ObjectLab 1.1: Working Clay

These are highlights from the Working Clay session that was a part of Object Lab 1.1 at the Chipstone Foundation (www.chipstone.org) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in June of 2009. Nine talented undergraduates were in attendance from a variety of schools and many different disciplines--art history, history, studio art, industrial design, geography, and architecture . The overall goal of this intensive material culture program was to explore innovative ways to think about and look at old things. After a lunch of spiced chicken baked inside of clay pockets on a gas grill, the students engaged in a series of clay related activities. A team of scholars--Jill Casid and Ann Smart Martin from UWMadison and Kate Smith, a visiting scholar from the University of Warwick in England--led hands-on and interactive sessions that examined issues of style, production, and consumption as they relate to 18th century Anglo-American pottery traditions and history. Additional programs were led by Michelle Erickson, a potter from Virginia, and Robert Hunter, editor of the journal Ceramics In America.