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Building for our Future
Clay - A Versatile Medium with Serious Benefits
London is the place. The time is NOW.
Location, Location, Location
Regional Excellence
Additional Information
Founded in 1981, the London Potters Guild began with a small group of potters who met for nearly a decade in the art room of Sir Frederick Banting Secondary School. We have since become an organization of well over one hundred enthusiastic members, and have been called “one of the jewels in London’s’ arts crown.” This success left us bursting at the seams of our old East London facility. Demand for our classes, workshops and services outpaced our facility’s ability to serve the needs of our community.
In 2008, the London Potters Guild purchase 664 Dundas Street and began renovations. We gutted and renovated the first floor and moved our operations to the new LONDON CLAY ART CENTRE in September 2009 - now known as CLAYWORX.
Clay - A Versatile Medium with Serious Benefits
London is the place. The time is NOW.
Location, Location, Location
Regional Excellence
Additional Information
Founded in 1981, the London Potters Guild began with a small group of potters who met for nearly a decade in the art room of Sir Frederick Banting Secondary School. We have since become an organization of well over one hundred enthusiastic members, and have been called “one of the jewels in London’s’ arts crown.” This success left us bursting at the seams of our old East London facility. Demand for our classes, workshops and services outpaced our facility’s ability to serve the needs of our community.
In 2008, the London Potters Guild purchase 664 Dundas Street and began renovations. We gutted and renovated the first floor and moved our operations to the new LONDON CLAY ART CENTRE in September 2009 - now known as CLAYWORX.
Building for our Future
The Clayworx offers the community:
The Clayworx offers the community:
- A fully equipped teaching studio for pottery and sculpture.
- A fully equipped member’s studio dedicated for on-demand use (with 24-hour access)
- Outreach services – effective partnerships with community organizations to make pottery and clay art instruction available for a greater number of area individuals and groups (including children, seniors and various special needs populations).
- Studio space for rent to emerging artists.
- Programming for intermediate and advanced level potters across south-western Ontario, including Master Level Classes.
- An On-site Gallery and Retail Space.
- A Resource Centre containing books, magazines, videos, audiovisual equipment and a computer with internet access (to assist potters with glaze calculations). The Resource Centre will also house our permanent collection, which contains works by many notable clay artists.
- Expanded employment opportunities for guild members, emerging clay artists and recent graduates of local arts programs.
- A convenient location along city bus routes.
- A barrier-free facility with ample parking.
Clay - A Versatile Medium with Serious Benefits
Down-to-Earth and Stress Relieving
Members often comment on the relaxing and pleasing tactile qualities of working with clay, taking comfort in clay’s ability to balance and offset societal trends towards high technology and mass production. Member Chris Snedden, for example, told the London Free Press: “It seems that the more technological a society becomes, the more people are attracted to rootsy things such as handmade items.” He went on to say that “pottery is so rootsy that civilization could not have happened without it because [pottery] was needed to store food.”
Elenore Lubas, art therapist and licensed counsellor, has this to say: "The tactile nature of art media – [and] clay is a beautiful example of this - is nurturing and comforting. Without being aware of the process, someone who is isolated due to depression is suddenly engaged with something outside of himself - and it feels good."
Julie Bell, writing about the London Potters Guild for The Londoner suggests: “When the stress of every day life gets you down, you may want to consider throwing a pot.”
A Multitude of Benefits
Ample evidence suggests that arts activity in general can fuel economic development and urban renewal, create employment opportunities, improve academic performance, increase self esteem, build cognitive skills, provide constructive activities for at-risk youth, improve coping skills, promote healing and build bridges across cultures.
Arts activities – and clay art in particular – have also been shown to improve motor skills and muscle tone, benefiting the elderly, children with autism, victims of sexual abuse, individuals struggling with eating disorders, bereaved children, refugees, cancer patients and many others.
Clay’s Healing Properties
As a tactile medium, clay is highly accessible and can be taught to people with vision or language barriers. A popular course at the University of Michigan, for example, is geared toward the visually impaired. Course instructor Sadashi Inuzuka calls clay a “versatile teaching tool,” describing it as “an extremely tactile material.” He goes on to say “It just feels good when you touch it, whatever you do.
Author David Henley, who has written an entire book on the use of clay in art therapy, calls clay a “universally recognized medium of creative expression” with “great potential for therapeutic application.”
Youth Benefits
Studies by well-known authorities such as Jane M. Healy suggest that North American society is becoming increasingly non-tactile. This is especially problematic for children, who are bombarded with visual, non-tactile stimulation through television, computers and movie screens. Physical and tactile activity in childhood helps build motor control centres in the lower brain areas, ensuring proper large and small muscle coordination. It also helps develop a mature sensory-motor system which is necessary for the accurate perception and processing of information in the brain.
The Ontario Arts Council says that arts education helps children “become more competent in a technological world” and encourages partnerships between schools and the arts community.
Arts advocates across North America promote the importance of engaging young people in artistic activity. ArtSmarts, a Canadian advocacy group, says art is “critical to [children’s] evolution as creative thinkers,” adding “It is they who will soon be leading Canada’s growth in terms of cultural, social and economic development.” Ironically, many Canadian school boards have eliminated some or all of their art programs, leaving children with few avenues for expressing their creativity.
Clayworx has a strong interest in providing pottery classes for young people and has had considerable success working with area youth in the past.
Creating Potential
Clayworx would like to explore possibilities for expanding its class offerings to include programming for additional target populations (at-risk youth, ethno-cultural groups, seniors, physically or mentally challenged, etc.) as practical and/or appropriate. We are building a facility which can adequately support the increased need for storage, space, training and safety such additional programming requires.
Down-to-Earth and Stress Relieving
Members often comment on the relaxing and pleasing tactile qualities of working with clay, taking comfort in clay’s ability to balance and offset societal trends towards high technology and mass production. Member Chris Snedden, for example, told the London Free Press: “It seems that the more technological a society becomes, the more people are attracted to rootsy things such as handmade items.” He went on to say that “pottery is so rootsy that civilization could not have happened without it because [pottery] was needed to store food.”
Elenore Lubas, art therapist and licensed counsellor, has this to say: "The tactile nature of art media – [and] clay is a beautiful example of this - is nurturing and comforting. Without being aware of the process, someone who is isolated due to depression is suddenly engaged with something outside of himself - and it feels good."
Julie Bell, writing about the London Potters Guild for The Londoner suggests: “When the stress of every day life gets you down, you may want to consider throwing a pot.”
A Multitude of Benefits
Ample evidence suggests that arts activity in general can fuel economic development and urban renewal, create employment opportunities, improve academic performance, increase self esteem, build cognitive skills, provide constructive activities for at-risk youth, improve coping skills, promote healing and build bridges across cultures.
Arts activities – and clay art in particular – have also been shown to improve motor skills and muscle tone, benefiting the elderly, children with autism, victims of sexual abuse, individuals struggling with eating disorders, bereaved children, refugees, cancer patients and many others.
Clay’s Healing Properties
As a tactile medium, clay is highly accessible and can be taught to people with vision or language barriers. A popular course at the University of Michigan, for example, is geared toward the visually impaired. Course instructor Sadashi Inuzuka calls clay a “versatile teaching tool,” describing it as “an extremely tactile material.” He goes on to say “It just feels good when you touch it, whatever you do.
Author David Henley, who has written an entire book on the use of clay in art therapy, calls clay a “universally recognized medium of creative expression” with “great potential for therapeutic application.”
Youth Benefits
Studies by well-known authorities such as Jane M. Healy suggest that North American society is becoming increasingly non-tactile. This is especially problematic for children, who are bombarded with visual, non-tactile stimulation through television, computers and movie screens. Physical and tactile activity in childhood helps build motor control centres in the lower brain areas, ensuring proper large and small muscle coordination. It also helps develop a mature sensory-motor system which is necessary for the accurate perception and processing of information in the brain.
The Ontario Arts Council says that arts education helps children “become more competent in a technological world” and encourages partnerships between schools and the arts community.
Arts advocates across North America promote the importance of engaging young people in artistic activity. ArtSmarts, a Canadian advocacy group, says art is “critical to [children’s] evolution as creative thinkers,” adding “It is they who will soon be leading Canada’s growth in terms of cultural, social and economic development.” Ironically, many Canadian school boards have eliminated some or all of their art programs, leaving children with few avenues for expressing their creativity.
Clayworx has a strong interest in providing pottery classes for young people and has had considerable success working with area youth in the past.
Creating Potential
Clayworx would like to explore possibilities for expanding its class offerings to include programming for additional target populations (at-risk youth, ethno-cultural groups, seniors, physically or mentally challenged, etc.) as practical and/or appropriate. We are building a facility which can adequately support the increased need for storage, space, training and safety such additional programming requires.
London is the place. The time is NOW.
Supports for Artists – Everyone Benefits
The City of London formally recognized the local importance of the arts when it issued its Creative City Task Force Report in April of 2005. This report calls for London to “broaden public access to the excellence and diversity of the local arts sector, and aggressively promote policies to attract and retain the creative class." The Report goes on to say that artists “need the support of each other and places they can meet to exchange ideas.” This is exactly what a clay arts centre would do for professional as well as recreational clay artists in the area.
The quality-of-life and economic benefits of the arts in general are well documented. In particular, Richard Florida, in his influential work Cities and the Creative Class, highlights the importance of active artistic communities in attracting high quality personnel to a city.
A recent report by Ryerson University’s Centre for the Study of Commercial Activity further demonstrates that arts and cultural facilities bring economic development and revitalization to neighbourhoods, in turn helping to attract additional businesses and consumers, reversing migration to malls and creating a more vital ‘lived in’ area that doesn’t shut down at the end of the work day.
The Creative Cities organization (an on-line group of municipal employees across Canada working in arts, culture and heritage planning) suggests “new construction is not the only way the arts can bring activity into an area”. The organization promotes arts activities as a means for uncovering “productive new uses for neighbourhood facilities and under-utilized or abandoned spaces.
Evidence, then, clearly suggests that the Clayworx has helped to revitalize an abandoned building in the London area, along with the area which surrounds it while bringing an economic boost to the area in general.
The Task Force report also says that artists in the area “must feel welcome and appreciated in the community and have gallery space to display their work.”
Clayworx has a strong record for fostering talent in the clay arts. We have also endeavoured to teach our members important business and studio management skills to help foster successful arts careers. Many of our members, however, still struggle to make a living pursuing their craft in the London area. We can cite a number of outstanding professional potters who moved to London and have been unable to support themselves in the field.
Clayworx provides studio space and a visible forum for emerging artists who need a launching pad for their career. This, in turn, will help young artists remain in the area to pursue their careers, rather than leaving the city or turning to other endeavours.
Clayworx is also creating a number of important employment opportunities for members and recent arts program graduates from the area.
Supports for Artists – Everyone Benefits
The City of London formally recognized the local importance of the arts when it issued its Creative City Task Force Report in April of 2005. This report calls for London to “broaden public access to the excellence and diversity of the local arts sector, and aggressively promote policies to attract and retain the creative class." The Report goes on to say that artists “need the support of each other and places they can meet to exchange ideas.” This is exactly what a clay arts centre would do for professional as well as recreational clay artists in the area.
The quality-of-life and economic benefits of the arts in general are well documented. In particular, Richard Florida, in his influential work Cities and the Creative Class, highlights the importance of active artistic communities in attracting high quality personnel to a city.
A recent report by Ryerson University’s Centre for the Study of Commercial Activity further demonstrates that arts and cultural facilities bring economic development and revitalization to neighbourhoods, in turn helping to attract additional businesses and consumers, reversing migration to malls and creating a more vital ‘lived in’ area that doesn’t shut down at the end of the work day.
The Creative Cities organization (an on-line group of municipal employees across Canada working in arts, culture and heritage planning) suggests “new construction is not the only way the arts can bring activity into an area”. The organization promotes arts activities as a means for uncovering “productive new uses for neighbourhood facilities and under-utilized or abandoned spaces.
Evidence, then, clearly suggests that the Clayworx has helped to revitalize an abandoned building in the London area, along with the area which surrounds it while bringing an economic boost to the area in general.
The Task Force report also says that artists in the area “must feel welcome and appreciated in the community and have gallery space to display their work.”
Clayworx has a strong record for fostering talent in the clay arts. We have also endeavoured to teach our members important business and studio management skills to help foster successful arts careers. Many of our members, however, still struggle to make a living pursuing their craft in the London area. We can cite a number of outstanding professional potters who moved to London and have been unable to support themselves in the field.
Clayworx provides studio space and a visible forum for emerging artists who need a launching pad for their career. This, in turn, will help young artists remain in the area to pursue their careers, rather than leaving the city or turning to other endeavours.
Clayworx is also creating a number of important employment opportunities for members and recent arts program graduates from the area.
Location, Location, Location
London’s excellent geographic location, the accomplishments of the organization and complementary programming and services in the area combine to make it clear that there is significant potential for establishing London as a premiere destination for Ceramic Art in south-western Ontario.
This goal is echoed in the Creative City Task Force report, which calls for London “to assume its position as the ‘Regional Capital’ of south-western Ontario.”
Clayworx has traditionally served an area well beyond the boundaries of the City of London. London’s location along the Highway 401/402 corridor has made it convenient for individuals from Sarnia to Hamilton and many points in-between to utilize our services and attend our workshops. Note the following map, which shows the distribution of current guild members and attendees for our 2005 workshop series:
London’s excellent geographic location, the accomplishments of the organization and complementary programming and services in the area combine to make it clear that there is significant potential for establishing London as a premiere destination for Ceramic Art in south-western Ontario.
This goal is echoed in the Creative City Task Force report, which calls for London “to assume its position as the ‘Regional Capital’ of south-western Ontario.”
Clayworx has traditionally served an area well beyond the boundaries of the City of London. London’s location along the Highway 401/402 corridor has made it convenient for individuals from Sarnia to Hamilton and many points in-between to utilize our services and attend our workshops. Note the following map, which shows the distribution of current guild members and attendees for our 2005 workshop series:
Regional Excellence
London is already well on its way to becoming a natural focal point for clay art in southwestern Ontario. Thanks to the London Potters Guild, the City of London was given the distinct honour of being asked to serve as host city for a province-wide conference on clay and glass art. London proudly welcomed the 1987 Fusion (Ontario’s Clay and Glass Association) conference, which brought clay and glass enthusiasts from all over Ontario to the London area for several days. We have been asked to once again serve as host city for Fusion conference in 2012, and are proud to show off the new London Clay Art Centre to more than 200 conference attendees.
There are a number of other organizations in the area that offer complementary goods and services. These organizations further enhance London’s capacity to serve as a regional focal point for clay art. They include:
London is already well on its way to becoming a natural focal point for clay art in southwestern Ontario. Thanks to the London Potters Guild, the City of London was given the distinct honour of being asked to serve as host city for a province-wide conference on clay and glass art. London proudly welcomed the 1987 Fusion (Ontario’s Clay and Glass Association) conference, which brought clay and glass enthusiasts from all over Ontario to the London area for several days. We have been asked to once again serve as host city for Fusion conference in 2012, and are proud to show off the new London Clay Art Centre to more than 200 conference attendees.
There are a number of other organizations in the area that offer complementary goods and services. These organizations further enhance London’s capacity to serve as a regional focal point for clay art. They include:
- Hutton House - well known for its line of high-quality stoneware pottery created by persons with disabilities.
- Fanshawe College – this learning institution offers a well-known and respected applied arts program.
- University of Western Ontario – the university is home to a top-of-the-line gas kiln as part of its Fine Arts program.
- Bealart Program - southwestern Ontario's “Premium Secondary School Art Program,” featuring ten fully equipped art studios and clay art instruction and facilities.
Additional information
If you would like more information, please contact:
Darlene Pratt
President
519-434-1664
email
Help us build our future!
Our supporters
If you would like more information, please contact:
Darlene Pratt
President
519-434-1664
Help us build our future!
Our supporters
