All Fired Up

Beautiful in their composition, and representing both fragility and strength, ceramics are a unique medium in which to create art. The Ceramics Research Center, which opened at the ASU Art Museum in 2002, is one of only a handful of facilities in the world that combine access to an extensive ceramics collection, significant archival research materials and exhibition space. The facility houses more than 3,000 pieces, featuring what is believed to be the country’s largest and finest collection of 20th Century and contemporary British and American ceramics.

The center celebrated all things ceramic February 24-26 with the CERAM-A-RAMA weekend, which featured auctions, a gala dinner, lectures by renowned ceramists and private studio tours. The event also featured a sneak peek of “A Ceramic Legacy: Selections from the Stephane Janssen and R. Michael Johns Collection,” drawn from the 686 works Janssen donated to the art museum in 2004. The Janssen-Johns exhibit will be on display at the ceramics center through Aug. 5, 2006.

For information about the Ceramics Research Center, visit http://asuartmuseum.asu.edu/ceramicsresearchcenter/index.htm.

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Images: (clockwise, starting at the far left:

Shoji Hamada,
Vessel, not dated

Ralph Bacerra,
Vessel/Violet,1988

Stephen Dixon,
America, circa 1988

Betty Woodman,
Pillow Pitcher, not dated

George Walker,
Family Acrobats 1, 1992

Beth Cavener Stichter,
Object Lesson: Apathy, 2003

Richard Notkin,
Universal Hostage Crisis, 1981