The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 52 No 2 July 2013

Focus: Education
Elephant in the Fortress -
Ceramics Education in the
Time of Indifference
Rod Bamford reports from the Clay Push Education Forum
The seismic tremors rippling across the education sector found a voice at Clay Push where a healthy
crowd gathered under the marquee to consider their impact on ceramics courses, their availability and
accessibility. The scope of issues demanded a broad range of perspectives that were reflected by a mega
panel of 10 - educators from the private and public spheres, practitioners and students. Panelists had
five minutes to make points on topics as a catalyst for audience questions and discussion under three
broad themes: the student perspective, shifts and values in public education, and new private, online
and distance education models.
At the core of consideration was the message lingering from Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio's talk
at the 11th Australian Ceramics Conference (Brisbane 2006) summarised by the poignant metaphor,
'Fortress Ceramica'. For those who were not there to hear the talk in person, Karen Weiss's article
'Answered Prayers', published in JAC Issue 45#3 is enlightening. Clarke's perspectives on the relatively
introspective interaction of the ceramics movement, practitioners and the market are highly relevant to
ceramics education, even though views may be refracted through different institutional and commercial
positions. The sentiment in Del Vecchio's key statement - "change is not an issue of morality but one of
inevitability" - will be familiar to us all, and framed the tone of the session.
In Australia over the preceding sixty years, the visual arts and crafts sector has enjoyed a relatively
stable and vibrant cultural terrain, underpinning the growth of ceramics courses, practitioners, galleries
and museum collections. More recently, the viability of ceramics education has been the 'elephant in
the room', its future exposed and threatened by university course closures and recent cuts to the TAFE
sector Trisha Dean concisely outlined the key factors influencing the accelerating shift towards a user
pays principal for NSW TAFE courses that the NSW government considers 'non vocational', including
Ceramics and Fine Arts. Understandably, this topic met with a passionate response from the audience,
many angered by the removal of opportunities to study ceramics. Joseph Purtle's talk reflected upon the
immersive experience of studying ceramics at the National Art School as a profound personal journey,
reminding us of the high quality of ceramics education developed through contributions of practising
potters and ceramic artists over many years, and what is at stake should public ceramics education
be dismantled. Trisha also offered a good example of innovative approaches in ceramics education,
outlining the 'open studios' initiative offered at Hornsby TAFE which seeks to address the needs of
students to access post-coursework studio studies.
Jane Sawyer, director of the Slow Clay Centre (SCC) in Melbourne, outlined the anatomy of a
successful privately-funded ceramics education model. It began with Jane's home-based classes, growing
over 25 years (with a long waiting list) to a fully fledged school in the heart of Melbourne employing
professional ceram icists as teachers, and running regular workshops by acclaimed ceramic artists. SCC's
student demographic spreads across 20- to 45-year-olds of which 70% are women and 30% men,
26 THE 10URNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS IULY 2013