Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant announced that their first exhibit of the year will be Golden Clay: Fifty Years of the Brantford Potters’ Guild.
In 1975, a group of six potters, Gillian Lewis, Kay Boyd, John Prosser, Utta Bein, Suzanne Welsby and Louise Garnett, gathered together in the Coach House at Glenhyrst Art Gallery and gave themselves a name: the Brantford Potters’ Guild.
Incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1978, the Guild was founded on the principles of connecting individuals and communities in their appreciation of ceramic arts, innovating contemporary pottery practices, and educating future generations to maintain interest in the craft.
For decades, the Guild has also been a staple of community initiatives and fundraising efforts for a variety of charitable organizations including the Brantford Food Bank, Camp Molly, and the W. Ross Macdonald School.
In September of 2014, the Guild opened ClayWorks Studio in Brantford’s Artisan Village as a teaching facility that offers year-round pottery classes and workshops for adults and children. Since 2022, Glenhyrst Art Gallery has hosted a permanent retail space to support and promote the Guild’s work.
From its humble beginnings, the Guild has grown steadily in membership and influence, reaching an enrollment of over 100 active members. This exhibition is not a survey of the last fifty years but marks the Guild’s continuance and enduring legacy in the City of Brantford, Six Nations of the Grand River, and Brant County. For many centuries, this place has held a strong relationship to pottery and this history is, thankfully, still unfolding.
The opening reception for the exhibit will be held on Thursday, January 23, 2025 from 7:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. with the exhibit running from January 18 to March 9, 2025.
More information about this exhibit can be found here: https://glenhyrst.ca/2025-potters-guild
