2024 has been a wonderful year at the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery: From major, ground-breaking exhibitions, featuring the very best in clay, glass, and enamel to community exhibitions featuring first time artists from marginalized populations; from acquiring significant new pieces to enhance our permanent collection to creating a community mosaic mural in uptown Waterloo; from supporting emerging artists at the beginning of their careers to expanding access to art, culture and creativity for children, youth and seniors through our specialized community programs.
YOU are at the centre of everything we do at the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery. Thank you! Your financial contributions made possible all we achieved in 2024. Here is some of what we were able to achieve thanks to your support:
Ceramic artist Eekta Trienekens and glass artist Kat Looby led the creation of a beautiful community mosaic, situated at the left side of the Gallery building directly next to the path leading to Waterloo Park.
This was truly a community collaborative project, with the mosaic coming together through a series of volunteer events and programs. Each tile and piece of the mosaic represents a different hand collaborating to make something bigger.
Sharing Experiences, the Gallery’s ongoing series of community art workshops and exhibitions partnered with two community groups in 2024: YMCA of Three Rivers and A Better Tent City.
The project with A Better Tent City was a great highlight, exploring lived experiences of homelessness and the nature of home. More than 20 clients of ABTC participated, each sharing their own unique lived experience in powerful and moving ways.
The Gallery will return to the themes of home and homelessness in our 2025 exhibition Beyond the Threshold.
The Gallery continues to expand our support for emerging artists through the Winnifred Shantz Award for Ceramics, the RBC Award for Glass and the TD Arts Residency for Black, Indigenous and Underrepresented People and Communities. In 2024, more than $35,000 was awarded to emerging artists to support their development and raise their profile.
The acquisition of this monumental work by Waterloo-based artist Sharl G. Smith allows for its long-term exhibition at the front steps of the Gallery and ensures it can be enjoyed by our community for years to come. The first step in the reinvigoration of our outdoor public art program, this major acquisition marks our commitment to making art and diverse stories accessible for our community.
Resonance | February 3 – May 12
This exhibition featured the work of Lisa Creskey, Susan Day and Eddy Firmin – three artists engaging with ceramics in unique ways that connect us to social issues. The works exhibited connect us more personally to the diverse individuals and experiences around us and in doing so encourage new bonds and innovative ways of thinking.
Form and Reform: Bruce Cochrane | May 25 – September 8
Bruce Cochrane is an internationally known and respected ceramic artist with more than 50 years in the field. Form and Reform explored Bruce’s work in turning the common vessel into an exploration that unites ceramics, architecture and sculpture into a cohesive whole.
Plans for 2025
In January 2025, we will proudly present Painting with Clay, an exhibition led and curated by Indigenous artist Anong Migwams Beam, the daughter of the late Indigenous artists Carl and Ann Beam. The exhibition will focus on a collection of ceramic vessels and bowls made by three generations of the Beam family, as well as examples of Anishnaabe archaeological pottery found at the Providence Bay site on Manitoulin – showing the historic tradition of ceramic work by Indigenous peoples. Additionally, several examples of Mimbres and Anasazi ceramics will be displayed to show how Carl and Ann borrowed decorative motifs from those ancient artworks to create their own ceramics.
In September 2025, we will proudly present Beyond the Threshold, a major exhibition focused on the lived experience of homelessness and the nature of home. Beyond the Threshold will include works by artists who have experienced homelessness and works that explore the concepts of homelessness and home, as well as interconnected issues of addiction, race and identity. In addition, the exhibition will include artist talks, panel discussions and other events designed to raise awareness and discussion around homelessness and the need for affordable housing.
In January 2025, we will host a two-day symposium on ceramics and sustainability. The symposium will explore the sustainability of ceramics practices, how to measure environmental impacts of ceramic studio work and contemporary approaches to climate change and the natural environment in ceramic arts.
We will continue to increase access to arts, culture and creativity for thousands of children, youth, seniors and marginalized individuals through our school and community programs.
We hope we can count on your continued support as we look forward to next year. Please consider making a year-end donation of $40, $150, $250 or an amount of your choice today. However you choose to give, your donation will help ensure that we can continue to present the very best in clay and glass art through our world-class exhibitions as well as breaking down barriers to art, culture and creativity through our community programs.
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