Molding a niche for clay art on East End

Fan of handmade pottery? Enjoy artisan demonstrations? If you answered yes, then the Water Mill Green could be the place to be on Saturday, October 10, when a Potter’s Festival will arrive next to the windmill and set up shop under large tents. Held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the event is free and features demonstrations and children’s activities.

The festival features functional pottery made by 22 area artists and artisans for whom pottery offers many possibilities. There are oodles of glazes, various firing techniques and clay building options. The Potter’s Festival is designed to offer an idea of what’s possible.

Demonstrations will present hand building (molding clay into specific forms) and throwing (wet clay tossed onto a spinning wheel and molded in motion). Tables of finished work by masters, most of whom live from Amagansett to Water Mill, will show what can happen when imagination, clay, glaze and heat collide. All of the pottery is for sale.

Meanwhile, a “Plates and Platters” exhibit is on view throughout October at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton. An opening reception will be held Thursday, October 8, from 5 to 7 p.m.

Both events feature members of the Clay Art Guild of the Hamptons. The non-profit organization makes its home at Celadon Gallery in Water Mill, which features clay art made by national and international ceramists and works by Clay Art Guild members. Open from April to December, the gallery holds five exhibits, three pottery sales and a young persons’ show.

The gallery is linked symbiotically to the Water Mill Museum next door: The museum helps provide a viable home for the Clay Art Guild, and, in gratitude, the Guild holds two annual fund-raisers to benefit the museum.

The “Tea & Cookies” benefit pairs a relaxing snack with handmade cups each spring. The fall brings the “Empty Bowls” benefit, with homemade soups served in handmade pottery bowls. This year’s “Empty Bowls” benefit was held last Saturday, October 3.

The Potter’s Festival and the group show at the library represent a concerted effort by the Clay Art Guild to expand the organization’s reach into the community. The “Plates & Platters” exhibit is the second time the group has shown at the Rogers Memorial Library. The Potter’s Festival is a new event for the Guild.

The festival is an outgrowth of smaller celebrations formerly held in the courtyard in front of the Celadon Gallery, said Clay Art Guild President Nancy Robbins. The idea of combining a pottery marketplace with demonstrations and children’s activities came from Eve Behar, who attended a similar event in Toronto.

The festival was moved to the Village Green to allow for more activities and to expand the number of exhibiting potters. In addition, the high-profile location beside Montauk Highway makes it easier for people to find the Potter’s Festival and discover the Clay Art Guild.

“It’s difficult to get people to turn off the highway,” Ms. Robbins said of the group’s gallery on Old Mill Road. “Once they come into the gallery and find us, they love us and come back. It’s getting people to find us that’s the hard part.”

The Guild is not just about exhibiting pottery and ceramics. The main mission is to provide an environment in which clay artists can flourish, which translates into workshops, classes and children’s programs. These include summer apprenticeships and summer internships for teenagers. During the year, ceramic crafts are taught at area schools and ceramics made are exhibited in the annual student show at the gallery.

Having a clay art gallery and two kilns—a wood kiln in Connecticut and group firing for members in Water Mill—are important benefits for members. Members interviewed emphatically agreed that the workshops are even more beloved. Faced with so many possibilities and the difficulty of harnessing theory to the multi-step process of transforming clay into objects of lasting beauty, everyone trying their hand at ceramics appreciates having someone point the way.

The Guild, formed in 2001 to connect clay artists who were working in the Hamptons, has an annual membership of 80 to 100 members. Providing members with a gallery was an important part of that mission, but because of the character of clay artists, giving back to the community became just as important.

“Clay people in general have a special outlook,” Ms. Robbins said. “Clay is difficult to work with. It keeps you humble. Clay people enjoy giving and being part of a community; it helps bring us together.”

Information on the Clay Art Guild of the Hamptons, Inc. can be found at www.hamptonsclayart.org. The Potter’s Festival will be held on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the Water Mill Village Green, and the Celadon Gallery will be open during the festival. The current exhibition, “Out of the Fire,” features ceramics by Beverly Granger of Sag Harbor, Hillary Wyler of East Hampton and Tom Walter of Selden. The gallery is located at 41 Old Mill Road.

There will be an artists’ reception for the “Plates & Platters” exhibit at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton on Thursday, October 8, from 5 to 7 p.m. The show remains on view through October 31.

Clay Art Guild of the Hamptons members Debora Oppenheimer, Karen Lissack, Lucinda Piccus and Aileen Florell were interviewed for this story.