.
An hour west of Philadelphia, the small city of Lancaster is a hub of creative energy stoked by a multitude of arts organizations. Potter Amy Burk is a longtime Lancaster native who keeps many engines running with her involvement in the area arts scene. Her Amy Burk Pottery has been a local fixture since her circuitous route back to her hometown in 2002. Today, Burk integrates her creative vision and keen business sense in a successful functional pottery production trade.