Showcasing ceramics

Ceramics collections have been an important part of many UK museum collections for years, spanning everything from ancient archaeological findings to international porcelain and British studio production. Recently, a significant renewal in public interest in the artform has encouraged museums to reconsider the way collections are displayed and interpreted, as well as exploring new commissioning processes that actively engage with contemporary makers. 

There are a number of reasons for this surge in popularity. Helen Ritchie, the research assistant in charge of curating and interpreting applied arts at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, says the internet and social media allow makers to reach a much wider audience, as opposed to relying on people visiting their studio. 

“There are a lot of young potters who are very skilled on Instagram,” Ritchie says. “People like to see them throw or just see the ceramics placed in trendy interiors. It’s a very different way of thinking about studio pottery, which used to have a bit of a bad rep for being brown and boring.”

The profile of ceramics has also increased through television programmes such as the BBC’s The Great Pottery Throwdown, and awards such as the Loewe Craft Prize and Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize. And artists such as Grayson Perry, Clare Twomey (pictured above) and Aaron Angell have redefined the parameters of the artform.

For museums, one of the challenges is keeping visitors engaged with historic collections, which are often packed into cabinets with little interpretation. This was a primary concern for Alun Graves, the senior curator of ceramics and glass collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London, when refurbishing galleries there. 

“I was somewhat frustrated by the expectation that ceramics are small and fragile and something to be put behind glass,” Graves says. 

When it came to refurbishing the galleries, he made sure that the objects were on open display where possible, as ceramics are best viewed “in the round”. For example, the V&A’s contemporary ceramics room features curved, sweeping plinths that allow visitors to examine objects up-close. 

“I wanted people to encounter the material and maybe change their perceptions,” says Graves. “I think of these pieces as contemporary sculpture, not applied arts, so hopefully we’ve changed the minds of a few people who didn’t think they were interested in ceramics.” 

The new galleries also look at ceramics from an international perspective without dividing the displays by nation. 

“Everything used to be culturally separate and you couldn’t draw these narratives of exchange of techniques and styles throughout history; you couldn’t compare and contrast,” Graves says. “Now, the World Ceramics Gallery is one significant space that tells the history of 5,000 years of cultural innovation and exchange.”

This broad approach is shared by other curators. Helen Walsh, the curator of ceramics at York Museums Trust, oversaw the establishment of the Centre of Ceramic Art (Coca), which encompasses York Art Gallery’s expansive ceramics collection. 

“Before we even opened Coca we had already got into the habit of putting ceramics in fine art displays,” Walsh says. “When we opened we decided to continue doing that and not ghettoise them. We show the versatility of the materials, the objects and the people involved, by displaying them in different contexts.”

The V&A and York Art Gallery have used visible storage to maximise display space and to further experimental interpretation. 

“We wanted to do it in a creative way that really engaged visitors,” says Walsh. “So, it’s a rainbow of pots encompassing studio pottery and the historic collection. By displaying things purely by colour there’s no hierarchy or art historical chronology.” 

Graves likens the V&A’s displays to “an installation within itself. There are about 31,000 objects visible. People love seeing works amassed in that way.” 

Engaging with contemporary ceramics is also a crucial part of curatorial practice. The British Ceramics Biennial in Stoke combines exhibitions of innovative makers, interactive workshops and performative pieces. Last year saw Neil Brownsword’s Place and Practice – a performative work that entailed painting china with tissue transfer processes, but also engaged with social history – and Katie Spragg’s investigation into plants growing on site at the former Spode china factory. 

Live events such as Clay Rocks at the V&A in 2006 have been a signifier of things to come. The ceramic artists Clare Twomey and Keith Harrison both “performed” installations throughout the V&A at the 2006 event with considerable creative freedom, and have both been ceramic residents at the museum since then. 

The National Centre for Craft and Design in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, launched an even more ambitious project in 2016 – Anton Alvarez’s process-driven art piece Alphabet Aerobics. Although the Swedish-Chilean artist had no experience in producing ceramics, he built an industrial extruder that produced bizarre, abstract forms that gradually filled the gallery. Visitors were invited to throw clay into the machine and become part of the process. 

“It was like performance art – process driven,” says Bryony Windsor, the centre’s head of exhibitions. “We were able to throw out the rule book. At no point would you necessarily think: ‘This is a ceramics exhibition’. But by the end we had about 300 vessels, just piled up, made from two tonnes of clay.”

These experimental shows might be beyond the remit of most institutions, but that doesn’t mean that contemporary artists can’t play an active part in reimagining more traditional collections. In 2017 Tate St Ives examined 100 years of pottery, showing contemporary pieces by artists such as Aaron Angell and Anthea Hamilton, in dialogue with Leach pottery vessels and objects from the postwar Californian movement. 

Similarly, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge recently mounted two shows that explored its ceramics holdings from distinct angles. 

The first, Flux: Parian Unpacked, investigated themes of mass production and colonialism within the Glynn collection of Parian Ware busts, by inviting artist Matt Smith to create his own sculptures in dialogue with his curated selection. 

“The collection is quite difficult to display and interpret, because it’s mainly depicting a selection of dead white men,” says Ritchie. “If you show a bust of someone, even without much interpretation, the implication is that it’s celebratory. You have to ask: ‘Do we want to celebrate these people?’. That’s one of the ideas behind Matt’s show.”

The second exhibition, Things of Beauty Growing, pulled together a history of British studio pottery by examining eight different forms. 

“It’s been wonderful to highlight ceramics in that way,” Ritchie says. “We have an incredible permanent collection, one of the best in Europe, but temporary exhibitions come with press and marketing budgets, which means you can boost whatever is in the permanent galleries. 

“Having two simultaneous shows on the subject has actually increased gifts and bequests. People suddenly realise we take ceramics very seriously, and that we are constantly growing and doing different things with the collection.”

The UK’s historic interest in ceramics has meant that some exceptional collections have entered public hands and continue to do so, as collectors seek to give their findings a permanent home. 

“There are definitely more avenues for collecting ceramics than there are in fine art,” Ritchie says. “We often get people who have a few pieces and their children don’t want them, so they gift them. In Cambridge a lot of people have collected locally. Because of Henry Rothschild and Kettle’s Yard, there was a real interest in the 1960s and 70s.”

The Art Fund also awards grants across the board, from small individual bequests to large grants towards contemporary pieces such as Rachel Kneebone’s The Will to Proceed to the End of the Possible, acquired by the fund for Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd (National Museum Cardiff) in 2015, and the phenomenally successful campaign to save the Wedgwood Collection in 2014, which raised £2.4m of public donations towards the £15.75m total. 

World of Wedgwood, in Stoke-on-Trent, fulfils a number of engagement objectives, covering factory tours, a series of extremely popular interactive studios (where guests can throw or decorate their own pot), and the museum itself – which houses the collection on long-term loan from the V&A. According to Chris Perkins, the head of the World of Wedgwood, these elements provide an important, all-encompassing approach that can engage the public in a multitude of ways. 

The museum offers self-guided tours with traditional explanatory offerings, along with a general tour and specialist guides from the curatorial team. 

“It’s one of the world’s most important ceramic collections but it also tells the story of the industrial revolution and scientific innovation at the time,” Perkins says. “ Wedgwood was a crucial part of the whole process.”

Though the World of Wedgwood might be an exceptional case, it is an ideal example of how social history, heritage, process and innovation can all be celebrated through an investigation of ceramics. The medium’s somewhat unclassifiable nature means that there is actually great scope for reinterpreting collections, especially if curators are allowed to think more laterally. 

Graves, at the V&A, explains that his impetus is “to purely collect around the material. I’m not defined as a decorative arts or contemporary curator, so I can have a degree of latitude in how I approach things. It goes from fine art, ephemeral installations to mass-produced industrial design – there’s a whole spectrum of practice.”