Many projects are flowing into Across the Table, Across the Land and we are excited to share some of these over the next two months leading up to the final deadline of January 4th.
This recent submission by Lauren Sandler speaks to the potential of bringing together students working in clay with organizations who serve the unique needs of communities. Lauren is thinking expansively about the potential of clay, food and community connection.
Lauren Sandler writes:
“In this project we work with the beauty from overlooked communities using clay as a bridge for nourishment and connection. I collaborate with college students as well as multiple organizations, serving people with developmental disabilities, mental illness, chemical dependency, and a local human-powered organic sustainable farm. We hope to dismantle the binary opposition between inside and outside and expose cultural and contextual power ascribed to those with greater means. Activities include harvesting clay at the farm, using food as molds to shape the clay, creating vessels for edible insects, and sharing a meal eaten from pots made together. These exercises invoke ideas of nourishment, broadly defined, and call for a curiosity and awareness of possibility. In this way we question our fixed narratives of capacity, abled and disabled, and implicate our assumptions of normal, beauty, and worth.”
Lauren’s project thoughtfully expresses the potential of our medium to connect to the needs of community – and is her own response to the call for Across the Table, Across the Land.
What are you bringing to the tables?
Click here for more information about Across the Table, Across the Land.
Want to get your K-12 school and students involved? Download the student/parent permission form and Potluck: A Portrait of School Communities through Clay and Food to help guide your lesson plans and teaching here.
Follow us on instragram @acrossthetable2015 !
Take the Potluck Challenge and contribute on instagram or the webapp!
Selected works may be exhibited in Kansas City along with the instagram photo in the exhibition Across the Table, Across the Land in celebration of NCECA’s 50th Anniversary. If selected, we will connect with you via the info you entered on the webapp or instagram account.
Once the exhibition is over, objects are returned to the artists and the lights are turned off – but your project lives on. It will become part of a digital archive, a “time capsule” telling the story of how ceramic artists in 2015-16 are natural and powerful community connectors. A treasure trove of digital information for generations to come.
Across the Table, Across the Land, a project of the National Ceramic Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), is designed to to be a snapshot of what is happening today at the intersection of food, clay and community. From the conceptual to the every day, we are inherently connected to community, and have been for a long.. long time!
We are having a sugar-filled week co-hosting Pots in Action, thanks to an invitation from Ayumi Horie! Our hosting ends on November 1, but watch for news of our upcoming challenge here and on Ayumi’s @PotsinAction instagram feed.
To keep up with EVERYTHING we are doing, make sure you follow us on Instagram @acrossthetable2015
This week’s challenge is SWEETS! Going into the weekend, be sure to add your pictures of sweets and ceramics –from Halloween, Dia de los Muertos, and more!.
To participate in this challenge, you must have an instagram account.
Go to #PIAChallenge to see the call for the week.
Tag your photos with:
#potsinaction #PIAsweets #PIAguesthostsNamitaandMichael #candy #nceca2015 #nceca #acrossthetable #acrossthetable2015 @acrossthetable @nceca
NEW CHALLENGE!
We are documenting and sharing your stories via the webapp and on instagram @acrossthetable2015
Between now and January 4, here’s a new challenge to bring your stories into NCECA’s Across the Table, Across the Land:
Potlucks!
Nom Nom’s!
Ceramic artists are known for potlucks and feasts. These gatherings are more than pots and people sharing a meal. These meals create a sense of belonging, connect people who may not be part of the same circles and create a safe common space for conversation. Ceramics plus food can create community.
We want to SEE and HEAR the stories of how our clay community brings people together. We know these are already happening across the country. Take a moment and reflect on the potluck or potlucks you are participating in over the next few months. Are you connecting with communities that are new to you – or familiar family and friends? Why was the potluck organized. How are ceramics a part of the event?
Heading to a potluck or gathering? Bringing your contribution to the meal in a handmade ceramic dish? Great! It’s simple and you have two ways to participate:
First, take a photograph of the dish at the potluck.
1. Share your photograph a bit of context about the meal on the Across the Table WebApp here (you can use a mobile device or a desktop platform). Who, what, where, why the potluck is taking place. For example: Students from my ceramics class, Fargo, ND; my home; to celebrate the end of the semester with faculty, family and friends OR a meal at a Food Bank with new friends to share food with the homeless in Phoenix, AZ
To http://app.ncecaacrossthetable.com/add-response/?challenge=451
OR
Share with us via instagram! Post the image and a bit of context on your own instagram feed, and tag as follows: @acrossthetable2015 #acrossthetable #nceca2015 #nceca #potluck
Selected works may be exhibited in Kansas City along with the instagram photo in the exhibition Across the Table, Across the Land in celebration of NCECA’s 50th Anniversary. If selected, we will connect with you via the info you entered on the webapp or instagram account.
Once the exhibition is over, objects are returned to the artists and the lights are turned off – but your project lives on. It will become part of a digital archive, a “time capsule” telling the story of how ceramic artists in 2015-16 are natural and powerful community connectors. A treasure trove of digital information for generations to come.
Click here for more information about this project.
Have a story to share? Go here!
Follow us on instragram @acrossthetable2015
Want to get your K-12 school and students involved? Download the student/parent permission form and Potluck: A Portrait of School Communities through Clay and Food to help guide your lesson plans and teaching.
Questions? Email Michael and Namita at ncecaacrossthetable@gmail.com
Across the Table, Across the Land, a project of the National Ceramic Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), is designed to to be a snapshot of what is happening today at the intersection of food, clay and community. From the conceptual to the every day, we are inherently connected to community, and have been for a long.. long time!
Across the Table, Across the Land, a project of the National Ceramic Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), is designed to to be a snapshot of what is happening today at the intersection of food, clay and community.
When you stop and think about it…
That is probably EVERYONE in our amazing clay community. Not just potters or “social practice” artists. Our practice is often a social endeavor – from firing kilns and sharing glaze recipes to gathering 5,000 people at an NCECA conference, we depend on and enjoy the gathering of people. We bring value to community in so many ways, and have been inherently “social” before it was a trend.
So what is Across the Table looking for?
Nom Nom’s!
THE COMMON: Ceramic artists are known for their potlucks and feasts. Often these gatherings bring more than pots and people together to share a meal, they increase a sense of belonging, connect people who may not be part of the same circles and create a safe common space for conversation.
Would this be enough for Across the Table?
OF COURSE!
We are looking to tell the story of what is happening today. We are coming up on significant holiday gatherings, we want to see how you gather people, pots and food to celebrate together!
Tall sculpture by Ernest Gentry, Chef: Tony Wise, Photo by Kyler Balsley courtesy of CulinaryClay.com
THE COLLABORATIVE: Ceramic artists have been working with cooks and chefs for ages. Today there is a strong trend for artists to be part of the experience of dining via collaboration with restaurants.
Do you know someone who is working with a chef/restaurant? Please let us know!
Are you doing this? We want to know, and we want to tell your story.
Bowl by Ernest Gentry, Chef: Tony Wise, Photo by Kyler Balsley courtesy of CulinaryClay.com
THE CONCEPTUAL: Ceramic artists are working in highly inventive ways to utilize the natural gateway into people’s lives that food and ceramics provides to create projects that are profound.
Do you know someone who is working on project based work that is at the intersection of Clay, food and community? Let us know!
Are you doing work that we should hear about? We want to tell your story!
So where do I go from here?
It’s simple – all we ask is for a few minutes of your time to share your story with project/event information and an image that supports it to the Across the Table WebApp here – (you can use a mobile device or a desktop platform) – http://app.ncecaacrossthetable.com/add-response/?challenge=451
Once this is uploaded your submitted into the project and from here we may share your story in multiple ways. First, through consultation with you, we will share a brief synopsis of and a supporting image on the WebApp site. Depending on the content of what you shared, we may also blog about this on the NCECA site. We will also be telling the story of submitted projects at the 50th Anniversary of NCECA in Kansas City as an exhibition at Charlotte Street Foundation Gallery.
Exhibition: A selection of ceramic objects selected from documentary images will be curated into the exhibition as supporting “artifacts” that will accompany the images and story of your project/event. The focus is on the story. The objects, which are central to these stories, take on a different meaning when connected to these events. We want to share that reality with the public.
Once the exhibition is over, objects are returned to the artists and the lights are turned off – your project lives on. It will become part of a digital archive, a “time capsule” telling the story of how ceramic artists in 2015-16 are natural and powerful community connectors. A treasure trove of digital information for generations to come.
You are cordially invited to participate in the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Across the Table, Across the Land national project and exhibition which takes place in Kansas City to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of NCECA.
As part of the Across the Table, Across the Land project we have a special opportunity for k-12 educators and students to share.
Learn how to get you and your school involved here!
Learn about Across the Table, Across the Land here!
Special thanks to the following K-12 superstars for working with us to create this special project!
Cat Traen – Teacher at Rancho Ceramics, at Rancho High School in Las Vegas
Trevor Youngberg – Teacher at Trumbull High School in Connecticut
Lee Burningham – NCECA Board Member, ceramic artist and Educator
As Paul Sacaridiz so deftly explained in his introduction, this conversation, Pass the Peas, Food Objects and the Making of Community, stemmed out of a project NCECA began in 2014 in Milwaukee, the idea of developing a curated roundtable discussion. The impetus for this came from thinking about the way in which NCECA brings in a keynote, who sets the tone for the conference, sets out a series of ideas that we believe underscore the work and thinking that’s happening at that conference, and perhaps even looking ahead to the following year. But then often we applaud, ask questions and then send them back into the world. So our hope with this roundtable is to keep them for a night and to engage them in conversation the next morning by thinking about some of the core of what we believe is being presented in that keynote and the work that that person is doing and to invite an extraordinary diverse group of makers and thinkers to join us in that conversation.
For our 2015 roundtable, we were honored to have Vipoo Srilivasa, Aruna D’Souza, Julia Galloway, and of course, our Keynote Speaker, Dr. Frederick Douglas Opie. Namita Gupta Wiggers moderated this panel, which also served as a brilliant jumping off point for our NCECA 50th anniversary community engagement project, Across the Table, Across the Land. Stay tuned to the blog to read more about how artists across the nation are engaging with this project and celebrating the connection between clay and community through food! In the meantime, enjoy the complete video of this exceptional presentation!
We kick off blogging about Project Submissions to Across the Table, Across the Land with a project led by Macy Dorf, who lives in Denver, Colorado.
Macy Dorf, Denver Colorado: Working with Diana and Davine on making a plate with his mold.
Macy has had a studio/gallery for over thirty years in the same neighborhood. The building houses a number of groups, and is part of an urban renewal project.
Macy Dorf, Denver Colorado: Macy teaching Miles how to use the slab roller.
Macy’s project submission via the Across the Table webapp ) shared how he connects three disparate groups through ceramics: at risk high school students who work with Art Street, youth employment culinary students, and Denver Housing Authority senior citizens.
Macy Dorf, Denver Colorado: Diana lifting her rolled slab.
Macy worked with Art Street in its prior location. He explains, “It is important to note that Denver Housing Authority saw a need for a classroom that was for art in their overall vision for the community. Being a stakeholder here, it is important for me to be involved with community. This way the kids are able to connect with the arts community.”
Macy Dorf, Denver, Colorado: Teaching students new to clay how to trim.
Macy’s studio is the classroom in this project. High school students visit Macy’s studio to make square plates using his molds. These are taken to Art Street, where they are decorated with under glaze. Macy then glazes the work in his kiln.
Youth Employment Academy will create and decorate cookies and cupcakes, which will be served on the plates to senior residents in Denver Housing Authority during their monthly coffee group. All participants– high school, culinary and senior residents will be at the event.
Through Macy’s studio, three otherwise unconnected groups come together through clay.All participants will interact with the senior residents during their monthly coffee group meeting at the Denver Housing Authority. All will be there to enjoy freshly made treats on handmade plates – watch for the updates following their event in November!
Thank you, Macy- and Davine, Diana, Gabe, Jennifer, Miles, RJ, and Tishawna, for sharing your project. Once we received the information via the webapp, it was easy for us to reach out to Macy to learn more about his project, discuss photos (with permission slips signed by participants/parents of minors), and voila! Project submitted – and now part of the national archive we are building together to document how clay works in communities right now.
Have a project that connect food, clay and community? You can submit your projects on the webapp to participate in Across the Table, Across the Land. Selections from the submissions will be on view at NCECA’s 50th Anniversary Conference in Kansas City.
