Berkshire Art Center presents Free Artmaking Drop-In! (8/2) and 2 Window Displays!

The Berkshire Art Center (BAC), 141 North Street, will continue to offer Free Artmaking Drop-Ins on the First Friday of the month from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, year-round. For the month of August, The Berkshire Art Center will also feature two window displays: " All Fired Up Again: Atmospheric by the Berkshire Potters Collective” (north window) and “Sue Browdy, Potter: The First 65 Years” (south window).

“All Fired Up Again: Atmospheric” will be on view August 2-31. The theme of this show will be atmospheric firing with smoke, pit, soda, salt, and wood fired pieces. All members of the Berkshire Potters Collective have been invited to exhibit their atmospheric fired work. There will be an opening reception on Friday, August 2, from 5 to 7 pm.

“Sue Browdy, Potter: The First 65 Years” will be on view in the south window of Berkshire Art Center through September.

Artist Statement for Sue Browdy:

“I have worked in clay for more than 60 years. My early work, mostly on the wheel, was functional and strongly influenced by Hamada and Leach. Gradually I switched to hand-building and introduced more sculptural elements into my functional pieces. I also began to work with layers of different clays to create abstract designs, and produced pieces which, while still based on functional prototypes, were more appropriate for display than daily use. In recent years I have concentrated on sculptural work, including abstract flat platters and rows of cylindrical forms. I have used shino glazes on many of my pieces, since it is a glaze that provides great variations in result depending on how it is mixed, applied and fired. I fire both in a gas reduction kiln at cone 10, and in a Native American-style outdoor sawdust kiln, using terra sigillata on the surface of the form. One of the great joys of ceramics is the potential for change and growth that it offers. Clay provides an almost infinite variety of forms of expression. Although I feel that I have journeyed very far over the years, I look forward with pleasurable anticipation to finding whole new worlds in years to come."

Artist Bio for Sue Browdy:

After graduating from the New York City High School of Music and Art in 1958, Sue was awarded a scholarship to work and study with Jane Hartsook and others at Greenwich House Pottery in New York City. She has been working in clay ever since. She spent many years working and teaching in New York at both Greenwich House and the 92nd Street Y, where she worked with Byron Temple, Malcolm Davis, and others. She had her own studio in Manhattan for more than 20 years. In recent years she has been working at her studio in Hillsdale, New York. She has exhibited at the Northeast Crafts Fair at Rhinebeck, the Monument Mountain Crafts Show in Great Barrington, the Elaine Benson Gallery in East Hampton, the “Crafts in a Landscape” tour sponsored by the Columbia County Council for the Arts, SKH Gallery in Great Barrington, Spencertown Academy in Spencertown, and at the Stageworks Gallery and the Verdigris Gallery in Hudson, New York. She also had a piece in the “Endless Variations: Shino Review 2005” at Baltimore Clayworks. She received the 2002 Arts Award from the Columbia County Council for the Arts and was featured in a CCCA solo show at the Hillsdale Public Library in 2014. Her work illustrates the book Out of the Earth Into the Fire by her longtime studio partner Mimi Obstler (published by the American Crafts Council and now in its second edition), and was featured in Ceramics Monthly (June/July/August issue 2003). She is currently engaged in a project with her son Dan Browdy to develop unique ceramic lighting fixtures.

Free Artmaking Drop-In
Friday, August 2, 5:30 to 7:30 pm, Brothership Building, 141 North Street, Suite 2

BAC will offer a Free Artmaking Drop-In on the First Friday (5:30 to 7:30 pm) of every month. Each month, they will offer a creative artmaking project for families and people of all ages to participate in at their own pace, with the guidance and support of a faculty artist.

Free Artmaking Drop-Ins are open to the public and all children must be accompanied by an adult. No registration is required!