An Annual Gala Goes Virtual and A Zoom Course on “The Mad Potter of Biloxi, MS”
by Kate Nixon
According to Executive Director Vonda Givens, the celebration will last longer than one weekend and offer plenty of new programs for museum members and more classes for the general public. “The Craftsman Gala is going virtual this year. Most years the Gala is the highlight of Stickley Weekend. This year, instead of two days, we will be spreading the celebration over an entire month,” Givens declared. “Throughout the month of October, we will be hosting new online classes and member programs, all leading up to this live virtual event on Saturday, October 24. We will be announcing this schedule next week.”
The “At-Home” edition of the Craftsman Gala encourages attendees to dress up in red attire to match the Red Dragonfly theme of the Gala. According to a recent email blast from the Stickley Museum, the red dragonfly motif represents this period of transformation and rejuvenation. It is an appropriate symbol since the transformation of Craftsman Farms is marked by the new addition of the new Education Center at Craftsman Farms. The virtual Gala will celebrate the grand opening of the new Education Center with an exclusive and one-time only Zoom tour of the center, which will include the new library on the upper level, the multi-use conference room and 100-seat program facility on the lower level – given only to Craftsman Gala attendees.
In addition to purchasing a ticket for the virtual Gala, the Stickley Museum is offering multiple levels of support for the Gala, including a Supporter, Patron, Sponsor, and Benefactor level and advertiser/messages on slides. Interested advertisers and supporters can access the support sign up form here.
https://manageme.wufoo.com/forms/qwziheh0nt2rtq/
George Ohr: Ceramic history, craft pottery, and the avant-garde in America
Saturday, September 12 | 1 – 2 PM EDT
A zoom course instructed by Dr. Jonathan Clancy, Director of Collections and Preservation
Registration for The Creative Spark classes: http://www.stickleymuseum.org/programs/online-classes/the-creative-spark/dashboard/303.html
Starting Saturday, September 12th, the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms will resume their weekly Zoom courses with the new course “The Creative Spark: Rethinking Decoration in the Arts & Crafts Movement” This Saturday, instructor Jonathan Clancy and Executive Director Vonda Givens will delve into the eccentric and wild world of the Mad Potter of Biloxi, MS — George Edgar Ohr. The official description of the course found on the Stickley Museum’s website reveals the content George Ohr, the man of a thousand nicknames:
“George Edgar Ohr was a powerful potter; even more than a hundred years after his death he is still in control of the narrative of his life. He was–and remains–”the mad potter of Biloxi,” the “apostle of individuality,” “the greatest art potter on earth,” a sophisticate and rube. This session looks at Ohr as all of those things but acknowledges his deep engagement with contemporary and historical ceramics, reevaluates his relationship to craft potters of the period, and sheds new light on his rambling travelogue “Some Facts in the History of a Unique Personality,” which was published in 1901.”
Registration for the course is now open. Please click here to register for and see the schedule for “The Creative Spark” courses.