Acknowledging and celebrating Ceramics in schools has been priority for the Clay Gulgong festival. Since 2016, developing the profile of this aspect of the clay community has been a feature of the Clay Gulgong festival. In 2018, Keith Brymer Jones, as a passionate advocate and as our inaugural judge, launched the K-12 National Competition at Clay Gulgong.
This year, in spite of the challenges of lockdowns and remote learning, Clay Gulgong is showcasing again the wonderful work of students from K-12 nationally to give delegates some insight into the diverse ways Australian students are engaging with clay to express their ideas. In 2022, student works have been submitted from across Australia within a relatively short time frame to build a digital showcase of works as well as a small exhibition of works in the Holtermann Museum.
Students are interested in the physicality of clay as a medium and a process to bring their ideas to life. They use it to tell personal stories, to comment on issues, to represent imaginative ideas, to create humorous personalities or to explore the material properties of form, surface and colour in clay. They reference past ceramic traditions and the work of contemporary practitioners to bring their ideas to life. Students often talk of the positive effects of the immersive nature of the medium as well as the ways that it teaches them to adapt and take risks as their work develops.
We hope that you enjoy the work of these students as much as we enjoy working with them in our classes.
Karen King and Felicity Wood