8 Sessions: Saturdays – August 5, 12, 19, 26; September 2, 9, 16, 23
Have you ever been mesmerized watching a ceramic artist work at the pottery wheel turning lumps of clay into vessels? This class offers an opportunity to get hands-on experience developing the foundations of wheel-throwing. To start, you will learn how to center clay, pull walls and shape form at the wheel. The course will allow you to finish the wares in your own individual way — either sculpturally or functionally — via attachments like handles, appendages or decorative elements like embossing and reliefs. Surface color and decoration will be applied via glaze and the wares will be fired in the kiln to create a finished ceramic object which is food safe. No prior knowledge or experience working with clay is needed — all levels are welcome!
Instructor: Matthew Pembleton is a New Jersey based artist and art educator. For the past nine years, he has been an art teacher at Princeton Public Schools working with all levels of students K-12; more recently he joined The College of New Jersey as an adjunct professor of Art Education and Ceramics. His artmaking practice revolves mixed media sculpture, performance, and printmaking. In graduate school at Vermont College of Fine Arts, he wrote his thesis about how alternative epistemologies like hip hop pedagogy and new media literacy might inform modern art education theory and practice. He frequently conducts hands-on workshops and research presentations with various local, state, and national organizations. A lifelong arts advocate, Matt seeks to meet his students wherever they are and develop learning experiences that help foster their personal and creative potential.