North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC, Names Lindsey Lambert as Center’s New Director

The board of directors of the North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC, are pleased to announce the hiring of Lindsey Lambert as the center’s new executive director. He will officially start at the beginning of June.

Lambert is the former director of the Brock Historical Museum and College Archives at Greensboro College, a position he held for over a decade, and he is the current board president of the North Carolina Museums Council (NCMC), an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) organization comprised of several hundred museum professionals across the state.

Lambert has a BA in History from NCSU and a MA in Public History from Appalachian State University. On NCMC’s board, he has previously served as nominating chair, treasurer, and vice president. He comes to the Pottery Center with a solid array of museum, technical, networking and grant writing skills, as well as a youthful energy and a sound appreciation of pottery and its traditions. Mark Hewitt, current president of the Pottery Center’s board, says, “It is good news that the Pottery Center has someone so capable to direct its activities, and we expect his tenure to coincide with increased visibility for the Pottery Center, its mission, and all the potters of North Carolina.” Lambert was born, raised and still resides in Randolph County.

Of the Pottery Center, Lambert says, “Working collaboratively we can help the Pottery Center to better realize its full potential of promoting public awareness and appreciation of the history, heritage, and ongoing tradition of pottery making in North Carolina. In addition to serving as the Pottery Center’s director, I am also becoming a member at the Sustainer level because I support the center’s mission and feel that it is important to support it financially as well as through my work.”

Hewitt also says, “Thanks must be given to the tireless Board members and advisors who wrote grants to Z. Smith Reynolds and the John Hanes Foundation that provided funds for the position. Thanks go also to the members of the search committee for identifying our new director. There are many fine people working on behalf of the Center, and we are delighted to have Lambert leading such a talented and dedicated team.”

Currently on display until July 27 is an exhibit entitled “Big Red: Chrome Red and Other Red Glazes of the North Carolina Piedmont.”

Exhibitions are made possible through the generosity of our membership, the John W. & Anna H. Hanes Foundation, the Mary and Elliott Wood Foundation and the Goodnight Educational Foundation. This project was supported by the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. Thank you!

The mission of the North Carolina Pottery Center is to promote public awareness of and appreciation for the history, heritage, and ongoing tradition of pottery making in North Carolina. The Center is located at 233 East Avenue in Seagrove, NC. Hours of operation are Tue. – Sat., 10am – 4pm.

For more information, please call 336/873-8430 or visit (www.ncpotterycenter.org).

NC Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC, Offers Popular Fundraiser – Potter’s Palette 2 – May 4, 2013

Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and Jackson Pollack have nothing on the potters of North Carolina. Can you buy an Old Master canvas? I didn’t think so. But you can buy a fabulous painting, on a 12” x 12” canvas, produced by one of the mighty potters of North Carolina!

Work by Mark Hewitt

Not only can you get a great painting to enjoy in your home, but when you bid on one, you’ll also be supporting the North Carolina Pottery Center.

We’re very excited about our upcoming fundraiser, The Potter’s Palette 2, and invite you to mark your calendars and come to the Pottery Center for this exciting auction on Saturday, May 4, 2013, from  4–7pm.

Last year’s event was entertaining, and the canvases were superb. We plan to raise more money and have more fun this year! There will be live music, a buffet, and beer and wine. Many of the painting potters will attend as featured guests.

Eck McCanless working on his piece

Tickets for the event will be $15.00 per person or 2 for $25.00. Don’t miss the excitement!

Potters, in case you didn’t already know, are very creative people, and can paint beautifully, as well as make fabulous pots, so, who knows, you might end up with a painting that becomes an Old Master!

We’ll be posting images of all the canvases and further details online prior the event.

Work by Fred Johnston

Please RSVP by Apr. 30, 2013. Call the Pottery Center at 336/873-8430 (Tue.-Sat., 10am-4pm). All the details and images of works can be see at (www.ncpotterycenter.org).

North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC, Offers Book Reading by Christopher Benfey – Apr. 6, 2013

Join us on Saturday, Apr. 6, 2013, at the NC Pottery Center, in Seagrove, NC, for a book reading by celebrated author Christopher Benfey, professor of English at Mount Holyoke College. His recent memoir, “Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay: Reflections on Art, Family, and Survival,” traces his ancestry and his family’s involvement in the brick-making and pottery traditions of North Carolina, and the pioneering educational institution of Black Mountain College.

Benfey will talk about the issues he raises in this critically acclaimed book, one of the “New York Times’” 100 Notable Books of 2012. Joining him in conversation, after the reading, will be North Carolina potter Mark Hewitt and pottery expert Professor Terry Zug.  A book signing will follow.

In addition to writing many other award-winning books (see below), Benfey has written essays and poems which have appeared in the “New York Review of Books”, the “New Yorker”, and the “Paris Review”, among others. He is also a prolific journalist, serving as the long-time art critic for the online magazine “Slate”, and is a frequent contributor to “The New York Times Book Review”, and “The New Republic”, among many other publications.

Schedule: 1:30 – 3:00 “Exploring North Carolina Pottery” – Talk by Chris Benfey, author of the acclaimed book “Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay: Reflections on Art, Family, and Survival,” followed by a conversation with NC potter Mark Hewitt and UNC Professor Terry Zug. The event is free and open to the public.

A book signing will follow.

Christopher Benfey is Andrew W. Mellon Professor of English and Acting Dean of the Faculty at Mount Holyoke College, where he has taught since 1989. He was educated at the Putney School, Earlham College, Guilford College, and Harvard University (from which he holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature). In 2012, Benfey was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies.

A well-known scholar of Emily Dickinson, Benfey is the author of four highly regarded books about the American Gilded Age. These include “A Summer of
Hummingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade”, which won both the 2009 Christian Gauss Award of Phi Beta Kappa and the Ambassador Book Award. He is also the author of “The Double Life of Stephen Crane” (1992); “Degas in New Orleans” (1997); and “The Great Wave: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Old Japan” (2003). Benfey’s poems have appeared in “The New Yorker”, the “Paris Review”, and “Ploughshares”.

His family memoir, “Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay” explores strands of Benfey’s family involving brick-making, pottery traditions in North Carolina, and the pioneering educational institution of Black Mountain College. The book was named one of the “100 Notable Books of 2012″ by the “New York Times”. Subtitled “Reflections on Art, Family, and Survival”, the book is a meander through the circumstances that brought Benfey’s extended family to the U.S. and the lives they established for themselves.

Benfey’s mother descends from colonial explorers and Quaker craftsmen; his father, along with his aunt and uncle, the Bauhaus artists Josef and Anni Albers, escaped from Nazi Europe. Both strands of the family settled near the Piedmont of North Carolina, where his maternal grandfather crafted bricks from the area’s red clay, and his uncle and aunt helped establish the Bauhaus-influenced Black Mountain College.

Exhibitions are made possible through the generosity of our membership, the Mary and Elliott Wood Foundation, The John W. and Anna H. Hanes Foundation, and the Goodnight Educational Foundation. This project was supported by the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. Thank you!

The mission of the North Carolina Pottery Center is to promote public awareness of and appreciation for the history, heritage, and ongoing tradition of pottery making in North Carolina. The Center is located at 233 East Avenue in Seagrove, NC. Hours of operation are Tue. – Sat., 10am – 4pm.

For more information, please call 336/873-8430 or go to (www.ncpotterycenter.org).

North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC, Offers New Potters Directory and Redesigned Website

The North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC, is very happy to announce the completion of the new Potters Directory on our redesigned web site (http://www.ncpotterycenter.org/directory.html).

A big thank you goes to our web designer, Kris Julian, who has done an outstanding job. He’ll soon add a mapping function which will show an overview of all the member listings on a Google map with the ability to get directions.  No need to ever get lost finding your favorite pottery again!

North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC, Offers Free Admission for American Craft Week – Oct. 5 – 14, 2012

The North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC, “for people who love the potter’s craft” is supporting American Craft Week, Oct. 5 – 14, 2012. In honor and recognition of this important statewide craft the Center will have free admission during this time frame.

It is the mission of the North Carolina Pottery Center to promote public awareness and appreciation of the history, heritage, and ongoing tradition of pottery-making in North Carolina through educational programs, public services, collection and preservation.

The North Carolina Pottery Center is your first stop in exploring our state’s deep heritage in pottery. Located in Seagrove, one of the state’s key pottery centers, the North Carolina Pottery Center offers a variety of exhibits and activities that will delight the novice and enthusiast alike. Permanent exhibits trace the history of NC Pottery from the Native Americans to the present. Changing exhibits focus on topics of both historic and contemporary work by the state’s potters. Displays and information will help you find your way to the potteries of Seagrove and around the state.

The current exhibit on display during American Craft Week is “The Collector’s Eye II: Seven Perspectives”, which features approximately 140 pots from seven female collectors and contains examples of the very best of their collections. On Saturdays, a local potter gives day-long demonstrations in the Center’s Education Building.

The NCPC is a private nonprofit entity, funded primarily through memberships, grants, admissions, and appropriations.

The Center is open, Tue. – Sat., 10am-4pm. Admission (excluding free special events): $2 – adults, $1 – students 9th through 12th grades, Free – children through 8th grade, free – NCPC members. Handicap accessible. Groups and tours welcomed.

For further information and details call 336/873-8430 or visit (www.NCPotteryCenter.org).

 

 

 

North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC, Has Remarkable Success with Fundraiser

The North Carolina Pottery Center’s recent auction raised over $50,000, almost double last year’s total. One long term supporter of NCPC wrote, “The Pottery Center provided everyone a fun, festive evening and an opportunity to support a state treasure. It was indeed ‘the place’ to be.

Held at Leland Little’s Auction and Estate Sales in Hillsborough, NC, the evening began with patrons selecting a handmade plate donated by a talented North Carolina potter. Next up was a delicious gourmet supper of food prepared by five of the Triangle’s most celebrated chefs, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed.

The satisfied diners were then invited to bid on pots donated by many of the state’s best-known potters, and spirited rivalries erupted from all sides of the hall, as Leland Little enthusiastically raised the bidding ever-higher on each successive item.

Combined with the Pottery Center’s recent Z. Smith Reynolds grant to help fund an Executive Director’s position, the results from the auction clearly indicate wide appreciation for all that NCPC does to promote awareness of North Carolina’s world-class pottery heritage through exhibitions, education, outreach, and visitor service. Located in Seagrove, NC, just south of Asheboro, NC, it’s a great tourist destination, and serves as the perfect start to a visit of area potteries.

If you’ve never been to the Pottery Center, or haven’t been for a while, perhaps you are sufficiently intrigued to make a trip to Seagrove to visit this sweet museum that is the backbone of this fascinating community of potters.

Thank you to our Auction Sponsors: First Bank, Leland Little Auction and Estate Sales, Shelton Vineyards, Katie B. Morris, Progress Energy, Carolina Arts, Gardner Heating and Air, Kimberly Woodard, Community One, Hans Klaussner Foundation and The Courier Tribune.

The mission of the North Carolina Pottery Center is to promote public awareness of and appreciation for the history, heritage, and ongoing tradition of pottery making in North Carolina. The Center is located at 233 East Avenue in Seagrove, NC. Hours of operation are Tue. – Sat., 10am – 4pm.

For more information, please call 336/873-8430 or go to (www.ncpotterycenter.org).

 

 

 

NC Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC, is Looking for Some Angels in a Haystack – Could You Be One?

Don’t you just hate it when you think you have your budget all figured out to make it through the next week, month or year – then out of the blue – the car needs a major repair or the air conditioners gives out on the hottest day of the year? What’s the saying – “Stuff Happens!”

The NC Pottery Center needs our help and I think they are worth it. Here’s their problem:

The NC Pottery Center has recently experienced unforeseen maintenance issues and they are asking you as a supporter of the NCPC, or just someone who is looking for a good cause, for your help in paying for lighting repairs at the Center. They hope to raise $2,000 to cover these expenses.

They are asking that you please consider a monetary donation, becoming a new member, increasing your membership level, renewing your membership early, or buying a brick for your business or in memory/honor of someone.

The staff and board of the Pottery Center are working hard to keep the NCPC a viable museum and hope you will consider helping us.

If you can help, please visit their website at (www.ncpotterycenter.org) where you can make a quick online donation, or call then at 336/873-8430 and tell them you want to help. Thanks.