Never before has so much hype been generated around a ceramic’s awards exhibition in South Africa, than the recently launched Clay Awards, held at the Rust en Vrede Gallery, home to the Clay Museum, in the heart of the CBD of Durbanville in the Cape ¹. This ceramic museum is a well-equipped clay archive and living museum; a ceramic resource recently incorporated into the International Ceramic Academy ². The exciting build up to the exhibition can be attributed to several factors that I will address later in this article; but first, the million-dollar question on everyone’s lips is, “did the small number of selected ceramic works deliver the creative and innovative punch the organisers, selectors, the collectors and visitors to the exhibition were expecting?” Anticipation reached a crescendo closer to the launch date of 2 November 2024, as selected artists were not permitted to release any images or information about their inclusion in Clay Awards, fueling public curiosity. On the opening day a large crowd, lucky enough to attend the gala event, excitedly burst through the door to view a small selection of ceramic works – fifty out of five hundred and eighteen works submitted.