The Clay Guild of the Cascades will sponsor the Wildfire Pottery Showcase and sale featuring over 20 of Oregon’s finest ceramic artists. The event, in its seventh year, will take place on the weekend of November 5-6 at the Highland Elementary School (Old Kenwood School on Newport) in Bend.
Wildfire is the Clay Guild’s biggest event of the year and will feature continuous ceramic demonstrations in the event hall and a children’s clay area for kids to play and experiment with clay. The Guild will sponsor five $25 gift certificates with three drawings on Saturday and two on Sunday.
The members of the Clay Guild choose a non-profit each year to benefit from Wildfire. Arts Central has been chosen by the potters to receive a cash donation from Wildfire. Arts Central, as the Regional Arts and Culture Council for Central Oregon, provides arts services to the communities, artists and arts organizations in Deschutes, Jefferson and Crook counties. Its purpose is to inspire creativity through arts education and to advocate for integration of the arts in all aspects of community life in Central Oregon.
The Clay Guild of the Cascades sponsors Wildfire to promote their passion for clay and to further clay education in the community. Created in 2004, the Clay Guild formed with a collective desire to provide a network for local potters to share ideas, cost of materials and education opportunities. They participate in charitable projects in the community and work to promote the appreciation of handmade pottery and ceramics.
Helen Bommarito, a founding member of both the Clay Guild and the Wildfire Show, shared that the Clay Guild was a wonderful resource as she was new to Bend shortly before the group formed, “I find that I love being a part of a local group that gets together and shares ideas. When you work independently it’s kind of hard to connect with others, you don’t have daily impact with your peers, so we get together on a regular basis.”
Bommarito worked as a potter for nine years before concentrating on raising a family. Her reintroduction to ceramics 12 years ago was greatly aided by the community found in the Clay Guild. Bommarito was the 2010 winner in the functional pottery division of the Wildfire Show and currently teaches at Art Station for Arts Central.
The Wildfire Showcase has evolved over the years and the group looks to the Ceramic Showcase sponsored by the Oregon Potter’s Association in Portland as inspiration. The Ceramic Showcase is the country’s largest clay show in the country and completely member run, an important aspect the Clay Guild has adopted. Every member is assigned a job and Bommarito says the system has worked very well for them.
A selection of the Best of the Show are chosen by the artists themselves and will be available for viewing in the gallery in the center of the show. Most pieces in the gallery will be available for sale.
www.clayguildofthecascades.com/events.htm, Saturday November 5, 10am-5pm, Sunday November. 6, 10am-4pm, Free admission and parking, Highland Elementary School (Old Kenwood School), 701 NW Newport Ave., Bend.
Contact: Eleanor Murphy, Wildfire Chair, emurphey@bendcable.com or David Warren, Clay Guild of the Cascades President, david@clayarchitexture.com.
