Silver City Clay Festival – Fri., Aug.3

When: Back to Calendar » August 3, 2012 (all-day)
Where: Silver City , New Mexico
various locations
Contact: 575-538-5560
info@clayfestival.com
Categories: Art Festival Food Tours

Come for the festival and stay to explore historic Silver City and its surroundings. Bring your kids. August is a beautiful time of year in Southwest New Mexico, with warm days, occasional thunderstorms, and cool evenings. Hike and enjoy the spectacular wilderness of the Gila National Forest.

CLAY FESTIVAL EVENTS TAKING PLACE TODAY

EXHIBITS

  •  WNMU Museum.  9 am-4:30 pm.  Largest collection of Mimbres material in existence, including pottery and artifacts from the recently acquired NAN Ranch collection.
  • Silver City Museum.  9 am-4:30 pm.  New exhibit ‘Laying ‘Dobes.’
  •  Murray Hotel.  ‘Chat Room,’ Boutique, information.

DEMONSTRATIONS

  • Wheel Throwing Techniques and Altered Forms. 9 am-12n. Seedboat Center for the Arts.  With Dave Roberts.
  • Carved Tile Techniques.  9am-12n.  Seedboat Center for the Arts.   Marcia Smith.carves designs into red clay are laid onto cement forms, cuts them out, and returns them to the piece for finishing. A ceramic bench, created with this technique, will be displayed.
  • Clay Shaping Techniques.  10am-12n, Murray Hotel.  With Dan Lauer.
  • Hand-Building a Bulldog with Bone. 10am-12n, Murray Hotel.  Linda Brewer creates a bulldog in clay, utilizing all hand-building techniques including slab, coil, pinch and press mold.
  • Clay Slip Decorating Techniques. 1- 4:30 pm. Silver City Museum Annex, With Kate Brown.
  • Taos Pueblo Building Techniques. 2-4 pm, Murray Hotel.  With Pam Lujan-Hauer, member of the Taos Pueblo Tribe, on building of both traditional and contemporary Taos Pueblo clay pots.
  • Clay Shaping Techniques.  2-4 pm, Murray Hotel.  With Dan Lauer.

LECTURES, all held at the Seedboat Center for the Arts

  • Taos Pueblo Pottery. 9:30-10:30 am.  With Pam Lujan-Hauer. A potter from the Taos Pueblo demonstrates her art and tells the story of pottery, from the history of clay as an art form and the origins of the earliest pottery, to the threats to traditional pottery today.
  • Why, Me? The Unexpected Sage of Mata Ortiz.  11:30am – 12n.  With Spencer MacCallum,  noted author and social anthropologist, who played a pivotal role in the economic development of the art-pottery village of Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua, Mexico
  • Contrast Within Traditions:   New Mexico’s Pueblo Potters.  1-2 pm.  With Claude W. Smith III, retired Western New Mexico University professor who led the ceramics program.
  •  Brick by Brick: How Silver City Was Built to Last.  2:30-3:30 pm.  With Susan Berry, co-author of Built to Last: An Architectural History of Silver City, New Mexico, and longtime director of the Silver City Museum.
  • Tiles Out of the Blue.  4-5:30 pm.  With Joseph A. Taylor, writer and educator, co-founder and current president of the Tile Heritage Foundation on the development of decorative tile manufacturing in California from its inception in 1900 through its culmination during the Great Depression.

FILMS at the Silco Theater, 311 N Bullard St

  • Wallace and Gromit.  10-11:30 am.  Three 30-min Claymation episodes.
  • Maria Martinez: Native American Pottery Maker of San Idelfonso.  11:30am-12n.  1999, 27 mins.
  • In A Dream.  12n-1:30 pm.  2008, 72 mins. Mosaics of Isaiah Zagar.
  • A World of Historic Tile in Architecture.  1:30-2pm.  2008, 32 mins.  Tile Heritage Foundation.
  • Antonio Gaudi.. 2-3:15 pm. 1984, 72 mins.  A visual tour of Gaudi’s Barcelona.
  • Harvie Krumpet.  3:15-3:45 pm. 2003, 20 mins.  Claymation narrated by Geoffrey Rush.
  • The Renaissance of Mata Ortiz.  3:45-5 pm.  2010, 74 mins

KIDS ACTIVITIES

  • Sculpt a Ceramic Ocarina.  9 am-12n, Zoe Wolfe Studio, 305 N cooper St.  Make an ancient flute-like instrument. $45, materials included.
  • Mud Fun: Build It, Smash It, Build It Again.  10am-4 pm.  Yada Yada Yarn, 614 N Bullard St.  Kids 4 to 14.
  • Mosaic Art Object Workshop With Found Objects.  10am-2pm, A Space Gallery, 110 W 7 St.  Kids 10-16. $50, materials included, except found object.
  • Wallace and Gromit.  10-11:30 am.  Silco Theater.
  • Clay Tile Community Mural Installation.  1-3 pm, Murray Ryan Visitor Center.  Ages 16 and up.
  • Re-Create Silver City History: 3D Fun  With Clay.  5:30-7 pm, Silver City Public Library.  Kids 4-14.  Call 5382672 to register.

TOURS

  • Boston Hill Hike.  8:30-11:30 am. Meet at Spring Street parking lot.
  • Mining District Tour.  9:45-12n.  Meet at Visitors Center.
  • Downtown Clay Tile Murals.  10am-12n.  Meet at Visitors Center.
  • Historic Silver City Tour.  10:45am-12n; 2:45-4 pm; 4:45-6 pm.  Meet at Vistor Center.
  • Syzygy Tileworks Factory.  1, 3, and 5 pm.

OPENINGS

  • LAYING ‘DOBES EXHIBIT: Adobe Selections from the Collection of the Museum of Art in Santa Fe.  6-8 pm, Silver City Museum.  WPA Artist Manville Chapman’s Reflections.
  • Whimsical Animals Juried Art Tile Show.  Art and Conversation, 604 N Bullard St.  Tiles by Suzi Calhoun and other nationally recognized artists.
  • Touching the Sacred Juried Art Tile Show.  5-7 pm, Leyba and Ingalls Arts, 315 N Bullard.  388 5725
  •  Light and Texture with Mimi Peterson & Dave Roberts.  5-8 pm, Seedboat Center for the Arts.

STREET DANCE WITH THE MUDCATS!  7-10 pm, Historic downtown.