boy with hatPhoto by Jay Hemphill In 2010, the Silver City CLAY Festival was an inspired spark in the eye of Lee Gruber, then the owner of Syzygy Tile. In 2011 the CLAY Festival had its inaugural year, offering workshops, exhibitions, a marketplace, and events for clay aficionados and the wider community. Since then, it has evolved each year with new and different offerings and venues, and will celebrate its 8th year this summer.

The 2019 CLAY Festival will run July 15-21, 2019 in and around downtown Silver City, New Mexico and will include various workshops, demonstrations, presentations, lectures, and events for artists, visitors, and Grant County community members, of all ages.

Multi-day workshops will allow students ages 18 and up to experience in-depth learning and practice with renowned clay artists. For those interested in working with clay in an outdoor setting, this year CLAY is offering two Natural Building Workshops with local Grant County artists. Natural builder Jeff LeBlanc is offering a three-day class called Building with Cobb and Finishing with Earth Plaster, in which students will get to build a cobb wall by hand, tour unique completed cobb buildings, and apply earthen plasters to a cobb wall. Potter and builder Mary Giardina is offering Adobe Building / Mud Immersion, a five-day workshop for students to learn southwest adobe traditions and techniques, including poured mud, adobe mixing, and making wild-crafted adobe bricks, and which will included a guided walk and tour of the Woodrow Ruins.

Several renowned out-of-town artists will teach at the CLAY Festival as well. Internationally admired clay artist Sunshine Cobb will lead a two-week workshop, July 8-19, called Exploring Functional Hand Building, Discovering the NEW in the OLD. This workshop is open to beginner to advanced students, and will include demonstrations of hand-building methods, surface treatments, and glazing. Students will be invited to practice and experiment with Sunshine’s guidance. Exquisite artist Brad Klem will teach a four-day workshop, July 16-19, called Imagery through China Painting and Decals. Students will explore brush techniques, glaze mixing, pen-work, firing methods, and will leave the workshop with finished pieces.

One-day workshops will be offered during the course of the CLAY Festival as well. On Saturday, July 13, Lynda Aiman-Smith will host a Labyrinth Building workshop at the Rock House, also known as the historic Silver City Waterworks building. Bear Mountain Lodge will host a Make a Bone workshop on Monday July 15, in which participants will make clay bones for One Million Bones, the international art installation addressing genocide which has made a permanent home at Bear Mountain Lodge. On July 20, the Make A Bowl workshop will offer students of all ages the chance to hand-build a bowl to be used for Empty Bowls, a fall community event to raise money and awareness of hunger and food security issues in the community. Both workshops are free but require advance registration.

For youth, CLAY Play will be hosted at area public libraries, offering children in grades 3-6 a chance to make their own clay art inspired by stories. Mud Fun will offer kids Pre-K through 6th grade a chance to get dirty and play with clay, creating straight from their imaginations.

The CLAY Festival offers an array of clay fun for all, so that visitors and community members of all ages can get in on it. The outdoor CLAY Makers Market will feature a curated selection of clay artists selling exquisite clay artwork, with live music, dancing, and storytelling all day long. The Mud Pie Contest will be hosted at the Silver City Farmer’s Market, with prizes going to the most magnificent mud pies. Silver City’s Silco Theater will host Claymation films. On Sunday, July 21, CLAY Rodeo will give fast-moving artists a chance to move from one work station to the next, making art with clay, competing as teams.

CLAY’s 2019 juried exhibition CURRENT will feature artwork selected by juror Sunshine Cobb, aligned with the theme of artwork that speak to this moment in time.  The Grand Opening of the CURRENT Exhibition will be Monday, July 15 at 5pm.

Details:

www.ClayFestival.com will be continually updated with details on all CLAY events.

Multi-day workshops:

July 8-19: Exploring Functional Hand Building with Sunshine Cobb

July 16-19: Imagery through China Painting and Decals with Brad Klem

July 15-17: Building with Cobb and Finishing with Earth Plaster with Jeff Le Blanc

July 15-19: Adobe Building / Mud Immersion with Mary Giardini

One-day workshops:

July 13: Labyrinth Building with Lynda Aiman-Smith

July 15: Make a Bone for the Million Bones Project with artist Linda Brewer

July 20: Make a Bowl for the Empty Bowls event with artists Zoe Wolfe & Judy Menefee

Youth activities:

July 15: CLAY Play at the Gila Valley Library, grades 3-6

July 16-18: CLAY Play at the Silver City Library, grades 3-6

July 16-18: CLAY Play at the Bayard Library, grades 3-6

July 20: Mud Fun, grades Pre-K – 6

Fun for all:

July 15:  Grand Opening of CURRENT Juried Exhibition, Seedboat Center for the Arts

July 15-19:  Various lectures, presentations and demonstrations – visit www.CLAYfestival.com  for updated information

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