OC Waves Vol 3.6

VAC BUILDS
POTTERY
COMMUNITY
Forty-two people attended a demonstration
of clay hand-building techniques led by longtime
local potter Sarah Scholfield at the Newport
Visual Arts Center’s new pottery studio earlier
this month.
“I got a great sense of people’s desire to learn
from each other,” said Chasse Davidson, VAC
director. The VAC pottery studio sponsored the
event, which was organized by the newly formed
Pacific Pottery Guild.
“We have the momentum to build the guild,
and we have the venue at the VAC to host its
workshops and gather together,” said Davidson, a
potter in her own right.
“A big goal for the new studio has been to build
a clay community,” she said. “I try to provide
opportunities for the guild and be a support
system for the clay community. I got so emotional
after Sarah’s program because I could see a definite
interest in moving in that direction.”
Indeed, while right now the studio is not
outfitted with pottery wheels, the day after
Schofield’s program, the studio received one as a
donation. “I’m starting to think what the studio
would look like with four wheels,” Davidson said.
Many years ago, the Yaquina Art Association
had a clay studio at the VAC, but it has been gone
for years. Davidson, who operated Clayworks in
Toledo before the COVID pandemic forced her
to shut it down, was invited to join a steering
committee at the VAC to reestablish a clay studio.
The group met via Zoom, and a clay exhibit was
hosted at the VAC. Davidson taught there starting
in the spring of 2022, until being hired as VAC
director in August of that year.
“The clay studio went dormant for a while
because no one else was teaching,” she said.
Davidson is working on ways to bring instruction
back to the studio, and has been talking with
former students who can work independently, to
gauge their interest in coming aboard to teach.
She also will be looking to mentor a youth,
either in high school or community college, as a
clay studio technician.
Part of her vision for the studio is to find
teachers who can host workshops, rather than
multi-session classes, as a way to encourage more
students. And her immediate goal is to have
people who are familiar with working in clay
become established at the VAC.
OC WAVES • VOL 3.6
“I’m trying to make the most of my knowledge
base to provide the most use of the VAC,“ she
said. “Even if I’m not teaching, I can assist in the
studio, such as loading the kiln.
“I’m also trying to concentrate on my role in
supporting artists through the sale of their work,”
she said, citing artist receptions, complete with
food and music, as one way to encourage people to
come into the building and see the artists’ work,
both in process and on exhibit.
“I want people to think of the VAC as a place
for teaching,” Davidson said. “Part of our goal is
to bring in art in process as a major element at the
VAC. We have a lot of art on display in our gallery
spaces; now we’re trying to use our other spaces
for making art.
“The eventual goal of the clay studio is that
when the building is open, people are using it to
make things,” she explained.
To that end, she is using the COVAS — Coastal
Oregon Visual Arts Showcase — gallery space to
highlight claywork for the next few months.
The COVAS gallery at the arts center is “claycentric”
right now, Davidson said, noting it is
directly across from the pottery studio and is
another way to get the community involved with
the studio.
She would like exhibiting clay artists to offer
demonstrations, “another opportunity for the
artist to connect with the community and share
their process in a hands-on way,” Davidson said.
“I’m using COVAS as an opportunity to get
the community involved with the studio,” she
said. “That helps the VAC offer educational
opportunities together with ceramic artists,
helping to support the VAC and the building of
the clay studio and getting people familiar with
our spaces.”
Davidson said she showed her wheel-thrown
functional pottery along with work by several
other artists, with the Art on the Edge studio tour
last May. As part of the tour they demonstrated
different aspects of their techniques at the VAC.
Another goal is to have the VAC become a clay
distributor, saving clay artists from having to drive
to Portland or Eugene to get their raw material.
Davidson has been working with a ceramic supply
distributor to set pricing and schedules to make
this possible.
“My goal is that we would bring in enough clay
to provide for the needs of our local potters, who
could go to the VAC for their supplies,” she said.
And achieving that goal is right on the horizon,
she noted.
“As long as we offer a clay experience, this will
work,” she said. “We have an incredible view here
and are in a central location. Clay people will
come.”
Since the closure of Clayworks during the
pandemic, Davidson has been looking for ways
to keep clay artists together and finds the guild
19